The Heart of It: A distinctly Tasmanian conversation with the Devils

Ellyse Gamble

A key pillar in Essendon’s quest for an AFLW premiership, Wynyard’s Ellyse Gamble has enjoyed the highs and lows of football and of life since being drafted while on an east coast bushwalk in 2017. Gamble ran out for the Western Bulldogs in their first ever AFLW game, but injury robbed her of the chance to play in a premiership the following year. Last season, she played in round one just days after the devastating loss of her father.

Laura McBain

Laura McBain was a young mother when she packed up her belongings and moved from Sydney to the northern Tasmanian town of Exeter. After a challenging start to her new life in Australia's smallest state, McBain would rise from humble beginnings to become one of the country's most successful businesswomen. Now, a rusted-on Tasmanian, McBain is a key member of the Tasmania Football Club’s inaugural board and playing a crucial role in laying the foundations for the sustained success of the Devils.

Doug Barwick

The Launceston suburb of Waverley might be best known for its woolen mill, but it can also lay claim to a Collingwood premiership star. Doug Barwick was recruited to Fitzroy after winning a best and fairest with East Launceston in 1983. A powerfully built player with a prodigious kick, Barwick's switch to Collingwood in 1988 proved life changing. He kicked the match-sealing goal in Collingwood's drought breaking premiership in 1990 and also vice captained Tasmania to a famous State of Origin win over Victoria.

Brent Crosswell

There have been few more brilliant or flamboyant footballers than Campbell Town’s Brent Crosswell, who won four VFL premierships with Carlton and North Melbourne. 
An extreme talent possessing skill, speed and power, Crosswell was a schoolboy prodigy, whose feats in big games were legendary. 
But he was also highly temperamental and, by his own admission, indifferent to the game. This was a constant source of friction between the star player and his legendary coach, the late Ron Barassi, with whom he shared a complex, often volatile relationship. 

Zane Littlejohn

A former Tasmanian player who became a state league senior coach at the age of 24, Zane Littlejohn quickly established his credentials winning back-to-back premierships with North Launceston. 
After being lured to the Brisbane Lions, where he worked under fellow Tasmanian Chris Fagan, Littlejohn is now the senior coach of VFL club Box Hill and working as a development coach at highflying Hawthorn. 
The north west coast product isn’t shy about his aspirations to become a senior AFL coach in the future and is watching the build of the Tasmania Football Club with great interest. 

Nicole Bresnehan

A champion swimmer, who once shared the pool with Olympic golden girl Ariarne Titmus, Nicole Bresnahan only started playing football as a 19-year old. Just a couple of years later she was drafted by North Melbourne and selected to play in the Kangaroos’ first ever AFLW match. As she readies for her 50th game with the club, Bresnehan is also working full time for AFL Tasmania, helping to develop the state’s next batch of elite players. 
 

Jamie Cox

With more than 18-thousand first-class runs, former Tasmanian captain Jamie Cox is a revered figure in cricket and widely considered as desperately unlucky to have never played in Tests for Australia. What is less known about the Wynyard product, is that he was once an Essendon footballer – despite being completely oblivious to the fact. In 1987, a young Cox was drafted by the Bombers, initially without his knowledge, but he was too focused on his blossoming cricket career to take the club’s offer seriously. It’s something, to this day, he still regrets. But Cox did get his taste of the AFL becoming a senior administrator at St. Kilda and was a significant figure in the club’s entry into the AFLW. This followed a management stint at the South Australian Cricket Association, where he witnessed the board-table brawls over the return of football to Adelaide Oval and the controversial stadium redevelopment.

Andy Bennett

Andy Bennett is proof you don’t need to be born in Tasmania to become a Tasmanian – a very passionate Tasmanian.  Originally from Broken Hill, Bennett was very late to football but quickly rose to prominence representing the revered South Australian state team in the late 1970’s. After stints with Hawthorn and St. Kilda in the VFL, which included a near-death encounter with the fearsome Tony Lockett, Bennett made the lifechanging decision to move south for a coaching opportunity with Sandy Bay. He fell in love with Tasmania and would ultimately lead the state representative side to famous wins over South Australia, Western Australia and Victoria during a remarkable period of success for Tassie footy.

Ian Stewart

One of only four players in the history of the game to win three Brownlow Medals, Ian Stewart describes the harsh environment that gave rise to his immense football talents. Stewart spent his early years on Tasmania’s rugged west coast, but his childhood was most shaped by his experiences living alongside orphaned migrant children at the Hobart welfare institution, Boys’ Town. Football was to become his salvation, as a teenage Stewart rose to prominence at the Hobart Football Club before an audacious move to Melbourne and the big time of the VFL. 

Ian Callinan

There is no better example of the importance of the state’s AFL license to young Tasmanians than the story of Ian Callinan.
A star junior, the Rokeby product was the epitome of the natural footballer – highly skilled on both left and right foot and with an uncanny sense of where the goals were.
But despite a glittering football resume, Callinan’s dream of being drafted to the AFL was a cruel tale of continual rejection.
It took a move away from Tasmania to deliver a belated chance at the highest level and he took it with both hands.
Now back home living in Hobart, Callinan has overcome a fresh challenge, having suffered a stroke at the age of 37.