The AFL will either be hailed as a pioneer or as a foolish organisation in the near future, depending on the outcome of its decision to go ahead with the 2020 season, albeit in truncated form.
The decision, reported to have been taken after consultation with Australia’s chief medical officer Dr Brendan Murphy, comes as many global publications outline the manner in which countries like Singapore and Taiwan managed the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
These two countries, along with places like Hong Kong and South Korea, imposed strong social isolation measures right at the start and have managed to keep the level of infections down. The same was the case with China, where the disease broke out first.
The AFL, and indeed Australia to a large extent, is instead throwing youngsters into a game where there is close physical contact and the chance for infection on a grand scale.
This is an almighty gamble, and while I am no doomsayer, it is somewhat beyond the odds on which one would indulge in a mild flutter.
Are we to take it then that Australian rules football is a bigger matter than life or death, as The Age’s veteran sports commentator Greg Baum put it?
One of the quotes attributed to Gillon McLachlan from Wednesday’s announcement that the season would go ahead is, “It’s going to be a long year. It’s going to be a long journey in what is an unprecedented time. We can’t lock ourselves in our house.”
AFL Chief Executive Officer Gillon McLachlan. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
But this precisely what the government is asking people to do: avoid all unnecessary contact with others and stay at home.
On the other side of the ledger, watching AFL, either in person or on the telly, is often the only thing that some people enjoy. One can’t blame them or make fun of them; that is the reality for many sports fans who live vicariously through their favourite teams.
But – one always comes back to that word – coronavirus can kill. Indications are that the elderly are more likely to die as a result of an infection, but nothing is certain. It is too early to make definitive statements as scientists know little about the virus.
The die is now cast, though. AFL games will begin on Thursday evening. Let’s hope for the best while also preparing for the worst.
christy olsen
Roar Rookie
Do you really think anyone involved in football who doesn’t have an underlying medical condition is actually going to die from COVID-19 and that such person would otherwise have been fine? That’s a ridiculous idea.
christy olsen
Roar Rookie
It’s not a gamble at all. The situation you described is unrelated to playing the games or not playing the games. You’re completely missing the reality that no one should be visiting their grandma right now. Everyone is at risk for catching the virus, whether they play the games or not. Could catch it at the club or the grocer’s. You think that if they delayed or cancelled the season, then players could safely visit the elderly? If playing the games requires a little extra caution outside the clubhouse, that’s fine. But there is no justification for not playing the games.
Butters
Guest
How old is Fagan at the Lions? What about other older support staff? Players can still get infected and infect others, family members. If everyone is told to socially distance themselves and work from home why should AFL players be different? Getting pretty close to double standards and risking lives just to watch entertainment is crossing the line.
Pope Paul VII
Roar Rookie
No. Bob is a dill for visiting his grandma in the time of Coronavirus.
Bobby
Guest
Player X, so fit he barely knows he is sick (he caught the virus at yesterday's football game), visits his friend bob. Bob then goes to see his grandmother in a nursing home, one of the two visitors she is allowed. She contracts the disease, and also gives it to her carer, who unknowingly gives it to another resident. And so on. Now please tell me again, that that is not a gamble.
christy olsen
Roar Rookie
What’s the gamble? AFL-listed players are the healthiest group in the world. Not one of them is at all likely to suffer any serious symptoms from the virus. Fever, chills, body aches, fatigue… nothing worse than that. They’ll have to take a break from playing/training while they’re ill. And after a week, they’ll be better. Then, being positively neither vulnerable nor contagious, they can get back to playing, with no more worries about getting sick.
1DER
Guest
Freo players are surely very clear? Obviously Rory Lobb is not the sharpest tool in the shed at the Dockers.
dontknowmuchaboutfootball
Guest
From afl.com.au's Live Blog: MINISTER AND MEDICO 'WON THE DAY FOR FOOTY' Contrary to popular belief, the AFL wasn't hellbent on starting the 2020 season tonight. Collingwood president Eddie McGuire – a member of the League's hand-picked 'war cabinet' to help steer the game through the coronavirus pandemic – has made the surprising revelation that the AFL had to be talked out of postponing the start of the season by Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt and Australia's chief medical officer Brendan Murphy. "It was maybe 12 hours of discussion throughout the course of the day and the competition was off for about 11-and-a-half of them," McGuire said on radio station Triple M on Thursday. "Greg Hunt and the head medical officer Brendan Murphy, they won the day for footy. They convinced the commission."
DTM
Guest
Just doing some sums: Assuming there are 100 players, coaches and officials from each club - that makes 1800 people. Add umpires and AFL officials and we are somewhere around 2,000 people involved in the game. For the sake of this exercise, we'll assume all these people are 59 or under. The infection rate is debateable but probably between 20 and 50% so that would be 400 to 1000 of these people will actually contract the bug. The mortality rate for those under 59 is 2.3%. This means there may be between 9 and 23 deaths of these 2,000 people. As these people will be carefully monitored and will have the best of our health professionals to look after them, it may be lower. If we take out the people over 39, the mortality rate drops to 0.6% which means 2 - 6 deaths. I wonder if the AFL or AFLPA did these sums.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
Greg Baum is just grumpy that his opinion was not how it panned out. His facts are wrong. He says Freo has isolated players from their families. Freo players are very clear that is not a club directive. One player has done it...by agreement with his partner. Baum cites that, deliberately choosing to play with truth, as he scrambles a challenge to save face. This "footy is more important than people's lives" characterization of the decision is emotive twaddle. You have no argument at all if that is your premise.
Brian
Guest
We need concentration not diversion. The curve flattening depends on all of us. As a society we are being tested tomorrow and this mob have decided to drink in the pub the night before.
Cosmic Wizard
Roar Rookie
Just because measures worked in South Korea, does not mean they will work here. There are too many points of entry to Australia, so it hard to know when and where the disease will crop. Keeping morale up is as important has containment. With the AFL we can at least have something to take our minds of the crisis, as Netflicks can only go so far!
JGK
Roar Guru
It‘a a good decision. The risks can be managed.