When Tasmania entered the VFL for its inaugural 2026 campaign, there was no expectation, but finals "seemed pretty unrealistic".
Jump forward to the final weekend of the home-and-away season, and the Devils have already sewn up a spot in the post-season, and aren't finished yet.
"Yeah, it's interesting because it feels like an eternity ago- October and early November, when I first started - that we were building our VFL list. We didn't have anywhere to train," Tasmania senior VFL coach Jeromey Webberley said.
"We didn't have any players, and here we are, several months later, on the eve of the finals campaign. It's pretty amazing. I think publicly we came out and we were quite bullish around we wanted to win more games than what we lost, and we wanted to earn the right to play finals footy.
"Probably at the time seemed pretty unrealistic, but it's been an incredible journey so far. Like the work that the club has done in building the list, the work all staff and the playing group have done to get us in this position, it's been really enjoyable and pleasing to be a part of, and it's almost like a privilege to be a part of.
"In short, it's probably been something that we didn't think was going to ever transpire, but here we are."
Expanding to the Apple Isle opened the door for local talents to ply their trade to become VFL footballers, while the Devils also welcomed stars from around the country.
It would be understandable if the new club struggled to create cohesion with a mix of players from all over Australia.
"I think the first and foremost thing is our players are coming from three regions of our state, and we've got players from across nearly every state and territory in Australia," Webberley said.
"So it's kudos to the players in terms of their investment to want to build relationships and connections with each other, but then to also play for each other. I think that's really been a hallmark of our footy this year."
The Devils have been the pinnacle of consistency, and could have even snatched a few more wins throughout the season. But how?
A gruelling pre-season aimed to unite the playing group and staff was built into the program, which has worked wonders for the club.
"The preseason that we did was-it was incredibly difficult, to be honest," Webberley added.
"We wanted to build connection and make you bring this together of hardship, and you know we made our preseason extremely difficult. One, because we wanted to create that connection. Two, we wanted to know that the players were at a level that was already able to compete at this level, and the third reason was that we had some local talent that hadn't played at the level for a period of time.
"So we wanted to make sure that we were definitely fit enough to compete at the level. So I think our pre-season was incredibly important to creating that belief and connection. And I think the other thing that can't go unnoticed is that our leaders, like Robbie Fox and John Menzie and Jed Hagan, like Nick Williams, like the guys that we got from the mainland, the standard that they set in the preseason was incredible to witness and really sort of set the tone for the preseason and what we're about."
And a maiden flag?
"I think in terms of the finals and dreaming and putting aspiration on it, and I think we don't really want to put a ceiling on it."
