AFL 2024: How the Tasmania Devils draft concessions could work

The AFL won’t make the same draft mistake it did with GWS and Gold Coast when handing out a package to the new team this time around – and the Devils might break ground of their own.

Jake Beams, Rodney Eade and Shaun Kongwa during the Tasmanian AFL Club Launch at Hobart. Picture: Chris Kidd

The AFL is expected to spread Tasmania’s generous draft concessions across either two or three national drafts after learning lessons from past expansion issues.

The move is aimed to ensure the club’s entire suite of prized picks do not fall in either a supremely strong draft or abnormally weak talent pool.

The league lumped Gold Coast (2010) and Greater Western Sydney’s (2011) bounty of national draft picks in one year.

Those ultimately proved to be weaker drafts than usual, with several players selected never living up to their hype.

Splitting the picks across two or three years – likely to be the 2027, 2028 and possibly 2029 drafts – would also soften the impact on existing clubs who would otherwise be largely blown out of the top 10.

Tasmania will be forced to trade out many of their top-end picks for established stars of the game in another move that should help ensure current clubs are not entirely locked out of the pointy end.

Matthew Richardson poses with the Tasmania Devils’ inaugural jumper. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos

That policy aligns with the AFL’s philosophy that the Devils must be competitive from the get-go, instead of fielding young, immature sides like the bashed-up Suns and Giants in their formative years.

If the Devils do not trade those draft picks – which must be used on players and not more draft selections – they will be sacrificed.

Some recruiting sources have also floated the idea that the Devils could tempt marquee players to sign with the 19th club by allowing them to fly in and fly out of Hobart.

While that concept is common for guns-for-hire in rival sports, it would be groundbreaking in the AFL.

For example, superstar players who did not want to permanently relocate to the Apple Isle could live in their existing state for roughly four months of the year.

They could spend October and November at home as well as parts of December and January during breaks in pre-season and in-season leave that aligned with training schedules.

That model could appeal to older players with wives or girlfriends with established lives on the mainland.

Gold Coast star Noah Anderson is likely to be a free agent when the Devils begin their raid. Picture: Russell Freeman/AFL Photos

It would follow Geelong’s style of recruiting players to a lifestyle that suited them.

However, the idea was not supported by some recruiters who worried it would be a poor look and would not wash with the parochial Tasmanians who would demand a total buy in.

NBL champions Tasmania JackJumpers have had few retention problems since joining the basketball league three years ago.

Queenslander Jack McVeigh has bought a property in Hobart while Chicagoan Milton Doyle is considering applying for Australian citizenship after experiencing Tassie life.

The likes of Noah Anderson (Gold Coast), Caleb Serong, Hayden Young (Fremantle), Will Day (Hawthorn) and Kysaiah Pickett (Melbourne) are the likely 2027 free agents who could be the top targets for the Devils’ inaugural list.

Rocket sets out his blueprint for Tassie success

– Josh Barnes

Tasmanian football hall of famer Rodney Eade says mid-career players are essential for the Devils to be competitive when they enter the AFL.

The second man to coach the Gold Coast Suns, after Guy McKenna, Eade had a close-up look at how a club entering the new competition can fare.

The Devils and the AFL have both been on record that the new club wants to be competitive early in its existence.

Rodney Eade at the Devils launch last month. Picture: Chris Kidd

The Suns won just six games combined in their first two seasons and have never played finals, while GWS was worse to start its time in the league and won just three times in its first two seasons but was a premiership contender by year five.

Unlike the previous two expansion sides, it is expected the Devils will be forced to trade some of the high picks they are handed by the AFL, incentivising the club to bring in established talent.

The Giants did not have a single player with AFL experience aged between 23 and 28 on its inaugural playing list.

The Suns had a 26-year-old Gary Ablett and 25-year-old Michael Rischitelli was a solid servant but missed with other mid-tier players like Daniel Harris (28), Nathan Bock (28), Campbell Brown (27) and Jared Brennan (26).

Eade coached the suns from 205-17.

Eade, who wants the club to secure an experienced coach, said the Devils needed to bring in useful players in their mid-20s to off-set what will be a bevy of teen talent.

“The Giants, they got belted early on because they had too many kids,” he said.

“Rather than players who are on the fringe … you want blokes who don’t have to be superstars but you want good players, bona fide 25 year olds, they are the ones you want.

“Those (draftee) players coming in, it is proven if you are too young it is a tough road for a while.”

Eade said the new stadium at Macquarie Point mandated by the AFL as part of the Tasmanian licence – and a major sticking point in the recent tight Tasmanian election, in which the pro-stadium Liberals appear to have claimed most seats – was a “no-brainer”.

He also said the wildly successful membership drive – that is approaching 200,000 signed up fans – would win over sponsors given the new club’s monster database of paid-up members.