TASMANIA now has a coach to go with a CEO and a list manager. A GM will be next. But behind the scenes, the Devils are busy chasing players ahead of the club's AFL entry in 2028. 

The key figures and list management department attached to the 19th license have studied how Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney built their inaugural lists and know how valuable one commitment is to securing the next one.

The Devils would love the landscape to be in a position where committed players can declare their intentions much earlier than what happened with the Suns and the Giants to help encourage others to join and promote the club's entry, but they don't expect that to happen. 

Nathan Bock was the first player Gold Coast signed in 2010. Then 12 months later, Phil Davis, another Adelaide key defender, was the first player to commit to Greater Western Sydney in 2011. The Giants had pursued the 2008 pick No.10 from early in the season – they could recruit one uncontracted player from each club – but Davis didn't make his decision public until the start of August.

Davis, who was co-captain of GWS for 146 of his 174 games there, doesn't think the AFL landscape is ready for players to declare they are moving too far out like in the NRL.

"I don’t think we are ready, is my blunt answer," Davis told AFL.com.au.

"I'm now on the other side of the fence, but I just don't care what a player is going to do the next year; I just believe that we're at a level with professionalism and expectation that you will still strive to be your best. Even if you look at Zach Merrett, he still tries as hard now as he did last year or two years ago, even though people know that he wants to leave. So I don't have any questions on that [performing while committed elsewhere].

"But there is now more discussion through shows and articles than ever been before. This would just be another piece of fodder that someone can write an article about you if you play a bad game. I think the discussion will just basically oscillate week in, week out based on how you play versus anything more. So I don't see there being a change largely because of that."

Greater Western Sydney made its initial approach to Davis the day after round one via his manager Justin Reid, who was then working for Elite Sports Properties and would become Adelaide’s list manager for more than a decade and is now the AFL's head of football performance, list management and engagement. 

Davis wasn't initially interested, but the Crows moved slowly on a contract offer while the key defender was recovering from a season-ending shoulder injury. Giants list architects Stephen Silvagni and Graeme Allan worked behind the scenes to secure someone who would play a critical role in building a club from scratch. 

Time on the sidelines gave Davis the time to properly consider his decision and he realised the Giants' five-year offer, which was twice the salary per season on offer and three extra years, was simply far too good to refuse. So when did Davis make the decision?

"It was late. I delayed it as much as I could. I just was in this huge 'accumulation of information' period, because I had time. I don't think I would have made my mind up 'til mid or late July. I think I went on a holiday to finalise it," Davis said.

"I came back and I sort of knew, and then to be fair, just delayed it another couple of weeks just so I could get more rehab done because I sort of knew what they were going to do off the back of Nathan Bock, and that was kicking me out of the club. I knew it was best to stay and do my rehab there. 

"So I probably knew by the middle of July, but I deliberately stretched that out. I think in, even in the modern context, I can't get my head around telling them I was going to the Giants, or Tasmania in today's context, while I was still playing."

The Giants also made Callan Ward an offer he ultimately couldn't ignore, despite being settled at the Western Bulldogs – the club he grew up just down the road from. It took months of deliberation for him to accept the Giants' lucrative five-year offer.

Ward, who retired at the end of 2025 after playing 267 of his 327 games for the Giants and is still working for the club across the commercial and football departments, made his decision not long after Davis, but the first approach shocked him when his manager, Paul Connors, turned up at his family house one night.

"I remember when Paul came around and said there's a new team coming in the competition next year and they're keen on me. I didn't even know there was a new team coming, so that's how naive or stupid I was back then," Ward said.

"Initially I was just like, 'No way, like, I'm so happy here'; I grew up down the road and I love the Dogs and (I've) got heaps of mates, and 'I don't ever want to leave' sort of thing. But then as time went on and the more people I spoke to, the more I realised it was a great opportunity. And in the end it was too hard to say no.

"But it took a long time. It would have taken probably three months, maybe four. I reckon I did it maybe three weeks before our last game. I think we came 12th or 13th that year. We weren't great after playing three prelims in a row before that, which probably sort of had an impact on my decision because I didn't think we were going to be that good for a while. 

"'Rocket' (former Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade) got sacked about a month out before the end of the season and Paul Williams was the caretaker coach for the last month. I remember he got me into his office and just said, 'Have you made up your mind on what you're doing? It won't impact my decision to play you or not'. So in the end, I told him I was I was leaving and I reckon that would have been two or three games to go."

Connors helped Ward navigate the situation every step of the way in 2011. Managers are crucial in player movement, but especially when it comes to expansion clubs. They chase answers to all the questions you have. Who else is coming? Who is coaching? When will the facility be ready? They organise covert meetings to protect you from public scrutiny, like when Ward met Silvagni and Allan at 'Gubby's' house in Carlton before making up his mind.

"All the dealings I had with them was through Paul Connors. Paul was very much giving me some advice, but very much like 'I'll leave the decision up to you and I'll support you where I can'. To be honest, he didn't really sway me either way," Ward said.

"The only dealings I had with 'SOS' and 'Gubby' were when I had a meeting and they presented to me about the club, the draft picks and concessions they had and the talent they already had there. They really sold the club and the Sydney lifestyle to me then. But other than that, I never received any calls or didn't text them personally at all. It was all through Paul."

Ward retired as the Giants' games-record holder and one of the most influential figures in the game's expansion into western Sydney. He never won the premiership he chased – and missed out on if he had stayed at the Western Bulldogs – but building a club from scratch in rugby league heartland and helping so many who arrived as teenagers develop into stars makes up for the medal missing on his CV.

"I loved my footy career. I've got no regrets at all and I wouldn't change anything," Ward said. "And the one thing I'm most proud of is being there from the start and helping shape he football club and in some ways the culture of the football club. I think it's something I'll always look back on with pride and be able to say I was there from the very start. I think it's, I think it's a special thing to say actually."

Greater Western Sydney made a considered approach to target a select group of 20-21-year-old options. They also landed Tom Scully from Melbourne and Rhys Palmer from Fremantle. They wanted them to help the teenage draftees develop. Dale Thomas and Matthew Kreuzer were both chased by the Giants and offered big dollars, but stayed in Victoria. 

The Giants also added some experience. Luke Power was recruited and started as co-captain alongside Davis and Ward. James McDonald came out of retirement from Melbourne, while Chad Cornes and Dean Brogan moved across from Port Adelaide to add some grunt to a young group.

Gold Coast landed the biggest fish of the expansion era, luring Gary Ablett jnr to Queensland on a mega five-year deal. The Suns also signed Nathan Krakouer, Michael Rischitelli, Campbell Brown and Jarrod Harbrow.

Since playing finals for the first time in season five in 2016, Greater Western Sydney has featured in September seven more times, compared to just one visit by Gold Coast. Davis believes the Giants recruited the right characters more often than not, leading to sustained success at GWS.

"I would say that upon reflection we got 70 per cent right, which I think is a pretty good score," he said. "I think the topping up of the plus 30-year-olds was structurally a smart move. I think obviously getting, you know, Cal, Tom and myself in our age bracket was good, but then also we hit well at the draft in the volume that set us up.

"We've got some real quality people and I think that really drove it. But fundamentally, we always drafted people of good character and competitors. I think those two things we prioritised the whole way through, which I think was led by the leadership... it was really, really important. 

"The area that we probably could have done a bit better at, upon reflection, is we probably didn't have those core mature role players that were more 25 to 28. I think we could have topped up there quite nicely and paid overs for a few of those players because I think that would have maybe smoothed out the dependency we had at times on the young players and maybe helped us drive certain things a bit better."

Adelaide was filthy with Bock's defection to Gold Coast the previous year and even more bitterly disappointed to lose Davis. They knew what they had, despite the fact the Canberra-born defender had only played 18 games in three seasons. Western Bulldogs abused Ward for years because they saw a future captain. 

Everyone will be captivated by every list decision Tasmania makes. If the Giants' build taught the industry anything, it was the most influential targets are in that 21-22 age bracket, which is why the Devils have been pursuing the likes of Finn O'Sullivan, Sam Lalor and Ryley Sanders.

But Greater Western Sydney certainly got more than they paid for in two outstanding leaders who were central to building a club from nothing and creating a culture where most stayed long-term. That is the next challenge the Devils will face.