THE TASMANIA Devils are three seasons away from being given AFL life, but they are already a factor in seemingly every high-end football department decision being made by existing clubs.
They will be aiming for the stars, the Devils, when it comes to players, coaches and senior football administrators, as they prepare for the 2028 season for the men's competition, and possibly as early as the 2027 season in AFLW.
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They have already landed the big CEO fish in Brendon Gale, who will officially begin next February. They want their general manager of football to be on the books by mid-next year, and nearly landed another sizeable catch in Graham Wright as that person, only to have Luke Sayers revert to old-fashioned Carlton ways and make him an offer he simply couldn't refuse to become the Blues' next CEO.
Nathan Buckley wants to coach the Devils and is being considered. Chris Scott is another name that just will not go away in the minds of those empowered to make the biggest calls for this AFL start-up. Contracted to Geelong until 2026, Scott is well aware, as are people around him, that the men's team will need to have appointed a coach for the 2027 year, which will see the club use a bunch of "quarantined" gun teenagers in the VFL competition to prepare for the AFL in 2028.
Then there is Chris Fagan, the 63-year-old Tasmanian football "legend" who brilliantly steered Brisbane Lions out of a broken state in late 2016 through to the 2024 premiership. He's already on the Lions' books for 2025 and will almost certainly soon sign an extension.
There is a guaranteed senior role for Fagan at the Devils. And it will be his call to make, both how that role could look and even if he would want it.
John Longmire has long impressed key Devils people. Still coming to terms with two dreadful Grand Final losses at the Sydney Swans in the past three seasons, and with a contract that runs just one more year, a Longmire-Devils union may loom as a perfect AFL entry point.
This time next year, many of the AFL's 18 clubs will have already traded in and out of the 2027 national draft (the Devils' first), as per new AFL rules announced in August. This year, clubs were able to trade national draft picks just one season in advance, but the suite of new rules will allow for trading two years in advance.
The incumbent clubs are becoming increasingly agitated that the concessions to be provided the Devils remain works in progress, as they need to factor in the new club in every list decision they make.
The Devils' desire is to compile an inaugural playing list that will be instantly competitive, which is in stark contrast to the past two AFL start-ups, GWS and Gold Coast. It's all talk, some of it maybe even fairytale stuff, but they're not going to shy away from wanting to instantly match it with the established teams, and have a very high-end crack at finals as early as year three.
There is a chance that multiple national drafts will be Devils-compromised. The 2027 draft certainly will be, and possibly 2028 and even 2029, with the expansion club to be given access to a raft of high-end picks, some upon the condition of being traded out in exchange for established big-name players at other clubs.
Officially, the Tasmania Devils exist only in name and not AFL entity, as the AFL's long-held edict of "no (roofed) stadium in Hobart, then no team" to the state of Tasmania remains in play. The Tasmanian Government itself is in the process of formally determining the stadium matter, having received a 260-page summary report, accompanied by 4000 pages of ancillary documents as part of an official Project of State Significance (POSS) requirement.
Even if every bureaucratic requirement is expeditiously met in the next few months, that stadium is already on the tightest of timeframes to be ready for the 2029 season. The existing main stadiums in Hobart and Launceston would be used in the inaugural season.
Then there is the bigger-picture consideration that needs to be given to non-Devils AFL matches that will be scheduled in Tasmania beyond 2027. While North Melbourne has long been working on an exit plan, Hawthorn may continue in reduced form.
The Devils are years away. Yet they are here already. And the raid on the big names has only just started.
