Dear Members,

Board Meeting number 28 coincided with a giant step forward for your Club - the Tasmania Football Club being represented on the ground for the first time courtesy of our men's VFL team playing Coburg at North Hobart Oval on Saturday.

It was a full house and a magical celebration at North Hobart on the weekend, we thank everyone near and far who was a part of the day.  For those that were unable to get along on Saturday, or indeed throughout the season, we are thrilled that the Seven network are covering all of the Devils VFL home games live right across Australia on 7+, a great outcome for our Club, our partners, our members and our athletes.

We could not be more excited that the Devils will come to life via our VFL and VFLW teams over the coming months. Not only do we have a team that we can now follow each week but it's also enabling us to build and fine tune the logistics, resources and support mechanisms we need to put around the teams essential for a successful elite sport environment.

We held our Season Launch a little over a week ago.  That event included our men's and women’s VFL squads along with coaches, support staff, Club partners and key stakeholders coming together to mark the occasion. It was clear to all that the Devils were starting to feel like a real football Club. We took the opportunity to thank a range of people including our Principal Foundation Partner, Blundstone, our apparel partner New Balance, the Tasmanian Government and all of our individual player sponsors.

We were pleased to welcome and host the incoming Chair of the AFL Commission, Craig Drummond and AFL Chief Operating Officer, Tom Harley to Hobart and to our most recent Board meeting. We were thrilled that one of Craig’s first duties as Chair of the AFL Commission was to visit with the AFL’s newest Club and we took the opportunity to take him to the site of the new Macquarie Point Stadium and to Kingborough to show him where work on our Club High Performance Centre was about to start.

The other focus areas for our Board Meeting included getting an update on the progress being made on our list build plans - that is, our intentions on bringing together the sources of talent that will form our AFL and AFLW teams. We heard of the plans in relation to Academy talent, our access to the countries best 17-year-olds and how we might use our initial draft picks. It really brings to life that our first AFL National Draft in 2027 and our first game in 2028 are not far away.

Given the importance of our High Performance Centre to our Club, we as a board are following it progress closely. Planning Approval has been received and tender documentation released with initial construction to begin later in the first half of this year.  You can expect to see some exciting announcements for members on that in the coming weeks.

We have been blown away with the response to our Membership offerings - Tasmanians young and old across the State, interstate and overseas have been pledging their loyalty to our Club.... and if you wanted proof that it really is from the young to the old, I can share that last week we joined up 110 members under the age of one and our oldest member at just 97 years of age.

Further to our first game and Board meeting, we also achieved another milestone. I want to wish everyone connected to the Club a happy 2nd Birthday - can you believe 2 years have gone by since we launched the TFC around the state on the 18th of March 2024. Likewise Rum’un got to blow out the candles on a first birthday cake, what a wonderful addition Rum'un has been to our Club.

This week we head to Launceston to take on Port Melbourne in the VFL, and of course our VFLW are getting ready for their first game on May 16.  I encourage you all to get along to the upcoming games in Tasmania and interstate, and please if you have not signed up for membership, now is the time to become 'one of us'.

Go Devils.

Grant.

From next month, these updates will be sent exclusively to 2026 Members.