Followers of soccer are rarely reluctant to voice their opinions, but what comes out isn’t always as accurate, or indeed reportable, as this comment.

It was made from in front of the clubhouse at the home of Launceston City on Saturday afternoon by a long-standing supporter who has seen more than his fair share of matches from that very spot.

It hit the target with unerring accuracy in much the same way as Nick Morton moments later when he opened the scoring for South Hobart.

If only the two Lakoseljac Cup semi-finals staged in Launceston on Saturday could have been as feisty and competitive as what went on off the field preceding them.

In the days before Northern Rangers and City were respectively outfought by Devonport and South Hobart, the three Northern members of that quartet were locked in a keenly-fought passionate encounter of their own.

The saga featured all the stereotypes – parochialism, disorganisation, infighting – traditionally thrown at Tasmanian sport as reasons why it should not be allowed to dine from the same table as the mainland grown-ups.

However, it also involved a regional minority standing up for themselves in the face of perceived mistreatment.

When the cup semi-finals were drawn, Football Federation Tasmania consulted the four competing sides on preferred kick-off times and suggested a schedule of Northern Rangers v Devonport at 1.30pm and City v South Hobart at 5pm, which appeared to suit all parties.

Both host clubs proceeded, content in the knowledge they were able to accommodate their other teams’ assorted commitments.

FFT duly announced a schedule reversing the fixtures. Rangers, City and Devonport complained, prompting an FFT backflip but the revised kick-off times of 1pm and 3pm hardly pleased anybody.

In a surprising show of unity between clubs fighting each other for the same silverware, the three Northern clubs issued a last-ditch plea for FFT to revert to their original schedule.

When the state body refused to yield, Rangers opted to forfeit their under-20 cup semi-final and City followed suit with their Championship fixture at Somerset.

One of the points raised by the clubs in their letter of protest was that they were still expected to meet  Northern Championship commitments while the corresponding competition in Hobart (the Challenge League) had a bye.

“We do not have a statewide level playing field in terms of supporters and player availability,” they stated.

Admittedly, City did not have to forfeit their Championship match – the club is expected to be able to fulfil each of its teams’ commitments – but the point it was making was that South Hobart had the advantage of being able to focus all available resources entirely on its senior fixture.

The upshot of it all was that on the same weekend as the English FA Cup final, a week out from the Champions League decider and another fortnight away from a World Cup, what should have been a celebration of Northern soccer became something of a regional sook-fest.

The saga uncannily mirrored the AFL situation whereby whenever Hawthorn plays at UTAS Stadium, Launceston’s two State League teams usually get rostered to play in Hobart, but when North Melbourne is at Bellerive, Hobart’s TSL teams have the day off. 

Both the weekend’s Southern TSL matches were played on Sunday – and the Kangaroos still could not avoid recording Tasmania’s lowest ever AFL crowd of 7194 on Saturday afternoon.

There was a time when similar Hobart-centric criticism used to be directed at Tasmania’s chief cricket body.

This was until Nick Cummins took over as chief executive, promptly declared: “We are Cricket Tasmania not Cricket Hobart” at his maiden press conference and duly set about tackling issues statewide.

The governing bodies of Tasmania’s principal football codes might benefit from a similar perspective.