Tasmania ready to "lob grenades" as list build advances

The Tassie Devils' list building process is well and truly underway, with the club preparing to launch into recruitment as early as this month.

Hosting a public meeting with 30 player managers from across the competition on Monday, the club's intent to delve into recruitment at the earliest stage was made evident, bullish on competing from early in their AFL tenure.

And as revealed by list manager Todd Patterson, things are advancing at an incredibly rapid rate.

“We’re really moving out of the operational setup stage as a recruiting department now,” Patterson told SEN Tassie.

“We will get into the normal routine of games and our review meetings and vision during the week.

“Most importantly and probably most interestingly, we will get the list and TPP (Total Player Payments) strategy ticked off in the next couple of weeks, and then we’ll be getting quite busy.

“We will start lobbing some grenades!”

With a list to build out from scratch, the club has conducted a thorough player identification process, filing a list of talent across the competition that they believe will add significant value to the team via recruitment.

“There is a comprehensive list,” Patterson revealed.

“There’s a lot of data and the sort that is sitting behind where all of those names are at, and there’s already been some conversations about a number of those players on there and with some of those players.”

As part of their list build, Tasmania has been granted a $5 million sign-on bonus to spread across their talent acquisition. Expected to be used across multiple players over the coming years, Patterson explained that there are stipulations regarding the use of the cash.

“We can utilise that however we want across the playing group, so no limit there,” he said.

“We can spread it across two years, but we have got to spend a minimum of $2 million of it in each of the first two years.”

Would the club be willing to use all $5 million on one superstar signing?

“I haven’t thought about that in that specific detail. There are many different and varied ways to go about it.

“I think we will be going the sustainable approach, trying to make sure we spread it and built a team for long term success.”

As a part of their recruitment strategy, Patterson explained that the club isn’t just in talks with the game’s best and most valuable players in order to land a giant splash in the market.

Instead, the club has divided their funds into different pools, with players allocated to different subgenres that can combine to create a well-rounded list.

“When it comes to the whiteboard, there are so many different names and so many different elements to it,” he said.

“We have spread our TPP strategy into different buckets; people who are going to be in our first premiership team, our young guys, people that are going to be able to set the culture and are almost going to be playing coaches.

“We’ve got an idea of how many different players in each category that we want, and how much of our salary cap we’re going to attribute to each category.”

Despite being granted a number of draft picks that the competition states must be traded, Patterson says that the club will not be looking to trade with other clubs unless entirely necessary.

“I think we’d be mad to trade unless we have to,” he said.

“Given we’ve got access to 18 uncontracted free agents in the competition, plus your natural free agents, it’s better that we try to hold onto as many off those assets as possible.

“That will really help us in the long term with the sustainability at the club.”

With talks underway, the Devils’ list will begin to take shape over the course of the next 12-24 months in anticipation of their inaugural season in 2028.

Listen to the full interview with Todd Patterson below!