Club History
See also: Australian rules football in TasmaniaDuring the '1990s, Tasmania had shown strong interest in joining the AFL and after rejected bids in 1995 and 1997 the Australian Football League instigated the formation a Tasmanian team for the newly re-constructed Victorian Football League. The Tasmanian Devils Football Club formed in 2001 and was admitted into the VFL in its inaugural season the same year. The AFL continues to own the club.
The nickname "Devils" was chosen as the moniker for the club after the tenacious marsupial predator the Tasmanian Devil which is indigenous to the island of Tasmania. The club colours green, red, gold (and black) were inspired by the original State of Origin "map" guernsey and are also Tasmania's sporting colours.
The Devils established home grounds in both Hobart and Launceston to deal with the long standing north-south rivalry. Originally northern home games were played at Ulverstone, Devonport, Burnie and at Launceston's Aurora Stadium while North Hobart Oval hosted games in the south. At the end of the 2005 season the team moved from North Hobart Oval to Bellerive Oval for home games in the south and began playing all northern home games at Aurora Stadium.
2001 and 2002 brought mediocre results but, under the direction of coach Matthew Armstrong, the Devils made the finals for the first time in 2003, finishing a respectable third. The 2004 and 2005 seasons saw the Devils again making the finals.
At the start of the 2006 season the Devils and the North Melbourne Football Club began a partial alignment but the season proved to be a disappointment, with the Devils finishing eighth and missing the finals. During the 2006 season Armstrong was forced to step down as coach, due to internal pressure from the playing group, ending his six year term as Devils coach. North Hobart premiership coach and former Devil Brendan Bolton was made stand in coach for the remainder of the year.
At the end of 2006 Tasmanian and former Sydney Swan Daryn Cresswell was named coach of the club for 2007 after a successful career as an assistant coach at Geelong and the Brisbane Lions.
At the end of the 2008 season, AFL Tasmania decided to withdraw the Devils from the VFL competition in favour of restarting a new Tasmanian league encompassing the entire state.
Read more about this topic: Tasmanian Devils Football Club
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