Women's soccer in Tasmania is on the verge of kicking huge goals.
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On the back of record participation, it has exciting opportunities at state, national and international level.
A rebirth of the statewide Women's Super League looms along with possible admission to the national competition, the chance to host the Australian women's team and, most excitingly, an invitation to the 2023 World Cup - the planet's third biggest sporting event.
Tasmanian women's soccer has the legs and the heart, what it needs now is a couple of 'i's: investment and infrastructure.
In June, to much national merriment, Australia and New Zealand defeated Colombia and Japan to co-host the Women's World Cup - watched by a global audience of 750 million in 2019 and set to expand to 32 nations in 2023.
Launceston is one of 12 cities bidding to host games, but one of only two without a rectangular stadium.
This is a significant, but not insurmountable, hurdle.
FIFA has already told Tasmania this.
In its bid evaluation report which followed initial inspections, soccer's global governing body said: "The rectangular stadiums are considered more suitable for the staging of a FIFA Women's World Cup."
The report also had much to say about Tasmania's preferred venue, UTAS Stadium (nee York Park).
Of the 13 proposed grounds (there are two in Sydney) "those in Adelaide, Auckland, Launceston and Perth currently fall short of the minimum requirements" said the report.
"York Park is a large-surface oval stadium that is primarily used for Australian rules football and cricket. As a result its main tribune is some distance from where the pitch would be placed for a football match, and is also not parallel to the touchlines.
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"The bidder expects Launceston's York Park and Perth's Rectangular Stadium to reach the requirements following the proposed installation of additional temporary seating ... although there is no guarantee that this would fully mitigate the issues."
Adding 8000 temporary seats will take York Park's capacity to 22,065 but this solution was not universally welcomed by FIFA.
"Installing these stands is regarded as challenging, with complex impacts for other stadium infrastructure and technical systems. Temporary expansion plans for York Park would therefore need to be analysed in detail," it said.
At a time when other potential host cities have finished and functional rectangular venues plus heavy financial government backing, this is hardly a ringing endorsement.
The Examiner asked the state government whether it had made a financial commitment to the requirements for York Park.
We were told we could attribute the following quote to "a Government spokesperson": "The Government has convened a working group with senior leadership from the Department of State Growth, as well as Launceston City Council to fully explore and consider what needs to be done to progress this opportunity."
We'll take that as a no then.
Already facing an uphill task, our bid coordinators need to present a perfect case to avoid it reaching Balfour Burn proportions.
Led by Events Tasmania, the stakeholders also include Football Tasmania, City of Launceston, Tasmania Police, Launceston Airport and Visit Northern Tasmania.
Last week, they made a virtual presentation to FIFA representatives.
FT executive officer Matt Bulkeley spoke about the potential legacy for soccer in Tasmania, Sarah Courtney, whose portfolios include women and events, highlighted that Tasmania already has the highest percentage (26) of female players of any Australian state while Launceston Mayor Albert Van Zetten and stadium manager Robert Groenewegen went into bat for York Park.
Bulkeley said the presentation was "extremely well received by FIFA", adding: "They were impressed with what Launceston and our state more broadly has to offer. I believe they also understand that the legacy benefit to Tasmania is arguably much greater than many other parts of the country."
FIFA representatives plan to tour the bidding cities in February with a decision expected in March.
Tasmania should be looking to strike early doors, not sit and hope for extra time.
We have proven that we will embrace other large-scale sporting events.
In 2003 the same ground hosted a match in the Rugby World Cup - another sport traditionally requiring rectangular venues - with 15,457 turning out on a freezing October night for a dead rubber between minnows Namibia or Romania.
In 2015 Bellerive Oval hosted three matches in the men's Cricket World Cup.
And Melbourne Victory attracted big crowds for A-League pre-season fixtures at York Park, peaking at 8061 in 2007.
Underlining the stadium's case to host international soccer, Bulkeley this week revealed that discussions are underway to try and secure up to four Matildas matches in the next three years.
The perennial carrot of potential W- or A-League teams being based in the state has also been re-dangled of late.
Tasmania needs to get its 2023 World Cup bid team organised right from kick off and go on the attack, beginning with a concrete financial state government commitment.
Packing the defence and hoping for a mistake from the opposition won't cut it.
We're not Crystal Palace.
Rob Shaw
Heralding the impact of Tasmanian sport without saying "punching above its weight" is not as easy as it sounds.
Heralding the impact of Tasmanian sport without saying "punching above its weight" is not as easy as it sounds.
