Tasmanian Devils Football Club

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**Tasmania**

Full name	Tasmanian Devils Football Club
Nickname	Tasmanian Devil
Strip	Green, Gold, with devils insignia
Founded	2001
Sport	Australian rules football
League	Victorian Football League
First season	2001
Ground	Aurora Stadium, Bellerive Oval
Club song	-
President/Chair	Guy Abel
Coach	Daryn Cresswell
Captain	Ben Beams
2006	9th

The Tasmanian Devils Football Club is an Australian rules football team, in the Victorian Football League in Australia. It is the only non-Victorian team in the league and is currently run by Football Tasmania.

1 Brief History
2 Attendances
3 Alignment with AFL club
4 Premierships
5 Players
6 External links

[edit] Brief History

See also: Australian rules football in Tasmania

To quell bids for a Tasmanian team in the AFL, the Australian Football League largely instigated the formation a Tasmanian team for the VFL.

The Tasmanian Devils Football Club formed in 2001 and was admitted into the VFL in its inaugural year. The team is owned by the AFL.

The club chose as a moniker the tenacious marsupial predator the Tasmanian Devil indigenous to the island of Tasmania.

To deal with the long established north-south rivalry, the Devils established a home ground each in Hobart and Launceston.

The team moved from the North Hobart Oval to Bellerive Oval at the end of 2005.The club has also played home games at ULverstone, Devonport and West Park (Burnie).

At the start of the 2006 session the Devils and the AFL football club, the Kangroos began a partial alignment.

In the middle of 2006 the coach of the club, Mathew Armstrong was forced to step down, due to internal pressure from the players. This ended his 6 year term as Devils coach.North Hobart premiership coach and former Devil Brendan Bolton was stand in coach for the remainder of the year. Tasmanian and Former Sydney Swan Daryn Cresswell will coach the club in 2007.CResswell has been an assistant coach at Geelong and Brisbane.

[edit] Attendances

Despite belonging to a smaller league in the VFL, the Devils have generated the largest crowds in the VFL, averaging around 4,000 per match at both Bellerive Oval in Hobart and Aurora Stadium in Launceston (but considered modest by AFL standards).

[edit] Alignment with AFL club

Following the trend of AFL clubs to align themselves with VFL clubs for match fitness of reserves players, in 2005 the Kangaroos Football Club of the AFL expressed its intentions to align with the Devils. A deal was struck that involves a capped number of players from the Kangaroos in both the Devils and the North Ballarat Football Club in the VFL.

[edit] Premierships

Nil. 3rd in the league is the highest that the Devils have finished.

[edit] Players

Players for the club have included Ben Beams, Jason Heatley, Ken Hall, Cameron Thurley, Ian Callinan, Brad Davis, Barry Brooks,Kurt Heazelwood,Jade Rawlings and Cameron Blight.

Cameron "Pies" Blight became a cult figure with the Devils fans in his time with the club. Cameron Blight arrived mid way through season 2003 clearly overweight from the Northern Bullants. Cameron joined the Bullants from the Carlton Footballl Club (AFL) where he was drafted from Devonport. When he returned for season 2004 he was in great nick and a leading player for the team. "Blighty" was deployed by coach, Matthew Armstrong, to either Full Forward or Full Back depending on were the team was struggling.Blight is now a successful coach in his own right guiding Smithton (NTFL) to finals in 2006 and now coaching Kingston in the SFL.

Cameron Thurley started his football with Clarence before being drafted by the Geelong Football Club and then the Kangaroos. Thurley will be playing with the Devils in 2007 after being delisted by the Kangaroos.

Kurt 'Snapper' Heazelwood Started his football with the Devonport football club (TFL).Kurt was recruited by the St Kilda Football club from the Tassie Mariners (VSFL) where he played under Essendon great Tim Watson. Heazelwood played in the 1999 AFL reserves Grand final before joining the Eastlakes FC (Canberra) in 2000 after being delisted by the Saints.Kurt returned to Tasmania to play with the Devils in 2005 and is now the Assistant coach at the Devonport Football Club in the NTFL.

Jade Rawlings joined the Devils in 2006 as a Kangaroos listed player and is a former Devonport Blues (TFL) player. Rawlings played in the AFL with Hawthorn, Western Bulldogs and the Kangaroos Football clubs before retiring from the AFL in 2006. Jade had a great year with the Devils and is now a member of the Richmond (AFL) coaching staff. His brother Brady is a current member of the Kangaroos.