{"id":554307,"date":"2026-03-21T05:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T05:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/554307\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T05:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T05:33:09","slug":"tasmania-devils-win-historic-first-vfl-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/554307\/","title":{"rendered":"Tasmania Devils win historic first VFL clash"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tasmania Devils have tasted success in their inaugural VFL game, toppling Coburg by 17 points in front of a heaving sold-out suburban home crowd.<\/p>\n

In the club’s first outing ahead of entry into the AFL in 2028, the Devils led at every change in the 14.12 (96) to 11.13 (79) result at North Hobart Oval on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

1 Related<\/p>\n

Tasmania have framed the next two seasons in the second-tier Victorian competition as crucial in their build towards the top league.<\/p>\n

Young West Australian Jed Hagan and former Fremantle and West Coast player Hugh Dixon both kicked four goals in the round-one clash.<\/p>\n

Local favourite and veteran Sam Siggins and former North Melbourne rookie Geordie Payne each booted two majors.<\/p>\n

Siggins, who once spent time on the Adelaide Crows’ roster and signed from Hobart club Lauderdale, had the honour of slotting the Devils’ first goal in the 13th minute.<\/p>\n

He was fed by Hagan before nailing the set shot from about 30m out.<\/p>\n

Tasmania were up 74-59 at three-quarter time and then racked up the first three goals of the final term, before Coburg rallied.<\/p>\n

The Devils celebrate its first VFL win.\u00a0Steve Bell\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

But the Devils held on in front of a sold-out 10,634-strong crowd.<\/p>\n

Tasmania were part of the VFL from 2001-08, but this was their maiden outing as the Devils franchise.<\/p>\n

They ran out through a banner with the words “Back in the VFL. It’s been a long wait, the comp hasn’t been good since 2008.”<\/p>\n

Hagan, a former All-Australian at under-18 level, also picked up 17 disposals and eight tackles.<\/p>\n

Coburg won on the stats sheet, with 365 disposals to Tasmania’s 284 and also won the inside-50s 61-54, but not the numbers that mattered.<\/p>\n

The Devils opened up a 27-22 lead at quarter-time on the back of a running goal from defender Brandon Leary on the siren.<\/p>\n

Tasmania went on a run of four majors either side of the first term to open up a 23-point lead.<\/p>\n

But Coburg, who finished mid-table in the VFL in 2025, came to life with three in a row of their own to trail 52-51 at the main break.<\/p>\n

The Devils scrambled strongly in the third, crucially keeping Coburg to just one goal for the term for a 74-59 lead.<\/p>\n

The club passed a huge hurdle in December when state parliament approved construction of a new $1.13 billion stadium, a condition of the club’s AFL licence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tasmania Devils have tasted success in their inaugural VFL game, toppling Coburg by 17 points in front…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-554307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}