In the hours we spent together on Friday our reality altered dramatically. The pace of that didn’t slow across the weekend.
I suspect you only needed to go to a supermarket or a pharmacy to tangibly measure that.
We now live in the days of social distancing, compulsory self-isolation and a ban on non-essential mass gatherings.
The National Gallery, the State Library and Melbourne’s museums are closed. A state of emergency has been declared in Victoria. That will be uniform around the country.
Our reality is dramatically altered and will continue to be so and this is just the beginning.
So, two observations as we set sail into a week that would normally be marked by the unrivalled anticipation of the fresh footy season.
The first is what you reminded me of during Friday’s broadcast.
The intimacy and immediacy of radio and the community we are to each other.
Your stories, your experiences, your information will be more vital than ever over the coming period.
I saw a quote yesterday that read: Self isolate but don’t be isolated.
That’s not a bad guiding proposition for radio.
The second is a question:
What is the place of sport in such a time?
It sits heavily this morning.
It is incongruous to think while the world is shutting down the AFL can ramp up.
It seems almost every sporting competition around the planet has come to a halt, but the AFL competition is going to spring to life.
It will be a shocking look, judged harshly initially and worse as time passes.
How can it be that after we’ve been told to begin measures of social distancing that we’re forging ahead with plans to stage contact sport. It’s too much of a contradiction.
To start the footy on Thursday night would be to pretend sport can operate in isolation to real life. That’s not sport’s place.
The NBA tried this. LeBron James called them on it.
“Would we play games without the fans? Nah. It’s impossible. I ain’t playing. That’s who I play for. If I show up to an arena and there’s no fans in there, I ain’t playing,” James said.
Formula 1 tried it. Lewis Hamilton called them on it.
“I am very surprised that we are here. I think it’s great that we have races, but for me it is shocking that we are sitting in this room, so many fans here already today. The NBA has been suspended yet Formula 1 continues to go on,” Hamilton said.
Will anyone in the AFL community be brave enough to say what needs to be heard?
Someone from outside the room, beyond the conference calls and contingency planning to simply say we can’t start on Thursday night.
It seems as though there are three imperatives: The economic imperative, the medical imperative and the social imperative.
The economic imperative is blinding.
The NRL gave voice to the gravity of lost games or a lost season.
There is no level of planning that can insulate a sporting body from the inability to generate any revenue and the broadcast money only flows if the product is delivered.
The economic imperative is hard to see beyond when it’s your responsibility to ensure your sport remains solvent and everyone gets paid.
I don’t for a moment dismiss the economic imperative.
The medical imperative is what every citizen is being urged to heed.
The severe warnings of the collapse of the health system if we don’t play our part in containing and delaying the disease.
This is where our energies are being directed. We will accept the unprecedented inconveniences in our lives for the greater good.
The NRL press conference yesterday began with the pledge that “the safety and health of the players is the paramount consideration”.
It then went on to document the case of the New Zealand Warriors who when you boil it down are now a group of men conscripted away from their families to play football next weekend for our amusement.
That’s not the place of sport.
These men should be home with their families in a time of anxiety and crisis. To what end will they play footy next weekend.
The economic imperative.
The safest thing from the player’s perspective – AFL, NRL – would be to stay out of the locker room environment until the peak of the pandemic passes.
Essentially what both sports are waiting for to stop the games is for one player to test positive – that is to fall ill. That’s not making health the paramount consideration.
Insisting they play their games for our amusement – that’s not the place of sport.
Then there’s the social imperative. This is where I think sports administrators are confused.
“The most important part in our decision is the fans,” NRL CEO Todd Greenberg said.
“We want our fans to be able to watch their teams play on a weekly basis. We know in a crisis like this with our communities, one thing that binds us together is sport and we know that Rugby League binds people together like nothing else.
“As long as we can keep our players on the field and Rugby League being played on the weekend, that’s going to contribute enormously to the social fabric of the country so we’ve got as much as we can to keep games being played.”
This is true … in three months this will be footy’s role in the recovery.
The social imperative isn’t to start now. Ask yourself this if the AFL starts on Thursday night… who is it for?
The fans are already excluded.
It will be done for the money.
Not crassly but rather to ensure the game doesn’t collapse into a financial black hole, but it will still be about the money.
The majority of the fans will figure this out. Most of you already have.
You’ll have your own relationship with sport. I like to think of it as the dessert cart of life.
No meal is complete without it. Usually it’s the best and most memorable part, but it’s not the entire meal.
Sport isn’t a distraction – that misunderstands how much a part of us it is – but it can be an escape.
Sport can be a comfort. It represents normalcy in tumultuous times and it’s absolutely a unifier beyond compare, but it can’t be that just for now.
Today’s questions are:
Do mum and dad have two weeks worth of groceries in the pantry? Should the kids go to school? Will I be able to work from home when that day comes?
It’s not whether Carlton can beat Richmond on Thursday night.
When the time comes, sport will pick us up and lift our spirits. It will reinvigorate our passions and draw us back together in the terraces for a good yell and cheer. We will trust sport to do that.
There’s a chance for a quirky and wonderful AFL season out the other side no matter when that is.
Play every night, play three times a week, be creative.
Stage a season unlike any other that we’ll talk about as a curiosity and a delight for generations.
But wait until the worst has passed. Observe the medical and social imperative.
Now is not the time for games.