Strategy 2026-27 draft class and initial intake of Tassie players (2025-27)

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GC2015

GC2015

Norm Smith Medallist
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May 27, 2013
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Gold Coast
If we're to assume the Tasmanian team will enter the AFL under similar circumstances to the Gold Coast and GWS, then 2027 will be their inaugural year in the AFL which means they will be given numerous high end draft picks in 2026 and will be given unrestricted access to all U18 Tasmanian prospects in 2024 for their Coates League team in 2025, a VFL team topped up with state league players in 2026 and the inaugural AFL year in 2027 but it's possible that's all pushed back one extra year.

Oliver Depaoli-Kubank (Ulverstone) seems to be the standout from Tasmania right now and was named on the wing in the U16 AA team last year. The star midfielder (who can also play forward) from the Apple Isle's North West is currently on the shorter side of the measuring tape (172cm) but still has plenty of time to grow into an AFL standard height. Clean hands, ability to run hard all game, winning his own ball, calm under pressure, can hit up targets from multiple distances and is evasive with the ball in hand. This kid could very well be the future of the Tasmanian AFL club... but he may one year too old for the initial list build. Perhaps the AFL will grant special circumstances here though.

Now that I've got the ball rolling, who are the prospects you're excited about seeing in the lead up to Tasmania's entry into the AFL? It's very likely that Tassie will receive picks 1, 2 & 3 at the 2026/27 AFL draft so feel free to talk about the best prospects from that draft class as well as the local talent coming through over the next three years.
 
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GC2015 said:
If we're to assume the Tasmanian team will enter the AFL under similar circumstances to the Gold Coast and GWS, then 2025 will be their inaugural year in the AFL which means they will be given numerous high end draft picks in 2024 and will be given unrestricted access to all Tasmanian prospects in 2022 for their NAB League team in 2023, 2023 for VFL year in 2024 and 2024 for their AFL year in 2025.

Seeing as the 2022 U16s national championships just came to an end and Tasmania went through the tournament undefeated to claim the Div 2 title, we can actually start to gauge which players will be a part of that inaugural 2025 list intake as well as Tassie prospects draft eligible this year and next who will likely also be a part of the list build. Let's start with the player that was named the MVP for Tasmania in the U16s national championships yesterday - Oliver Depaoli-Kubank (Ulverstone). The star midfielder (who can also play forward) from the Apple Isle's North West is currently on the shorter side of the measuring tape (172cm) but still has plenty of time to grow into an AFL standard height. Clean hands, ability to run hard all game, winning his own ball, calm under pressure, can hit up targets from multiple distances and is evasive with the ball in hand. This kid could very well be the future of the Tasmanian AFL club.

Now that I've got the ball rolling, who are the prospects you're excited about seeing in the lead up to Tasmania's entry into the AFL? It's very likely that Tassie will receive picks 1, 2 & 3 at the 2024 AFL draft so feel free to talk about the best prospects from that draft class as well as the local talent coming through over the next three years.
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Just getting lots of high draft picks does no one any good. It buggers up the system & the players ie GC. Its not fair on the young players all being lumped together with little professional experience between them. The situation for Tassie should be different to GC/GWS.

The key will, IMO, be the quality of coaches & administrators who launch the new team. Having the right set up & environment for all of them, families included.

I'd think a mixture of allowing some current contracted players with varied experience to move & form the initial core of the team, plus a number of drafts of course. ie 2,6,10.22.30, or whatever.

The team just needs to be competitive & have a future with the young players learning/improving as they would in an average established club at present.

That way I'd think it'd minimise the effect on other clubs & the competition in general, plus maximise the learning opportunity of the younger players.

Anyway!!
 
We need a VFL team ASAP! Keep our best young players who arent seen as good enough to be drafted in our system and playing at a high level. Most of Tasmania's best players that are playing AFL right now have been picked up as mature agers: Howe, Hall, Mihocek, Nank, Brown! We should get quite a few players through a VFL team when we get one and they will be perfectly ready to come into the main team. So much better than them having to go to SA so they can get a chance.

For next year it would be great if players like Brandon Leary or Tom McCallum dont end up being drafted, they could already be developing in a decent system here in Tasmania ready to be picked up in the future by our team! We could also have players for the 2024 draft who are coming through like ODK and Harper being exposed to the VFL team's standards, coaching and facilities.

It is way too early to know who is gong to be good 2 years out from the draft year though. Like its hard enough to get picks right in their draft year.
 

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madmug said:
Just getting lots of high draft picks does no one any good. It buggers up the system & the players ie GC. Its not fair on the young players all being lumped together with little professional experience between them. The situation for Tassie should be different to GC/GWS.
Click to expand...
Not sure I agree with that. Did it actually mess up the system or was that just the story at the time? Port Adelaide were widely considered the worst team in the league (besides the Suns) in 2011, yet they found their way back into the finals just two years later and even won a final that year against Collingwood at the G.

Did it really mess up the players or was that just the story at the time? Dion Prestia, Tom Lynch & Josh Caddy all became dual premiership players after leaving the Suns, Steven May also became a premiership player as well as earning All Australian status after leaving and even Charlie Dixon kicked on by becoming an All Australian key forward after leaving. Swallow has been fantastic and Day has been serviceable. The only guy that was really a let down was Daniel Gorringe in terms of his output on field and Bennell ruined his own career through his off field antics but that was self inflicted. Certainly a lot more success stories than failures when you look at the high end draft picks.

Then you've got the GWS example which actually worked quite well in terms of lumping a bunch of high end picks together and having multiple runs at the flag in their first decade. The main difference between Gold Coast and GWS at the start was who was selected to coach at the beginning. Guy McKenna was appointed with no head coaching experience and it didn't work vs one of the greatest coaches of all time in Kevin Sheedy and it did work. IMO it's crucial for Tassie to not fall the way of the Suns and do everything they possibly can to have someone like Clarko as their inaugural AFL head coach. That way they can set the standards from the very beginning like Sheeds would have when he went to western Sydney.

madmug said:
The key will, IMO, be the quality of coaches & administrators who launch the new team. Having the right set up & environment for all of them, families included.

I'd think a mixture of allowing some current contracted players with varied experience to move & form the initial core of the team, plus a number of drafts of course. ie 2,6,10.22.30, or whatever.

The team just needs to be competitive & have a future with the young players learning/improving as they would in an average established club at present.

That way I'd think it'd minimise the effect on other clubs & the competition in general, plus maximise the learning opportunity of the younger players.

Anyway!!
Click to expand...
So we agree. They need to bring in the right coaches to ensure whatever concessions package they receive from the AFL has the best possible chance of succeeding.

One thing we did learn from Gold Coast and GWS is that it is very hard to convince contracted players to join an expansion club unless you pay them an arm and a leg but that can come back to bite you later. GWS appeared to get it right by bringing in solid players near the end of their careers like premiership winners Luke Power, Chad Cornes and Dean Brogan who will be overtaken by the draftees after a few years as well as several slightly older players who had a bit of AFL experience but weren't quite in their prime yet like Callan Ward and Phil Davis. The Suns got it wrong by recruiting guys in their prime like Brennan, Bock, Rischitelli etc who were going to be declining physically and taking up big money by the time the team should have been competing for a spot in the finals. Tassie should be looking to follow in GWS's footsteps by recruiting older players like Apple Isle natives/triple premiership players Jack Riewoldt and Toby Nankervis who can come straight in and help set everything up for a few years before the younger guys naturally overtake them.

Another aspect that is absolutely crucial to Tasmania's future in the AFL is a strong academy program. I assume Tassie will be given a very similar academy set up to the NSW/QLD teams and that could be a huge leg up if they use it correctly. We know there are plenty of talented junior footballers in Tasmania but the pathway isn't necessarily as clear as it needs to be for them to make it to the big time. Get that right and Tassie has a huge future in the AFL.
 
GC2015 said:
Not sure I agree with that. Did it actually mess up the system or was that just the story at the time? Port Adelaide were widely considered the worst team in the league (besides the Suns) in 2011, yet they found their way back into the finals just two years later and even won a final that year against Collingwood at the G.

Did it really mess up the players or was that just the story at the time? Dion Prestia, Tom Lynch & Josh Caddy all became dual premiership players after leaving the Suns, Steven May also became a premiership player as well as earning All Australian status after leaving and even Charlie Dixon kicked on by becoming an All Australian key forward after leaving. Swallow has been fantastic and Day has been serviceable. The only guy that was really a let down was Daniel Gorringe in terms of his output on field and Bennell ruined his own career through his off field antics but that was self inflicted. Certainly a lot more success stories than failures when you look at the high end draft picks.

Then you've got the GWS example which actually worked quite well in terms of lumping a bunch of high end picks together and having multiple runs at the flag in their first decade. The main difference between Gold Coast and GWS at the start was who was selected to coach at the beginning. Guy McKenna was appointed with no head coaching experience and it didn't work vs one of the greatest coaches of all time in Kevin Sheedy and it did work. IMO it's crucial for Tassie to not fall the way of the Suns and do everything they possibly can to have someone like Clarko as their inaugural AFL head coach. That way they can set the standards from the very beginning like Sheeds would have when he went to western Sydney.


So we agree. They need to bring in the right coaches to ensure whatever concessions package they receive from the AFL has the best possible chance of succeeding.

One thing we did learn from Gold Coast and GWS is that it is very hard to convince contracted players to join an expansion club unless you pay them an arm and a leg but that can come back to bite you later. GWS appeared to get it right by bringing in solid players near the end of their careers like premiership winners Luke Power, Chad Cornes and Dean Brogan who will be overtaken by the draftees after a few years as well as several slightly older players who had a bit of AFL experience but weren't quite in their prime yet like Callan Ward and Phil Davis. The Suns got it wrong by recruiting guys in their prime like Brennan, Bock, Rischitelli etc who were going to be declining physically and taking up big money by the time the team should have been competing for a spot in the finals. Tassie should be looking to follow in GWS's footsteps by recruiting older players like Apple Isle natives/triple premiership players Jack Riewoldt and Toby Nankervis who can come straight in and help set everything up for a few years before the younger guys naturally overtake them.

Another aspect that is absolutely crucial to Tasmania's future in the AFL is a strong academy program. I assume Tassie will be given a very similar academy set up to the NSW/QLD teams and that could be a huge leg up if they use it correctly. We know there are plenty of talented junior footballers in Tasmania but the pathway isn't necessarily as clear as it needs to be for them to make it to the big time. Get that right and Tassie has a huge future in the AFL.
Click to expand...

The AFL have had decades to 'get the pathway right' for Tassie kids but have basically let it rot. Their own state wide league is on its knees, the Women's state league was pumped & pushed by the powers that be, then killed off.

Hence we start at a low ebb. Having to rebuild takes a lot more effort than maintaining something in the first place.

I have no idea how they'll go about righting the ship. Whatever they decide, they'd better hurry up as kids are playing soccer & basketball. Their 'pathway' is turning into a dirt track.
 
madmug said:
The AFL have had decades to 'get the pathway right' for Tassie kids but have basically let it rot. Their own state wide league is on its knees, the Women's state league was pumped & pushed by the powers that be, then killed off.

Hence we start at a low ebb. Having to rebuild takes a lot more effort than maintaining something in the first place.

I have no idea how they'll go about righting the ship. Whatever they decide, they'd better hurry up as kids are playing soccer & basketball. Their 'pathway' is turning into a dirt track.
Click to expand...
I hear you but having a local team makes a huge difference in regards to the pathway. I never thought I'd see the day that a top 10 pick would come out of North Queensland but then Jack Bowes came along and our academy developed him into a standout junior. Likewise, the Tassie juniors would benefit greatly from a proper academy being set up and I think we'd start to regularly see top 10 picks coming out of the Apple Isle.
 
GC2015 said:
I hear you but having a local team makes a huge difference in regards to the pathway. I never thought I'd see the day that a top 10 pick would come out of North Queensland but then Jack Bowes came along and our academy developed him into a standout junior. Likewise, the Tassie juniors would benefit greatly from a proper academy being set up and I think we'd start to regularly see top 10 picks coming out of the Apple Isle.
Click to expand...

Well of course having an AFL team makes a difference.

Not having that & AFL neglect has us where we are now.
 
Funding needs to be pumped into local footy as of next year. So many prospect having to move interstate if they want to be drafted.
We need ex-AFL players in the league to coach and play. No recruiter takes Tasmania seriously and the development of players is hurt.
 
Bipolarbear said:
Funding needs to be pumped into local footy as of next year. So many prospect having to move interstate if they want to be drafted.
We need ex-AFL players in the league to coach and play. No recruiter takes Tasmania seriously and the development of players is hurt.
Click to expand...
I can imagine that if/when we get a license, there will be a major reshaping of Tasmanian football at the grassroots level.
 
OP updated now that we have a likely AFL launch date of 2027/28.

I'd be eyeing off Oliver Depaoli-Kubank right now if I was a part of the Tasmanian bid team. Kid is going to be a star from what I've seen/read.
 
Jazny said:
I can imagine that if/when we get a license, there will be a major reshaping of Tasmanian football at the grassroots level.
Click to expand...
Thats the first statement that needs to be made.

Get the State league back on its feet. Make it a more attractive league to play in for a start.

Get AFL Tas to Re-engage with the North-west coast. Give everyone direct access to the best local standard. They can then feed into the VFL team. It would provide the best pathway into the AFL.
 

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GC2015 said:
OP updated now that we have a likely AFL launch date of 2027/28.

I'd be eyeing off Oliver Depaoli-Kubank right now if I was a part of the Tasmanian bid team. Kid is going to be a star from what I've seen/read.
Click to expand...
He’s 2024 Draft class
 
Haggas said:
He’s 2024 Draft class
Click to expand...
Yes but there will likely be two lead-in years for the Tassie team where they can sign players to AFL contracts while they compete in the U18 Talent League in the first year and then the VFL in the second year, just like the Suns and Giants did. Therefore, they may be able to convince Depaoli-Kubank to sign a three-year contract that will include a Coates League first year, VFL second year and AFL third year. This can be easier said than done though because we (the Suns) tried to sign Dayne Beams to one of those contracts back in 2008 but he already knew Collingwood were going to draft him later that year so he turned our offer down and instead elected to nominate for the draft he duly became a Pie. So good luck with the vultures from Victoria!
 
GC2015 said:
Yes but there will likely be two lead-in years for the Tassie team where they can sign players to AFL contracts while they compete in the U18 Talent League in the first year and then the VFL in the second year, just like the Suns and Giants did. Therefore, they may be able to convince Depaoli-Kubank to sign a three-year contract that will include a Coates League first year, VFL second year and AFL third year. This can be easier said than done though because we (the Suns) tried to sign Dayne Beams to one of those contracts back in 2008 but he already knew Collingwood were going to draft him later that year so he turned our offer down and instead elected to nominate for the draft he duly became a Pie. So good luck with the vultures from Victoria!
Click to expand...

Yeah but his draft year is next year so it would be 2 years in the VFL, I’m not sure a kid would do that


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Haggas said:
Yeah but his draft year is next year so it would be 2 years in the VFL, I’m not sure a kid would do that
Click to expand...
We had mixed results with it. Dayne Beams said no and he knew Collingwood were going to draft him but Rory Thompson said yes and he was told by the Brisbane Lions that he would be drafted if he nominated for the national draft. So I guess it'll just come down to what Depaoli-Kubank wants to do.
 
GC2015 said:
We had mixed results with it. Dayne Beams said no and he knew Collingwood were going to draft him but Rory Thompson said yes and he was told by the Brisbane Lions that he would be drafted if he nominated for the national draft. So I guess it'll just come down to what Depaoli-Kubank wants to do.
Click to expand...
Not even close to being a certainty to be drafted.
 
Plus if from Burnie, home is probably 'closer' to Melb/Sydney (2hr flight) than he is to Hobart 4hr drive (plus roadworks!) so 'local' link probably isn't as big a draw...
 
Thought you guys might be interested to read about bottom ager Tyane Thomas (draft eligible 2026) who played for Tassie in the U16s National Championships on the Gold Coast yesterday. Yes, that's Tarryn's brother.

#6 Tyane Thomas
Defender/Forward | 185cm | 27/02/2008

Though not overly prolific with just four disposals and three tackles, the signs were there for Thomas. He was the lone bottom-age (2008-born) player afield and spent time at both ends of the ground – starting in defence before swinging forward. At 185cm, the brother of Tarryn is a terrific athlete with good closing speed and tackling technique to go with clear footballing smarts.
Click to expand...
 
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