- RECORD: Played 14, won 11, lost three, finished premier.
- HIGHLIGHTS: The round two win that ended 18 consecutive Northern derby losses proved merely the entree for a grand final buffet that yielded four premierships club-wide.
- LOWLIGHTS: Round 10's 10-goal loss to Lauderdale was the Blues' worst - and last - for the season.
- BEST PLAYER: Superstar pair Jobi Harper and Dylan Riley enjoyed career-best seasons and took home the Darrel Baldock and Peter Hudson Medals respectively.
- BEST PROSPECT: Jacob Boyd became a back-six lock and finished up in the TSL team of the year.
- BEST ADDITION: Take your pick. Tim Auckland established himself as one of the TSL's top ruckmen, Jake Hinds dominated the second half of the year, Jamieson House was crucial in defence and Tim Jones added midfield class late in the campaign.
It was a year with plenty of challenges, but 2020 will sit proudly among the most successful in Launceston Football Club history.
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Preliminary finalists in 2019, the Blues needed more depth to match it with North Launceston and Lauderdale and welcomed back former stars Jake Hinds, Michael Musicka, Jamieson House, Tim Auckland and Joe Groenewegen in a bountiful recruitment drive.
The arrivals brought as many questions as they did answers - who would step into the shoes of exiting key defender Simon Vandervelde and how could gun ruck trio Auckland, Groenewegen and Hamish Leedham fit into one team?
Five games into the season the Blues' responses appeared to be ' Jamieson House' and 'not easily', but it was a new question - was Launceston a premiership contender? - that was taking the limelight.
A three-goal, round two win over North Launceston broke a six-year derby drought and by round four the Blues had accounted for all of last season's finalists.
Jobi Harper and Dylan Riley were dominating, Auckland was leading the competition for hit-outs and the young defence was conceding just 37 points a game.
It would be the middle of the season that most challenged Mitch Thorp's Blues.
RELATED: North Launceston season review
Their first loss came before the bye as a late Luke Swinton goal saw Clarence salute at Windsor Park with a soccer score of two goals to one.
Launceston then sandwiched 14-goal wins over Glenorchy and Kingborough between a derby defeat to North and a disappointing 63-point loss at Lauderdale.
If the latter defeat put any dampener on the Blues' morale, two timely events surely restored it.
The very next game saw Jay Blackberry celebrate his 200th TSL game with a win over North Hobart as VFL recruit Tim Jones made his Launceston debut.
The Blues would not lose for the rest of the year and saved their best footy for what will go down as one of the most entertaining TSL grand finals of the modern era.
Harper and Riley both won major individual awards for incredible seasons but the Blues' success was undoubtedly a team effort.
TSL FINALS FEVER: Grand final preview: Blues believe
Blackberry, Hinds, Fletcher Seymour and Jared Dakin all played crucial midfield roles and hit the scoreboard throughout the season while the young defensive group of Ryan Tyrrell, Jacob Boyd, Jack Tuthill and Miller Hodge held up under pressure.
Such was the nature of Launceston's season that even the club's hard luck story - ex-captain Leedham, who played just one senior game - finished the year with three separate medals.
With Leedham, James Gillow, Grant Holt, Jack Donnellan and Tyson Miller all pressing to become senior staples in 2021, the Blues could be strong for years to come.
LAUNCESTON'S 2020 SEASON
Hamish Geale
Hamish Geale is a senior reporter at The Examiner. Got good news? Email: hgeale@examiner.com.au
Hamish Geale is a senior reporter at The Examiner. Got good news? Email: hgeale@examiner.com.au
