Once in a lifetime is a dreadful cliché but the first senior FIFA tournament to be held in Oceania is just that for soccer, or "football" as the rest of the world calls it.
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The 2023 Women's World Cup comes just a year after the latest men's equivalent which Australia had put in a $45.6 million bid for only for it to be awarded to Qatar in a completely fair and transparent way based on the wealthy nation's superior presentation and commendable human rights record. But that's another story.
The women's tournament was awarded to Australia and New Zealand in June 2020 when the FIFA Council gave the nations 22 votes compared to rival bidder Colombia's 13.
The tournament's ninth edition would be its first in the Southern Hemisphere but also its biggest with the number of teams expanding from 24 to 32.
It is 122 days until the first ball of the tournament is kicked and, sadly, Tasmania could already be accused of dropping it.
Initially it looked like the state could be a part of this global extravaganza but some world-class heel-dragging by both the state government and some local councils put paid to that.
Upgrades to Launceston's York Park, Churchill Park and Birch Avenue, planned to impress FIFA inspectors with a view to securing either matches or training bases, are still nowhere near completion, long after those inspections would have been made.
Instead it seems the planned improvements and subsequent interruptions at Birch Avenue are now likely to come midway through a season when the only Northern club in both statewide competitions is facing unprecedented demands on its two pitches. But that's another story.
Which is a shame because Tasmania has previously hosted matches in two different men's world cups and shown itself to be extremely competent in both.
It is to Hobart's eternal shame that while 15,457 watched a dead rubber between Romania and Namibia in the Rugby World Cup at York Park on a freezing October night in 2003, more than 3000 less (12,044) saw host nation and eventual winners Australia beat Scotland on a balmy day at Bellerive Oval 12 years later.
So the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup will proceed - much like assorted Australian sporting competitions - without direct Tasmanian involvement. But that's also another story.
I have been fortunate to experience the atmosphere at such events and can testify to the impact they have on host nations.
A lifetime ago (before kids) I watched matches at every host venue when England staged football's European Championships in 1996, repeated the theme when the tournament was jointly staged by Belgium and The Netherlands four years later and in between spent two wonderful weeks galavanting around France when the nation staged - and won - the 1998 World Cup.
I was among the England fans when the team beat Dennis Bergkamp's mighty Dutch 4-1 at Wembley, was in a bar near Paris when the French began their quest for the Jules Rimet trophy, watched Belgians dancing in the fountains of Bruges after their country won their opening match and adhered to the orange-only dress code in a very aromatic Amsterdam establishment to watch Holland thrash Yugoslavia (remember them?) in a quarter-final.
During the last of those, one inebriated fan climbed on a table in front of the big screen to jiggle a set of fake breasts in celebration of each goal. With the Dutch scoring six, he was somewhat jiggled out by full-time.
For much of those events, I criss-crossed host nations experiencing a multitude of cultures and generally creating memories that remain dear even now when I struggle to recall what I did last weekend.
I played cards with a lovely family from Prague in which I learned that the Czech word for the number seven can also describe a molar tooth, talked a Danish fan out of painting my face red (like his) after Peter Schmeichel and co. had been red-faced by the French, was taught the second verse of Flower of Scotland by a group of Jocks drowning their sorrows after a narrow loss to Brazil... I could go on. This is definitely another story.
I was also in England last year when the Lionesses won their European Championship - the country's first major tournament victory since the men's World Cup, also on home soil, in 1966.
Their success captivated the nation. Players like Beth Mead, Ellen White, Fran Kirby and Mary Earps became household names while the image of Chloe White celebrating wildly in a sports bra, waving her shirt over her head after scoring the winner against Germany in the final instantly became as iconic as Bobby Moore being carried on the shoulders of Geoff Hurst and Nobby Stiles at the same stadium against the same opponents 56 years earlier.
It has since been hailed as "The feminist image of the decade". The White photograph, not Moore's.
Kirby's strike partner at Chelsea, Sam Kerr, was interviewed at the time saying her Matildas teammates watched the English celebrations while exchanging messages to the tune of 'this could be us next year'.
Whether the co-hosts can also go all the way remains to be seen, but in Kerr they have one of the sport's best players and biggest drawcards.
They also have home-nation advantage which, as England discovered in 1966 and 2022 and France in 1998, can inspire and unite a country.
Let's hope they can write another story.
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.
