Tasmania Devils: This Was Never Just A VFL Season
The Tasmania Devils' inaugural VFL season became a transformative period for Tasmanian football and its community. What began with modest expectations quickly changed as the Devils finished in the top four and qualified for finals. More importantly, the team built genuine connections with fans, inspired local pride, and helped unify a previously fragmented football culture. The Devils did more than play football; they created memories, developed local heroes, and gave Tasmania a sense of sporting ownership that will resonate well beyond this season.
- Tasmania Devils finished top 4 in their debut VFL season and made the finals.
- The team built strong emotional bonds with fans, uniting Tasmanian football supporters.
- Beyond results, the Devils gave Tasmania a team and heroes to call their own.
Tasmania Devils in front of their fans. (Photo by Steve Bell/Getty Images)
This Was Never Just A VFL Season
When the Tasmania Devils ran onto the field for the first time this season, nobody really knew what to expect.
- This Was Never Just A VFL Season
- The Moment It Suddenly Felt Real
- North Hobart Gave The Devils A Home
- Somewhere Along The Way, They Became Our Players
- Then The Football Became Something Special
- A Team That Brought Tasmanian Football Together
- Now Tasmania Gets A Final Of Its Own
There was excitement, of course. Tasmania finally had a team carrying the map into a national competition, and after everything the state had been through to reach this point, that alone meant something. But on the football side, expectations were understandably modest. Win a few games, develop some players and begin laying the foundations for what was still to come.
Instead, 20 games later, the Devils are preparing for finals after finishing inside the top four.
That achievement deserves to be celebrated, but looking back over the past few months, it feels like something even more important has happened. Tasmania hasn't simply watched a VFL team play football.
It has fallen in love with its own team.
The Moment It Suddenly Felt Real
Tasmanians had spent so long talking about having a team of their own that the conversation had almost become part of the background. There were bids, reports, stadium debates and endless arguments over whether the state deserved its place on the national football stage.
Then suddenly there were footballers running onto an oval wearing Tasmania across their chest.
For many supporters, that first appearance carried an emotional weight that was difficult to anticipate. This wasn't yet the AFL team Tasmania had spent decades waiting for, but it was something tangible. For the first time, supporters could spend their weekend watching a team that belonged to the state rather than talking about one that might exist in the future.
The idea had become real.
North Hobart Gave The Devils A Home
If there was one afternoon that captured what this season could become, it was the first game at North Hobart Oval.
More than 11,000 people packed into one of Tasmania's most historic football grounds to watch a completely new team. Nobody really knew whether the Devils would be competitive, let alone capable of winning immediately.
They won by 17 points.
What followed mattered almost as much as the result. Players stayed around the boundary signing autographs while young supporters crowded the fence to meet their new heroes. A group of footballers many Tasmanians had barely heard of months earlier suddenly had people waiting for their signatures.
Even the awkwardness of the players barely knowing the club song after that first victory now feels like part of the charm of the inaugural season. The Devils weren't inheriting decades of traditions and memories. Players and supporters were creating them together.
Somewhere Along The Way, They Became Our Players
Perhaps the biggest change over the course of the season has been the relationship between supporters and the players themselves.
At the beginning, many people naturally supported the Devils because they represented Tasmania. There was a map on the jumper and a state finally getting the opportunity it had spent generations demanding.
But somewhere across those 20 games, the connection became much more personal.
Supporters developed favourite players and favourite moments. Jai Mensy emerged as the leader who could be relied upon every week. Brandon Leary became one of the competition's most exciting players. Daniel Cooney and other local footballers demonstrated that Tasmania had talent capable of stepping immediately into VFL football.
Interstate recruits arrived and quickly became part of the community rather than outsiders temporarily playing for a Tasmanian side.
By the end of the season, people weren't simply supporting the concept of the Tasmania Devils anymore.
They were supporting this particular group.
Then The Football Became Something Special
The emotional connection would have existed regardless of results, but few could have predicted how quickly the Devils would become competitive.
A handful of victories would probably have been considered a perfectly acceptable return from an inaugural season. Instead, Tasmania finished the home-and-away campaign inside the top four and secured a home final.
More impressive has been the way they got there.
There have been injuries, changes in personnel and important players lost to AFL opportunities. Each challenge could have exposed the limitations of a first-year program, yet the Devils repeatedly found someone ready to step into a bigger role.
The comeback against North Melbourne perhaps captured that spirit better than any other match.
Tasmania had endured a difficult stretch and trailed by 20 points before producing a remarkable final-quarter surge. The intensity lifted, North Hobart came alive and the Devils turned what appeared likely to be another frustrating defeat into one of the defining victories of their season.
Those are the afternoons from which genuine football memories are built.
A Team That Brought Tasmanian Football Together
The importance of the Devils' first season also extends beyond the players who take the field.
For years, Tasmanian football has often felt fragmented between regions, competitions and traditional club loyalties. The Devils have provided something different: a team capable of sitting above those divisions and giving the state something to share.
The crowds have demonstrated it. So has the growing attachment to the players and the excitement surrounding every weekend.
Children who previously had only mainland AFL stars to follow now have Tasmanian Devils waiting along the boundary after games. Local footballers have been given a national platform, while players arriving from interstate have experienced first-hand just how deeply the game is embedded in the state.
The Devils haven't simply represented Tasmanian football this year.
They've helped bring it together.
Now Tasmania Gets A Final Of Its Own
Twenty games ago, nobody knew what this team would become.
Now Tasmania is preparing for its first VFL finals campaign, with a home final secured after finishing inside the top four.
Wherever that game is ultimately played, it will represent another significant moment in a season already full of them.
The Devils have achieved far more than anyone could reasonably have demanded in year one. They've won games, developed players and created a pathway that has already demonstrated its value.
But the greatest achievement might be much harder to measure.
They've filled North Hobart with green. They've created new heroes for Tasmanian kids. They've given supporters games and moments that will be remembered long after the final ladder position is forgotten.
Most importantly, they've turned the Tasmania Devils from an idea into a football club people genuinely care about.
There are finals to come and perhaps even bigger moments still waiting for this team.
Whatever happens from here, though, shouldn't change what these first 20 games have meant.
This was never just a VFL season.
It was the season Tasmania finally got a football team to call its own.
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