Now, Vickie Chapman is seen as a potential “great Liberal leader” only by herself and a handful of party wets, but she is clearly embarking on a ludicrous adventure with her farcical media strategy. True enough, we journalist types can overdo the faux-outrage when someone fails to co-operate with us, but what we’ve seen from Chapman in the past two weeks is not the work of a future Premier. In fact, not even a future Opposition Leader.

When her leader needed her and her party needed stability, there was the whole Pied Piper routine, leading the press gallery on a merry dance while she refused to clarify her intentions. We’ve seen her headbutt TV cameras and throw tripods asunder, but we’ve never heard her tell South Australians what she stands for, and why she aspires to lead a future Liberal Government. Then, when MHS came out on Tuesday last and – in his strongest press conference performance for at least two months – determined to fight for his leadership, the only other candidate for the job went to ground.

She wouldn’t leave estimates to discuss her candidacy, and simply refused to return phone calls over the following days. And through all of this, there was no courtesy of sending out a statement telling reporters that she didn’t intend to make public comment, even though she emailed colleagues to inform them as much. For a low-key campaign, it has resembled a circus.

Her rationale appears to be that internal party matters are not fodder for the public domain. A fair enough principle, but we are not talking about Liberal Party fundraising here; we are talking about the office of the Leader of the Opposition, the alternate premier.

The winner of tomorrow’s ballot will have to face up to Mike Rann, the man known as “Media Mike”, a politician who understands modern politics, communications strategy and public perception as acutely as any going around.

The contrast could not be more stark.

As for Martin Hamilton-Smith, he appeared crippled, lost and gone for all money on Monday, a ruined soul haunting the halls of the leader’s office. But he has come out firing, his soldier’s vigour and will steeled for battle. Perhaps this is a timely fore-runner to the election campaign proper; like Mike Rann, the heat of the contest brings out the best in him.

But his leadership is damaged, make no mistake about that. Whatever happens tomorrow, it must be the circuit-breaker the Libs need to move on, and recoup the losses of recent weeks, before they can even hope to make inroads into Labor’s gains.

The tragedy for the Liberals in all of this is the opportunities lost. In the last week alone, estimates committee hearings have revealed that the Government has wasted more than $10 million on a prisons project that was subsequently cancelled – and that’s before they even count the cost of remunerating companies who put together tender applications. Another hearing was told the Planning Department was not asked to scrutinise Labor’s planned railyard relocation of the Hospital Formerly Known As Marge. But every revelation was drowned in the mire of leadership speculation.

On Monday, the Government unveiled a water policy platform heavily indebted to the Liberals’ vision on desalination and stormwater harvesting. The Opposition’s response was blunted by its crippled leadership, and it was left to the Greens’ Mark Parnell to criticise Labor’s glitzy and utterly unnecessary advertising campaign.

Martin Hamilton-Smith’s leadership is not finished, but it has fallen prey to the strange spectre that has haunted many a Liberal leader before him; the SA Liberal Party, a crazed ghoul of a political beast hungrily devouring its own entrails. This time, of course, the feeding frenzy was brought about by crass incompetence, rather than historic rivalries, but it is a fleeting reminder that those rivalries continue to exist. Whatever else, for the next nine months, the party must hold together. If the factional warriors continue their ancient feuds, history can justifiably judge them the wreckers of the Liberal Party in this state.