Opinion: Is shambolic sport reopening an indication for the rest of the state?

If the shambolic reopening of golf and tennis clubs is any indication of how the rest of the state will open up, then God help us.

How hard is it to not bugger up the reopening of tennis courts?

No doubt many tennis enthusiast woke up on Wednesday morning anticipating their first swing of the racquet in weeks.

But many were faced with closed clubs as coaches, managers and tennis authorities scrambled to interpret a web of different rules and health directions.

When we were told tennis clubs and golf courses could reopen from midnight, we might have assumed said clubs would have been given a heads up as to the rules they would have to follow.

Not so. They learnt of the finer details at the same time as everyone else.

Willison Park Tennis Club in Camberwell closed. Picture: Alex Coppel

In an email to coaches on Wednesday morning, Tennis Victoria said there were now “three different directives that we need to adhere to” and there were “many nuances in the three different directive documents from state government that we’ve tried to interpret to provide you the most accurate information”.

In other words – the government didn’t consult us, didn’t give us any help and now we have to clean up their mess.

It wasn’t until 12.30pm that Tennis Victoria was able to untangle the complicated mix of rules and give clubs an idea of how to reopen.

For some inexplicable reasons, toilets have to remain shut.

Only people with strong bladders and bowels are allowed.

Many tennis courts were still closed on Wednesday evening.

It was a similar story at some golf clubs, where driving ranges were closed despite the rules not saying they had to be.

If this is any indication of how the rest of the state is going to open up, then God help us all.

At every turn, the resumption of “normal” life has been made far more difficult than it should be.

Golf is back but the toilets are shut. Picture: Alex Coppel.

Playgrounds were shut because they were supposedly a danger to public health, then they were reopened within weeks because the danger magically disappeared.

But there were rules – oh, were there rules. Only one parent could go. They couldn’t sip a coffee unless they rubbed their tummy and tapped their foot at the same time or some such nonsense.

Tennis clubs and players just want to get on with their business – that they’ve been banned from conducting for two months.

Bogging them down with rules that you need a crack team of rocket scientists to decipher is unfair.

One might suggest that if the government does this to the business community when shops reopen, there will be riots in the street.

But that’s already happened.

Originally published as Opinion: Is shambolic sport reopening an indication for the rest of the state?