BRENDON Gale learnt a lesson when he caught the train to Frankston on Good Friday. Tasmania supporters got on at every single stop from Richmond to Ormond to Cheltenham to Seaford, all the way to the end of the line. The traditional myrtle-green, primrose yellow and rose red filled the streets around Kinetic Stadium, much to the amazement of Devils players and coaches on the team bus as they drove in.

Build it and they will come doesn't really apply with this club. They are already coming. Not to watch homegrown veterans Alex Pearce or Jeremy Howe patrolling the Devils' defence, or young locals Ryley Sanders and Colby McKercher in the middle. They are turning up in massive numbers to watch semi-professional players represent Tasmania in the VFL for the first time in a long time.

Some names are familiar like Robbie Fox, who played 105 games for Sydney and now leads the Devils as captain on weekends and works in the commercial team during the week. Others are fighting for a second chance in the AFL, like Jye Menzie and Geordie Payne. Then there is Bailey Boag, who lives four hours away in Burnie and doesn't get home from training on Wednesday nights until 1am on Thursday.

Tasmanian supporters are invested. They have been turning up since a sold-out crowd of 10,634 crammed into North Hobart Oval for the round one clash against Coburg, where they sold $90,000 worth of merchandise out of a single tent. Then a VFL-record crowd of 14,122 was at Bellerive Oval on Anzac Day when the Devils hosted Carlton. And it hasn't just been at home. Devils supporters comfortably outnumbered Frankston fans when 4,613 turned up on Good Friday. And they were there once again en masse at Port Melbourne in May where the ground ran out of pies and ran dry. 

The Devils signed up 216,000 foundation members after the provisional licence was granted in 2024. That was only $10 a pop, but now they have more than 30,000 paid up members for the 2026 VFL season, where most packages range from $80-99. Gold Coast didn't have that many members until 2025 – its 15th season in the AFL – while it took Greater Western Sydney nine seasons in the AFL to exceed the Devils' 2026 mark. Last month, the Devils sold 4500 memberships – $1500 per year for the 1866 club, $430 for the R28 premium – in a few days, which allowed members to guarantee a seat in 2028.

Unlike the AFL's two most recent expansion teams, the support here is overwhelming. Your eyes tell you that at UTAS Stadium, Dial Park or North Hobart Oval, where guernseys, beanies and scarves are everywhere. Perhaps the biggest sign of devotion are the bumper stickers. You can't miss them.

But are the Devils really happening? Gale has the second-most recognisable beard in Tasmania behind Mona founder, David Walsh, the billionaire philanthropist, and is regularly asked that question by sceptical strangers in the streets around the club's base on Collins Street. What are you doing down here? Is this actually going ahead? You’re dreaming, aren’t you?

Everyone knows the Richmond playing great turned highly credentialled administrator is running the show. Most know the club has appointed a list manager and are close to announcing an inaugural coach. But with a construction company yet to be signed to build the Macquarie Point stadium, and the budget for the divisive stadium ballooning, some won't truly believe in the Devils until they see it, which is why AFL.com.au went to Hobart last week to see how the club's build is progressing.

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THE DEVIL'S Den is seldom empty. Across last Thursday, footy fans streamed in and out the team store to buy guernseys, polos, hats, jackets and stickers. Anything and everything. The club's football and administration office is tucked away in the same building, hidden behind a door, across two levels. Things are happening in here. It is organised chaos.

Consumer, commercial, communications, merchandise and finance are all based on the bottom level, servicing the VFL program and planning for the AFL entry. Robbie Fox returned to Tasmania after his time ended at Sydney last year and is now working as the Devils' corporate partnerships coordinator during the week, which is where he is stationed this afternoon, working the phones. This is a long way from the Sydney Swans' world-class facility down the road from the SCG, but this role has eased the bumps most feel when the music stops and the next phase of life after top-level footy starts.

Tasmania now has 56 full-time staff – plus more than 20 casuals – which includes nine based out of the Melbourne office at MSAC, where head of list management and strategy Todd Patterson, recruiting boss Derek Hine and their team work, along with the Devils' head of finance, Adrian Deluca and new media signing Matt Kitchin. Three more are coming out of Launceston, where a new office is opening soon. 

"Every hire has been very carefully considered each step – it's not just ad hoc, there's a sense of discipline involved with it – but principally from the time the licence was issued, then the establishing of the club, there's essentially been a marketing exercise, coming out of the ground, getting around the state, telling our story, winning hearts and minds of fans," Gale tells AFL.com.au.

"It has been about building the club and building the relationship with the community and trust. Then once we were confirmed for the VFL, then we had to start building our footy program out. We've had to get ahead of the curve there because it's not just the VFL program; it's the VFL program evolving towards an AFL program. So it's required an investment in people and technology, facilities and infrastructure and the like.

"You've got to keep making money to fund all that, so we've had to build out our commercial program and our membership program. They're not all full-time, there's some casuals there but we're drinking from a fire hose; there is just so much to do still and it seems - at times - so few people to do it."

They won't be here in this three-storey building in the CBD forever, but the training and administration base hasn't started construction yet. Right now, the players are training out of a literal chicken shed on Wednesday nights. But the $115m high performance centre at the 9000-square-metre Kingborough Sports Precinct is about to start. Next year, the football department and administration will relocate over there, 12 minutes from the CBD, into temporary facilities before the base is ready.

"Look, at this stage, it won't be ready by the start of the 2028 season," Gale says. "But importantly, it's starting very soon and our athletes will start turning up to work and training every day and seeing the facility take shape."

The new Macquarie Point stadium is out of the Devils’ control, but a builder is set to be locked in by the end of this year. The current budget is $1.13 billion and expected to be completed by the start of the 2031 season. Ninja Stadium in Hobart has a capacity of 19,500 and University of Tasmania Stadium in Launceston, which is undergoing a $140 million redevelopment and will hold 18,000, will both host home games from 2028.

Tasmania is at the business end of its process to appoint an inaugural coach. John Longmire, Ken Hinkley and Nathan Buckley have all met with the Devils, with an appointment imminent. That will happen by the end of the season, potentially before finals. A head of football will be next, but Gale made the decision a few months ago to do the coach first, then the GM second.

"I think we just had a change of tack and just said, you know, we'll push ahead (with the senior coach first)," he says. "I think the coach is really important in terms of list management, recruiting, some of the discussions that we'll be having with players or agents in particular. But we're on to it."

Gale has made all of these appointments before. Multiple times. He was appointed Richmond CEO in 2009 after four years as the CEO of the AFL Players' Association. He remained in the main office at Punt Road until the move to Tasmania. At 57, like the coaches he is considering, he still has plenty of time left in his working life, but it is crucial the Devils get these appointments right.

Gold Coast has churned through senior coaches and GMs. They are on to their fourth permanent senior coach and have been through just as many GMs. Tasmania hopes for more stability. AFL.com.au revealed former Essendon and North Melbourne senior coach Brad Scott is a target for the GM role. Ex-Carlton GM and Fremantle list manager Brad Lloyd is another who has been linked, along with the AFL's coaching engagement manager Dan Richardson, who worked under Gale as Richmond's GM before moving to Essendon to perform the same role. Building a football department is an exercise in art and science. Just because something works at one club doesn’t mean it will work elsewhere. 

"I'm not ruling anything out," Gale says. "A lot of it depends a bit on the senior coach as well. A really effective footy program is greater than the sum of its parts. It's art and it's science and it's just different people and different attributes able to work together for the common good. So I'm not going to rule anything in or anything out at this stage."

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MORE than a dozen of Tasmania’s staff have worked for other AFL clubs, but one arrow Lauren Jauncey has in her quiver is her experience on the board of the Tasmania JackJumpers. The NBL franchise was launched in 2020 and quickly started selling out MyState Bank Arena, reached a Grand Final series in its first season and won a maiden title in season three.

Jauncey was the club's next hire after Gale, first as a consultant, and then full time as GM of Strategy, People and Culture, joining an executive that already included Chief Marketing Officer Kathryn McCann. Back then, the Devils had seven staff members. Jauncey has helped oversee the exponential administration growth. She is on the panel to the select the first head coach, along with Devils chairman Grant O'Brien, football director Alastair Lynch and Gale. 

"It taught me the importance of recruiting the right characters," she says. "That was always a really big push for the whole club, but particularly, (JackJumpers head coach) Scott Roth talks a lot about recruiting the right characters in the team. I think that reinforced a lot of the learnings I've had through corporate (life). Hire for character; skills are important, but you can always build those skills. So that was certainly an important piece."

Gender equality is just as important to Jauncey. Tasmania is the first club that will build a men's and women's program from its inception. Most of the external focus is on who will coach the AFL team and who will play for them in 2028, but the focus internally is more even.

"I wouldn't have taken this job if there wasn't that opportunity, to be honest. To me, that was one of the biggest drawcards to being a part of this club is the fact that we get to go from the ground up and we get to build this club in a really equitable way," she says.

"I'm the mum of three daughters who love their sport and I often reflect on the fact that they're growing up now in a state where not only do they get the opportunity to play footy, which I certainly didn't. It just wasn't an option, but now they get the opportunity to strive towards being a part of a Tasmanian AFLW team. We think it's a huge opportunity, but also a massive responsibility that we get it right because we can't blame legacy here; we get to set it, we get to set up the club in a really equitable way."

Since AFL CEO Andrew Dillon travelled with members of his executive to Devonport in 2024 to join Devils chairman Grant O’Brien for the announcement on that famous night, participation has exploded, especially with females. Auskick has grown by more than 80 per cent with numbers on track to double by the end of 2026. Superkick (ages 7-12) has surged 96 per cent and Auskick (4-7) 53 per cent since June last year in a sign of the growing excitement around the planned AFL entry. Community participation is up by 21 per cent, while women's and girl's participation has grown by over 70 per cent since the announcement.

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WHEN Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney entered the competition, they didn't have an Instagram account. The platform existed, but it wasn't used by sporting organisations the way it is now. Facebook and Twitter were the focus back then, but still not the priority for digital departments. Far from it. Yet, in a sign of the times, one of Tasmania's first key off-field signings was Jacob Gaynor.

The admin behind the Giants' viral account helped shift the way AFL clubs operate in this space. Corporate speak has been out for years. Flirting with the line, and crossing it occasionally, much to the fury of rival clubs and supporters, has been in. Now his role as the Devils' head of content is to take Tasmanians on a journey. They are up to 128k followers on Instagram, 67k on Facebook and 9.7k on X. But they won't enter the AFL for two years, so what is he doing down here so early?

"It's a fair question," Gaynor says. "For me, the last 12 months at the Giants I probably was always kind of thinking, what's next? I was really proud of what we helped build there and the tone of voice that we established and the reputation the Giants had developed off the field in the social media sense. But for me, creatively, I think it was the right time for something different. It was still two years out when I signed the contract, they technically weren't even a team, the stadium was still up in the air, so it was a little bit of a risk. But without risk, there's no reward really for me."

Gaynor is from Canberra and spent a long time in Sydney. He had only been to Tasmania a couple of times when he signed with the Devils. Unlike GWS, this is football heartland. This is a state that has produced some of the greatest players the game has ever seen in Peter Hudson, Royce Hart, Ian Stewart and Darrel Baldock. Being down here so early will help him become ingrained in Tasmania's history and way of doing things.

But Gale doesn't keep him on a tight leash. Not that there have been too many opportunities to colour outside the lines just yet. GWS CEO Dave Matthews let Gaynor push the boundaries. The 'ask for forgiveness, not permission' mantra will be applied here as well, but different with a need to find a Tasmanian voice.

"I came here not wanting to do the same thing," Gaynor says. "That's why coming down here was so exciting for me; it's an opportunity to do something differently.

"I think at the Giants, we proved that you can do things differently and get some cut through. But this is a whole new market.

"So I didn't want to come here and just do the same thing. There's an expectation to do the same thing, and I want to do similar - I want to do that fun, engaging content - but there's also such a different story to tell here, which I think was what enticed me to come down. There's so much history and tradition here. I wanted to take a little bit more time, lean in and learn a lot, immerse myself into Tasmania."

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IF YOU look up, you'd think you were on the Gold Coast, not Hobart. Perfect blue skies in the middle of winter, but freezing conditions in the low single digits ahead of the 10.30am start, with frost all over North Hobart Oval, ensuring all that walked in – players, coaches, fans, media – are shivering. 

Jeromey Webberley sensed an opportunity in the pre-game meeting inside the bowels of the Doug Plaister Stand. No one expected Tassie to be this good this year. In fact, some didn’t think they’d win a game at all. They had been in the top 10 all season and are in the hunt for a top-four spot, but are far from confirmed for September after back-to-back losses. They need this.

"This is for our f***ing season. Show how much more this means to us than to them," is his final message before the players head out on the ground.

Webberley, who played 16 games for Richmond before returning home to play and then coach in Tasmania, landed the VFL gig last year after coaching the state's talent league team. He works hand in glove with football operations boss Aaron Pidgeon, who was previously North Melbourne's Head of Tasmania and the former Netball Tasmania CEO, uniting three satellite hubs across the state every week in pursuit of four points.

The Devils' VFL list has plenty of AFL experience. No household names, but seven players who have been on a list, including former Collingwood ruckman Aiden Begg, who was just signed and today has the challenge of stopping former Suns captain Jarrod Witts. More than 20 have returned home for this opportunity after moving across Bass Strait to play at a higher level.

Webberley demands more nastiness out of his group. He doesn't get it early and hammers the point home at the first break. The second-quarter response changes the course of the game. They end up winning by 50 points, booting nine final-term goals to entertain another packed crowd at North Hobart Oval and many watching on TV across the state, as Channel Seven broadcasts every home game. 107,000 Tasmanians watched the VFL game on Anzac Day, outrating the traditional blockbuster between Collingwood and Essendon, which attracted 93,500 viewers in the state. 

With five rounds to play, Tasmania is just half a game off third-placed GWS, but only six points inside the top 10. Finals aren't guaranteed yet. Playing finals wasn't the be-all and end-all this year, but the Devils' VFL form has captured the imagination of football lovers in this state. No other club in the VFL generates this much media attention. Neither do the clubs in the WAFL or SANFL. This is unique for part-time football and won't last for much longer.

Webberley is full-time, his players aren't. That is a luxury only afforded to those on an AFL list. But the coach has made sure his players embrace the responsibility of building this club from the VFL up.

"I think with the media and the crowds behind it, it feels like we're so attached to the club build," he says.

"I think that's what makes it feel full-time. We're not sort of tucked away in the back corner like another VFL aligned club; we're not the seconds, we're the face of the state. We are representing the Tassie footy club, but we're also representing our state and just understanding that you know we're the face of our state at the moment, which is pretty cool, and it's an experience that might not be the same next year, right?"

Webberley is highly rated in footy circles and doesn't hide his ambition. He wants to be part of the inaugural AFL coaching panel, if the opportunity presents.

"Yeah, absolutely. I've been open with that," he says. "I think any young coach within the state would be aspirational to be involved in the AFL club. So I'm clearly one of those. The support that I've got around me both from administration and the assistant coaching standpoint has been great. Matty Knights has been fantastic in his first six months within the state and been a great support mechanism. So I'm really enjoying what I'm doing at the moment. It has been a privilege and a hell of a ride."

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FOOTBALL has dragged Matthew Knights all across the country, but never down here. Before he became Richmond captain and a member of the Tigers' Team of the Century member, he grew up in Mildura in the Sunraysia Region. Then he moved to Adelaide to coach the Port Adelaide Magpies after his 279-game playing career ended, before returning to Victoria to the Bendigo Bombers. Then, the biggest job of his career arrived when he replaced Kevin Sheedy at Essendon. When that didn't work out, he moved to Xavier College, then Geelong for a decade, before heading across to West Coast for three years.

Now the 55-year-old is in Hobart in a wide-ranging coaching role. His title is Devils Academy Development coach, but the gig essentially involves coaching the coaches. Which is why we are sitting in the same coaches' box at North Hobart Oval where he has just been involved in the come-from-behind win over Gold Coast. When he speaks in here, everyone listens. 

"To be honest, the role's changed since I've got down here," he says. "It's turned coaching and mentoring and a bit operational and a fair bit of planning towards 2028, so the job description has really changed quite dramatically since I arrived. But the appetite around starting something from the ground up and being part of a team from the ground up was pretty exciting for me. Something that you may never get to experience again."

The plan for Knights is to help support the build of the first coaching panel with the inaugural coach. Expansion teams take time to succeed. He knows that. Gold Coast didn’t play finals for 15 years. Greater Western Sydney has played plenty, but never won a premiership. Knights hopes that a career that started in 1988 as a player will finish in Tasmania at the Devils – and not be done for another decade, if things go to plan.

"I'd like to think so," he says. "I guess understanding what Brendon is about and having played with the big fella a lot of years at Richmond, we have very similar values. We have very similar beliefs in football and the way it should be played. I think we're pretty similar in regards to how we treat people and our relationships, so I was only coming here to be here for the long haul because I think it'll need that.

"It's going to be exciting to support new staff and I can play a really exciting part of that is. W - potentially - could have five or six pre-listed 17-year-olds landing here in four or five month's time. I'm invigorated about assisting their journey in Tasmania and the immersion into the state and the immersion into our football culture. And then any staff that come in, being able to help them along the way.

"I guess having worked with Chris Scott and Nigel Lappin and guys like that at Geelong, it gives me great confidence that if we can put great frameworks around our young players and support them, we could do something very special here."

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JYE MENZIE has only just started enjoying football again. Almost all delisted footballers can relate. He lost the love of it at Essendon last year when it became clear he wouldn't be offered another contract, despite playing 47 games in just over three years at the Bombers. Suddenly, he was back in his hometown at the age of 23.

The Devils' vice-captain was the first player to commit to the team ahead of its VFL return. He played for North Hobart but grew up on the outskirts of the city in Bridgewater. Now he divides his week between full-time work as a teacher's aide at Guilford Young College in Glenorchy around part-time life as a footballer.

"I think I've got back to finally enjoying my footy. Obviously once you get delisted, it can take a little bit of a toll on you. It takes a little bit to process. But coming back down here to my home state, being around friends and family, and building this club from the ground up, it's been unbelievable. To get crowds like this come out and watch us play in the VFL is ridiculous and something we love," Menzie says after the win over Gold Coast.

Two players were recruited to the AFL out of the Devils in the Telstra AFL Mid-Season Rookie Draft in May: Jaxon Artemis and Max Mapley. Artemis will make his debut this Sunday for the Bombers after recovering from calf and hamstring issues. Menzie met with West Coast, who ended up selecting Oliver Francou and Marcus Herbert instead. That interest fanned the flames inside him. Another chance is a possibility, whether that's elsewhere or here when the Devils enter the AFL.

"I've obviously put my hand up for mid-season this year and was obviously unlucky to not get taken, but I'm only 23 so I'm still hopeful my best footy is ahead of me," he says. "I've definitely got ambition to get back there and I'm probably more determined than ever to get back to the level, whether that is with Tassie in a couple of years or sooner than that."

While I walk with Menzie off North Hobart Oval, the VFLW team runs out of the rooms ahead of their game against Geelong. Georgia Walker might be the most interesting person inside Tasmania Football Club. The 27-year-old is the club's inaugural coach and has been on this path for years since concussion ended her playing career at 19. Walker coached St Kilda's next generation academy then spent four years at Greater Western Sydney in a range of coaching roles before the opportunity presented in Hobart.

Those who have worked with her see a future AFLW coach in the making, but it's her other work that captured my attention. Walker is also a psychic medium who reads tarot cards and practices reiki. She understands why people are fascinated when we sit down, acknowledging how different it is to a stereotypical football environment.

"Everyone's always curious about it, especially in footy, but I always struggle with it because it feels like they're so polar opposite of each other and something you would not ever have in the same room," Walker says.

"But at the Giants, I'd read for players, I'd do healings and they loved it, both men and women, so it was really cool. It's just kind of grown into a bit of a business and something I do on the side with journals, affirmation cards, those sorts of things.

"And I think with my counselling background, it was quite holistic when I did my healings or worked with clients because it was for people when they're at a crossroads and can give them genuine tools, whether it's through journaling or tarot cards. It was really nice to be able to have a place I could do it all in one kind of area."

Tasmania plans to appoint its inaugural AFLW coach by December. Like many key appointments, Gale has met with plenty of options. West Coast coach Daisy Pearce has emerged as a target. But the pursuit of a W coach will ramp up in the coming months. 

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LOUD and proud, the cheer squad is stationed at the bowls club end of North Hobart Oval. They currently consist of 30 members, who meet every Tuesday or Wednesday night to put the banner together across five hours. Fifteen of them made the three-hour trek up to Penguin for the game against Box Hill and have travelled a similar distance to Launceston. Most have experiences from different AFL clubs, many North Melbourne, given their previous partnership in Hobart.

Brian Cameron was involved in Greater Western Sydney's cheer squad, but watching a state invest in its own team from the outset has been gripping. "It has really showed not only Tasmania but the rest of Australia what we're capable of as a club," he says.

Sheryl and Kevin McAllister sit in the stand near the cheer squad and haven't missed a game in Tasmania so far. They are both retired and can't believe this is actually happening in their lifetime after so many false dawns.

"We've waited a long time for this and have loved following this team, having something that is ours to read about, to watch, listen to on the radio," Kevin says.

They are another win closer to watching the Devils play finals in September, and another game closer to seeing Tasmania play AFL for the first time. Plenty of work is required before then, but it is happening. You just can’t see most of it.