Member of the 2010 world cup-winning Hockeyroos side Luke Doerner, who also coached the Tassie Tigers women's side in 2019, will take the reins of the newly-formed Tassie Tigers academy.

The academy, which will consist of an emerging squad of players aged 14-18 and a senior squad of players aged 18 and over, replaces the former Hockey Tasmania and Tasmanian Institute of Sport high-performance model for representative players.

"It's been in the works for a while and it's definitely something that I was interested in and felt that I could contribute to and I think it's a great initiative that Hockey Tas have taken in putting it together," he said.

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"It's a collective approach to the development of the sport from a young age, trying to develop pathways as well as opportunities for young players to reach Tigers level and onwards and upwards from there - whether it's international or professional contracts overseas."

With satellite coaches to oversee the development of the North and North-West players selected in the program, the academy's inaugural leader predicts around 20 players will be in each section of the squad.

Following the 2020 suspension of the Hockey One competition in March, Doerner is thankful that Tasmania is able to commence the program this season, with other states unable to run theirs for 2020.

"Melbourne, Perth and Queensland all have programs like this, which is one of the reasons they are really strong states and they have a wide base of talented athletes.

"It's definitely a good move forward for hockey in Tasmania and that's what I'm about, developing the sport and I believe this program is a great way to do that."

Doerner hopes to continue coaching the Tigers women's side next year and will work collaboratively with Hockey Tasmania chief executive Damian Smith, who joined the coach in describing the announcement as exciting for his sport.

"With the advent of the Hockey One league and the success of our Tassie Tigers men's and women's teams in the 2019 season, this is a great opportunity to align our programs to our new development pathway," Smith said.

"The Tigers Academy is going to be a crucial link between our emerging talent and our senior representative sides and Luke Doerner as our first academy head coach will be responsible for shaping how that looks.

"Luke Doerner is a coach with immense international experience developing and coaching some of the world's top emerging talent and recently served as head coach of the Tassie Tigers women's team in the 2019 Hockey One season.

"He will be an incredible development force for the academy and ensure Tasmania continues its proud tradition of producing exceptional hockey players."

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