The Tasmania Devils have enlisted The Wolfe Brothers to whip their players into shape for the team song, with the Tasmanian country-rock band dropping in to training at Brighton this evening to give them a vocal workout.
The Devils are unbeaten through their first three VFL games but their post-match singing has left plenty to be desired.
Tom Wolfe said the club’s current song is based on the New Norfolk Football Club song, which uses the tune of The Road to Gundagai.
He said he got a late call-up earlier this year to record a temporary version of the song alongside Tasmanian musicians Tyler Richardson and Jack McLaine Devils as well as Devils VFLW player Meghan Gaffney.
“As you’ve seen on some of the online content, they’re good at football [but] not the greatest singing I’ve ever seen, let’s put it that way,” Wolfe said.
He said the club suggested the band come out and help the players get more comfortable with the song ahead of Saturday night’s ANZAC Day VFL clash against Carlton at Ninja Stadium, where a crowd of around 12,000 is expected.
Wolfe admitted he was more nervous coaching the players than he expects to be in front of the real crowd.
“I can say this in full sincerity, I found that more nerve-wracking than I think I probably will [on] Saturday night,” he said.
The band warmed the players up with a few “classic covers” to get everyone singing and feeling comfortable before jumping straight into the team song.
“We just tried to sing through it as many times as we could to get them comfy and get them learning the words,” Wolfe said.
“We picked out a few different people each time to get ’em up with us and sort of start singing it and make it fun.”
“By the end, we were able to do it without the lyrics. So let’s hope that that continues from now on.”
The Wolfe Brothers will perform at half-time during Saturday’s match, which starts at 7:10pm at Ninja Stadium in Bellerive.
Wolfe said the band’s focus was on bringing people together on ANZAC Day.
“We’re really looking forward to just doing something that’s just gonna bring people together and make us proud – proud to be Australian on ANZAC Day,” he said.
“That is really what we wanna do.”
