Our state team has only been in the national league for three years.

Year one we made the finals, but as new teams often do, they failed to complete being new to every aspect of the comp. Nobody was dissapointed, because they had far exceeded all expectations.

This time they have made the finals again, and this time, there is a belief that may take them all the way.

Playing a best of five, they lost the first, won the second (away), then by way of a miraculous last second, and from the half way line, three pointer managed to win the third.

Home now, so the fairytale is coming close to fruition.

This is a tricky time for the state.

Our cricket team also made the national finals, but lost to a strong opponent on their home ground. We have won here regularly and fielded more than a few national Cricket captains. We are comfortable in that space.

We are in the middle of an election crisis, with a hung parliament looming, mainly in response to the government pushing for a 1 billion dollar AFL (Australian football) stadium that will not only take money from much needed and more important areas such as health and public services, but may indeed make them even worse.

The lesson here is the state’s spirit can win on the national stage, but the AFL seems to need something more, something we cannot afford and have appended that to the team.

To make things worse (for the AFL), after the state team launch last week, which I attended as a photographer, has resulted in one quarter of the state signing up as members, which may be hard to ignore if the stadium does not go ahead and the team is pulled!