Geelong chief executive Steven Hocking says the Cats will inspire the new Tasmanian AFL team

A Tasmania-based AFL team is expected to follow Geelong’s path of sustained success, its chief executive has told members.

A Tasmania-based AFL team due to enter the big league in 2028 will look to replicate Geelong’s model of sustained success, Cats chief executive Steven Hocking says.

The new club, which was granted the league’s 19th licence in May this year, is proposed to take the field for the first time in just over four years.

However, at Geelong’s annual general meeting on Tuesday night, Hocking said the fledgling club would take inspiration in how Geelong had remained a finals force for two decades outside the Melbourne bubble.

“They will look to replicate a lot of our modelling, because of where we’re placed in the competition, being regional by nature,” Hocking said.

Hocking said the club’s push for youth in recent seasons – including a raft of young players in the national draft this year – was in part to prepare for the Tasmanian team’s entry into the competition and its inevitable impact on the draft.

Geelong chief executive Steven Hocking said the new Tasmanian team would follow the Cats’ approach. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Media/Getty Images.

“We’re well underway within our football programs to make sure we’re ahead of that,” he said.

“We’ll be disrupted during that period, the draft.

“You have a look at a lot of the younger talent that’s been brought in the last few years ... to get ahead of potentially what’s coming down the pipeline, which is an entire new team, club.

“Hence, two years of very young talent being drafted and we’ll continue to do that until it does become a bit complicated.

“What I hope you are starting to see is our future team emerging.

“That transition is going on right before your eyes.

“We don’t believe we need to tumble down (the ladder).

“And even when Tasmania comes in, bring it on.”

Royal Hobart Regatta Association President Ross Doddridge OAM and RSL Tasmania chief executive John Hardy with plans for a $2.3b urban renewal project for Hobart, including a roofed AFL stadium. Picture: Chris Kidd

Hocking also expected the club to name the men’s senior captain early in the new year.

Meanwhile, when asked by a member at the meeting about the club’s AFLW team – which now has the most members of any club with 7145 – Hocking said the scheduling of the competition was currently in an “OK spot”.

“One of the challenges the AFL is working through is: where is it placed? It seems to have landed in an OK spot, but there’s still work to be done on that,” Hocking said.

“We’ve got to be really careful that it becomes full time.”

He said player payments were heading in the right direction, with tier four player payments set to increase from $8000 in season one to more than $80,000 by 2026.

Originally published as Geelong chief executive Steven Hocking says the Cats will inspire the new Tasmanian AFL team