Would Launceston complete an unbeaten Development League season?

Would North Launceston president Thane Brady provide the half-time entertainment in the TSLW grand final with a rendition of Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves?

Would Lauderdale coach Darren Winter break from tradition and tell his players to go for the ball instead of the man?

And perhaps most tellingly, would Tasmania seize the opportunity to reconnect with its most beloved sport?

Most were resoundingly answered although Thane’s knowledge of iconic Eurythmics anthems may now be limited to Sweet Dreams or even Here Comes the Reign Again (sorry).

On field, the story stayed largely on script.

The Blues did indeed cap off a flawless campaign by comfortably defeating their cross-town rivals in the Development League.

Glenorchy and Clarence produced the contest of the day in a TSLW decider featuring eight changes of lead, a two-point margin of victory and a winning scoreline of 6.1 (37) in stark contrast to the wastefulness destined to follow from their male counterparts.

As is often the case with season-ending showpieces where the importance of the result far outweighs that of the performance, the main event wasn’t exactly edge-of-the-seat stuff – probably a good thing since so few seats were being occupied.

The much-hyped UTAS surface looked more like Bangalore than Invermay and the subsequent contest reflected as much. 

North’s winning score of 7.21 (63) summed up a spectacle in which the most entertaining moment by a country mile was watching giant ruckman Bart McCulloch bend down to about knee level in the post-match presentations to anoint his Auskicker with the requisite baseball cap.

A year after his gameplan to target North’s young players had backfired so spectacularly, Winter tried a different approach, with a similar success rate.

The Southern Bombers leader promised all-out attack, but his team could only muster two goal-kickers.

And surprisingly, the worst hit of the day came from the home team as Beau Sharman attempted to stir up some match review panel interest with a cheap shot at Lauderdale captain Bryce Walsh.

From a one-point half-time lead, Taylor Whitford’s men romped home, restricting Lauderdale to just 1.2 after the break to confirm their fourth flag in five years and complete the seventh Northern premiership in eight years.

The 30-point win also completed a Northern trifecta of Tasmania’s statewide sporting comps after the Northern Hawks won the State Netball League and Devonport claimed soccer’s NPL Tasmania.

However, it couldn’t disguise some of the fundamental problems facing Tasmanian football.

Principal among these is the flagging relationship between the sport and its fans in the state.

Here was the highest level of football available in Tasmania. It featured some of the best players the state could produce – not least AFL draft shoe-in Tarryn Thomas who marked what could be his last game for his beloved club with the sort of high-flying speccies that have had recruiters salivating for seasons. 

It was a home game for a club that has dominated the competition and created a dynasty of success that shows little sign of drying up.

And yet it attracted the lowest crowd in the modern statewide era.

The figure of 4423 might not sound too bad, but it was nearly 1700 down on the past two seasons’ deciders at the same venue and light years away from the five-figure norms of the last century.

The match may have had the same ground announcer as the Hawthorn-Melbourne semi-final the previous night, but the attendance was 85,729 different.

With the Hawks’ crowds in Launceston also taking a major hit in recent seasons, it should be sounding alarm bells through AFL Tasmania headquarters.

On the same day, about 3400 watched the NWFL decider at Latrobe while a similar attendance can be expected for Saturday’s NTFA showpiece, suggesting support for grass roots footy in the state remains healthy.

Whether it’s the AFL’s dismissive attitude to its forgotten state or something else remains unclear, but Tasmanians are voting with their feet when it comes to top-flight football in the state.

In a letter to The Examiner earlier this month, Scottsdale supporter Bruce Scott shared his observations from a packed NTFA elimination final against Longford at UTAS Stadium’s next-door neighbour Invermay Park.

“Many more spectators attend the NTFA than the Statewide League,” he wrote. “What a complete shambles Tasmanian football is in – bring back regional football.”

The loss of Burnie and Devonport from the State League does not appear to have dented the North-West Coast’s love of footy.

The competition also continues to provide an indisputable pathway to the top flight, as Thomas and perhaps several others will doubtless prove in the off-season.

But watching Tasmania’s biggest footy game of the year in a three-quarter empty stadium suggests that the state’s footy chiefs might need to brush up on another Eurythmics classic, Love Is A Stranger.