"IF WE'RE being conservative that's how it could look," Tasmania's list manager Todd Patterson said. "But conservative isn't the way we're going to roll here." 

Patterson was speaking to a room of more than 30 player agents as well as Devils staff and Tasmanian dignitaries and sponsors, gathered on Monday night in Hobart for the club's showcase to management companies.

To his right and left, screens showed a team line-up. 

West Coast's Harley Reid was in the midfield with Melbourne's Harvey Langford and Western Bulldog Ryley Sanders. Melbourne's Caleb Windsor and North Melbourne's Finn O'Sullivan were on opposite wings. Geelong's Connor O'Sullivan held the fort at full-back, with Roo Colby McKercher and Blue Jagga Smith creating off half-back flanks. 

The forward line was potent: Richmond's Sam Lalor, Adelaide's Dan Curtin, Hawks star Nick Watson, rising Bomber Nate Caddy and North's Zane Duursma. Adelaide's Sid Draper and Greater Western Sydney's James Leake were in the side too, although there remained seven vacant spots.

This 'could be' Tasmanian Devils team isn't exactly what you think. 

This isn't necessarily the list of targets the Devils are pursuing to bring to their club between 2027/28 when their access to rival guns starts (although some may be high on their wish list).

This is the group of players Tasmania would have had access to if its draft concessions started in 2023 – when Reid was the standout No.1 pick. Those list rules all kick in this year, with the club having access to sign the first batch of its 12 17-year-olds later this season.

The mock team illustrates the type of team the many, varied and layered list rules could conceivably deliver the Devils in the next three years, and that's not including their access to established guns and players around the competition who will be tempted by football's new frontier, with the Devils aided by a $5 million sign-on bonus fund. And by extension, why it won't take long for them to be one of the game's most talented young lists. 

Neither does it have the 'culture builders' and playing coaches they will entice down as part of their southern sell. 

Patterson's address to the player managers scattered around the room at the Tasman Hotel was the cut-through moment of the two-day Tassie show-and-tell.

The lifestyle elements the club wanted to highlight to the agents – who then could on-sell to their players – was golf at the stunning 7 Mile Beach, a three-course lunch at the Frogmore Creek winery, a tour of the Macquarie Point facility ("You are now standing in the forward 50" said CEO Anne Beach), a bus trip with real estate agents detailing the prices of property in the region and finished with a visit to the club's headquarters in Kingborough.

Already there are two ovals there, but a third will be built, as will a state-of-the-art facility for the men's and women's programs. By the time the men start in the competition in 2028, they expect the indoor oval to be ready, with the rest of the facility to be built in sections. Michael Thorn, handpicked from the AFL and on secondment with Tasmania as chief executive Brendon Gale's right-hand man, is steering that project. 

But it was the football pitch that resonated with the agents most. 

"It's a bit of a sell, but it's also a realisation this is a football club. We're not an expansion team. We are a team coming out of recess," said Patterson, who was appointed alongside recruiting manager Derek Hine last April. 

"We're not here to be a gimmick. We're here to be sustainable."

Already, the Devils say they have met with six players in the AFL about their initial interest in joining Tasmania. By the end of this year, the club wants to have three to five players committed to joining at the end of 2027.

Agents know their players are conscious about the competitiveness of the team to start. Gale is confident they will be able to put more wins on the board than Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney in their initial years in the competition.

The presentation includes the marketing opportunities for Tasmania's first fleet, with the club having signed Blundstone boots to a mega seven-year major sponsorship deal as well as apparel giant New Balance. 

"As you drive in from the airport you'll see empty billboards. They can be your players," he said. "I don't have a skerrick of concern that someone will come down and not enjoy the community."  

Player management is a fiercely competitive field as agents look to sign the best players and lead them through their AFL careers. A bringing together of the companies like the Devils delivered – each management group received an island invitation – has not been done before in such a setting. 

They mixed socially across the two days but were there as extensions of the game's best and most gettable players – taking in the information to take back to their clients, knowing the already inflated market is about to get another boost when 'Cashmania' arrives and dangles the carrot.

But the Devils made clear the money will only be splashed on the right players coming for the right reasons.  

The first step for Tasmania this year will be signing an initial group of around six 17-year-olds and take them out of the 2027 draft pool. 

West Australian Axel Walsh looks the early No.1 pick contender for 2027 and is in the 22 prospects the Devils named as 'players of interest' this month for their 17-year-old access. So was Baxter Sruk and Max Thompson, as well as players tied to clubs under father-son and Academy rules, like Koby Bewick (Essendon), Louis Salopek and Zemes Pilot (Port Adelaide). 

Tasmania has access to those tied players if they choose to head to the Devils, with discussions to heat up in coming months. The agents in the room – and the wider management industry – were also given clearance by the AFL Players' Association on Monday to sign the players in their 17th year (previously their 18th) so they can assist in those key decisions. 

The club is sorting through accommodation options for those 17-year-olds who will relocate and spend their 18th year with the VFL program, but will also allow some players to stay in their home states if they are keen to complete schooling. 

The Devils don't see it as an easy task, but with the stadium green lit, plans underway on their training facility, their VFL and VFLW programs about to start and bumper stickers all over the cars travelling Hobart and Launceston's roads, Tasmania is plotting its path. Winning over the agents was a key step.

"We're about to get serious," Patterson told them. "We're ready to get busy in the market."