As Tasmanian teams contest national finals in cricket and basketball, those sports should be entirely focused on celebrating their moment in the spotlight.
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But instead both are simultaneously dealing with issues holding them back.
The teams took contrasting passages to reach their showpiece showdowns. The JackJumpers won away to NBL heavyweights Perth Wildcats (10 titles) while the Tigers lost at home to Sheffield Shield lightweights South Australia (10 wooden spoons in the previous 14 seasons).
The Jackies duly reached the grand final for the second time in their three-year existence, the Tigers for the ninth time in their 46 years.
The JackJumpers' mission - codenamed Island Defence - began with a 23-point defeat away to Melbourne United on Sunday and will continue in Hobart on Friday and Melbourne on Sunday, with two more games scheduled if required for a result in the five-match series.
Basketball Tasmania chief executive Ben Smith used the occasion to publish an open letter in which he said the basketball community in Tasmania "should be excited, inspired and outraged - in somewhat equal parts".
He said while the JackJumpers continue to exceed expectations and inspire the state, Tasmanians should be "outraged at the ongoing 50-year lack of investment in community basketball facilities".
"The harsh reality is that 57 percent of basketball associations across Tasmania do not have a home ground or club rooms of any sort. Can you imagine the noise if AFL, football and cricket were in the same boat?" Smith asked, adding: "Which begs the question, where are the facilities for basketball?"
Referring to both major parties committing to funding for projects, Smith said the Launceston development "only scratches the surface" as ongoing lack of investment "has led to a critical court shortage, another major barrier to participation and growth".
Hitting the target with the precision of Jack McVeigh, Smith added: "So, the JackJumpers march on while our politicians take turns patting each other on the back for their amazing foresight and investment - meanwhile Tasmanian community basketball clubs with well over 500 members and 50 teams are operating out of volunteers' garages."
He said limited and unsafe facilities hinder the growth of a sport experiencing rapid statewide growth as kids are forced to train in the early hours or late evenings while paying to hire courts, canteens and social functions.
Warning that the future of community basketball in Tasmania is hanging in the balance, Smith concluded: "We have the opportunity to develop the next generation of talented Tasmanians, but the lack of investment in community owned, managed and operated sporting infrastructure will continue to provide constraints for basketball at a time when we should be striving forward."
Meanwhile, having blown the chance of a home Shield final by losing their final roster match to the bottom-placed Redbacks, the Tigers head to Western Australia for Thursday's decider in the wake of a second humiliating Cricket Tasmania administrative stuff-up in 12 months.
In what should have been a thrilling conclusion to the Cricket Tasmania Premier League season, the Greater Northern Raiders appeared to have snuck into semi-finals at the expense of Kingborough by just 0.4 points, despite losing their last roster match to bottom-placed New Town.
However, as Alistair Taylor and his team prepared to face minor premiers North Hobart, they received notice that a mistake in the ladder dating back to the first game of the two-day season would see them drop to fifth and miss out on finals.
The league said it was an "an administrative error". Taylor said it was "a monumental mistake".
Coming a year after a similar blunder saw Mitch Owen stripped of his CTPL player of the year award having been ineligible, it was both embarrassing for Cricket Tasmania and gutting for the Raiders.
The club put out a statement saying it had gone through the emotions of "anger, frustration, disappointment and sadness".
It said the team's final-round game plan to achieve a top-four finish would have been vastly different had it known of the points discrepancy.
Raiders appealed on several grounds, all of which were rejected.
"Whilst we haven't understood the entire process that's taken place unfortunately there is nothing left to do," they said. "This is not how any teams season should finish."
The club said the saga came at a time when they should be celebrating its remarkable turnaround since Christmas and the progress of such players as Aidan O'Connor, Tom Dwyer, Lachlan Clark, Ethan Clark, Riley Donlon and Kaidyn Apted.
It added: "All these players are involved in the pathway and have big futures in the GNR Orange and it's truly exciting to see the talent that's coming through the GN."
By the time this story appears in the paper, Tasmania will have another national sporting team. And it is arguably the most eagerly-awaited. Certainly the longest - 147 years to be precise.
Fortunately there has never been any disunity, turmoil or infighting within football in this state and, as Saturday's election will doubtless reveal, every Tasmanian is 100 per cent behind joining the national competition and paying an indeterminate sum of money to build the AFL a superfluous third stadium with an unnecessary and prohibitively-expensive roof.
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.
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