One double-page spread in a rather splendid book published five years ago more than adequately shows what the AFL, A-League and, until last week, NBL have been denying Tasmania.
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Six colourful photos leap from the pages, each full of happy, smiling faces squeezed around assorted silverware.
Fists are clenched, fingers pointed, streamers scattered and much Cascade Premium is about to be spilt.
George Bailey features in all six, Ricky Ponting in just one - although his grin is perhaps the broadest of any across the spread.
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The photos are of the Tasmanian Tigers teams to have won Australian domestic cricket competitions since the turn of the century - Sheffield Shield titles in 2006-07, 2010-11 and 2012-13 plus one-day cups in 2004-05, 2007-08 and 2009-10.
They feature under the heading "Tasmanian Tigers champion teams" in Tigers Roar - a celebration of Cricket Tasmania's 150th anniversary combining the words of board member Michael Gandy, figures of statistician extraordinaire Ric Finlay and photographs of Launceston's most recognisable cricket historian Rick Smith.
It is a weighty 300-page tome which relives every delivery of consequence since February 1, 1866, when a group of like-minded enthusiasts formed the Southern Tasmanian Cricket Association with a desire to make the game available to all.
A brief synopsis on the cover sleeve recalls how the next century and a half became "a struggle to avoid being seen as a cricketing backwater".
That period provides a sage lesson for Tasmania's aspirations to join other national sporting competitions.
For decades, Australia's top cricket competition featured just Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia despite repeated requests to join from Tasmania. Sound familiar?
The island state was finally allowed to enter the Sheffield Shield in 1977.
For the next three years Tasmania finished last and for 10 of its first 18 seasons the side kept the Bellerive Oval trophy cabinet over-flowing with wooden spoons.
It took another three decades for the state to win it.
But it only took another six years to win two more.
A similar tale may well await Tassie in national footy, basketball or soccer competitions.
But the only way to find out is to let it join in, as the NBL finally did on Friday thanks primarily to a league boss who genuinely wanted his competition to be national - a significant contrast to his counterparts in rival sports.
The very next page of Tigers Roar also carries a message of hope for those sports.
It features a similarly colourful double-page montage of pictures headlined: "Ricky Ponting: Tasmania's greatest cricketer."
When Tasmania joined the Sheffield Shield, Ponting was a three-year-old in Rocherlea with as much interest in wanting to play footy for his beloved North Melbourne as cricket for Australia.
Without a Shield side to aspire to and Test trailblazers like his uncle Greg Campbell and fellow Launcestonian David Boon to idolise, RT Ponting may never have gone on to become his country's all-time leading run-scorer.
The same goes for Tasmania's best footballers, soccer players or basketballers of today.
With improvements in air travel, it has not been hard for the likes of Jack Riewoldt, Nathaniel Atkinson or Adam Gibson to chase their dreams with mainland clubs, but how many more like them may have been lost to Australian sport because their home state did not have a national league side?
Just this point was made by Gibson's fellow Boomer, Lucas Walker.
Reacting to news of Tasmania's NBL inclusion from 2021, the Launceston-born 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Tweeted: "Awesome! Giving fans/kids an opportunity to see NBL games consistently and have their own team to be proud of. Great for them to have access to NBL players through community work too. Something I missed out as a young hooper growing up in Launceston."
As with cricket, it may take a new Tasmanian franchise a while to become competitive in national competitions.
The AFL's last two expansion clubs provide contrasting tales of fortune: one reached a grand final within seven years, the other has been rubbish since its formation, despite being handed the best player in the comp, a spanking new ground and endless lucrative draft incentives.
Last week's NBL announcement coincided with the publication of Football Tasmania's State of Play report which called for a fair level of funding across sports in the state.
It pointed out a rather striking discrepancy in funding-per-participant between soccer ($9.19 for each of the 38,086 registered players) and footy ($383.15 for each of the 22,184).
The return of a Tasmanian NBL team looks certain to have a seismic impact on the state's sporting landscape.
With guaranteed funding and enthusiastic national support in place for at least five years, the side will be on much firmer ground than the one which floundered into obscurity a quarter of a century ago.
It may not get to savour the taste of success as quickly as Greater Western Sydney, or even the Tasmanian Tigers, but at least it has a place at the table - unlike either of the major football codes.
- Tigers Roar (RRP $50) is available at www.cricketbooks.com.au