Tasmania's teenagers are already training for the Devils' 2028 debut
Fifteen-year-old Prince trains four times a week for a team that does not exist yet. He wants to wear the Tasmania Devils jumper when the club joins the national league in 2028.
The Devils are preparing to enter the Australian Football League, the national men's competition, and the AFLW, its women's equivalent, in 2028, according to ABC News. Prince, a Launceston local, splits his football between the Devils pathways program and his local club.
His family story sits behind the ambition. His family migrated from Sierra Leone via a refugee camp in Ghana to Australia before he was born. That refugee journey is the focus of his Heywire story.
He is one of about 420 young people in the Tasmania Devils pathways program. They train out of Launceston, the North West and Hobart as potential future AFL and AFLW players. The program was in its third year as of September 2026.
Fifteen-year-old Coby is another player in that group. Seventeen-year-old Lilanni plays a step above in Tasmania's under-18 talent league side, the top-level junior competition that feeds the draft. She was eligible for the 2026 draft, the system where clubs select young players in order.
Lilanni already has a direct link to the top level. Her sister is Fremantle Dockers player Tunisha Kikoak. That connection gives her a clear view of what professional football demands.
Brad Cox-Goodyer is the AFL Tasmania talent pathways skills acquisition coach working with the group. He oversees the core craft: kicking, marking, decision-making under pressure. Some of the Devils' first official senior players are likely to be sourced from interstate, so the local teenagers are chasing a limited set of home-grown spots.
The framework around them is largely set. The Devils will be handed draft picks No. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13 ahead of entry, with a $5 million sign-on pool to recruit players, according to AFL. Tasmania's parliament has approved a $1.13 billion stadium at Macquarie Point in Hobart ahead of the 2028 debut, according to AFL. The 23,000-seat venue was a condition of Tasmania entering the AFL and AFLW.
Prince is also a Heywire Tamar Valley winner. ABC Heywire published his Tamar Valley story titled "My family's refugee journey motivates me to become a sports star."
What makes this stand out is the order of events. The picks are allocated. The stadium is approved. Now the work is quiet and local. Four sessions a week in Tasmania winter, with 2028 still over the horizon.
