As footy season kicks off, fans must get used to the couch
An empty MCG without the murmur of the footy crowd met the players from Richmond and Carlton on Thursday night, and while the footy was good, it is a far greater sport when noise and colour cascade from the grandstands, Mark Robinson writes.
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It was the football match watched around the world but played in front of a couple of hundred people at home.
The mighty MCG was empty on Thursday night, the silence not so much deafening as horribly unnatural — like watching a game on the couch with the sound turned down.
To be honest, to be at the ’G last night was to be a touched bored. The football was good enough, underlining why Aussie Rules is a great sport. But it is a far, far greater sport when noise and colour cascade out of the grandstands.
Fans watching at home must also have thought it odd.
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The fact the Blues were blown away by the Tigers in the first quarter and then trailed by eight goals at half-time, hardly meant you’d miss something special if you decided to make a cuppa during the game.
The Blues hung in without really threatening to win, but they took it up the premiers with key players out and Matty Kreuzer going down in the first half. That’s promising.
But what an odd night it was.
Eight ball-getters were placed around the ground to save players from jumping the fence, and even the seagulls didn’t turn up last night — no chips meant no gulls.
Clearly, this footy season is not for the 400 or so workers at the ground on Thursday night, but for the hundreds of thousands of fans being forced to watch from home.
How did it look? Opinions will vary no doubt.
At the ground, the barren stands echoed the bumps and tackles and exasperation of the players.
The most fascinating aspect of the empty MCG was hearing voices of the players.
The Tigers didn’t shut up in defence — push over, get back, set up — and Jack Riewoldt had a clip from the wing for Levi Casboult who was 25m out from goal.
And the Blues never stopped encouraging.
There was no “noise of afirmation’’ with the umpires — the free kick count was 24-18 Carlton’s way if you must — and no noise about anything, to be clear.
There were no oohs and aahs, no umpire abuse, and goals were celebrated only on the ground, in the dug outs and in the coaches’ boxes.
Cries of ‘BAALLLL” were sadly missed.
From the outset, this was a strange day. Outside the ground before the match, the usual hive of excited kids with painted faces and in footy jumpers, and hurried dads and mums was replaced by, well, nothing.
No Record sellers.
No Four ’n’ Twenty pies.
No people.
No atmosphere.
Inside, the players warmed up as they do, and then galloped on to the ground to .... nothing but a blaring rendition of their theme songs, which sounded so over the top.
Security amid the coronavirus lockdown was decent.
Media had their names checked at the carpark entrance and had to assure the AFL they were clean.
Even AFL boss Gillon McLachlan did not attend.
The league edict was for only essential staff. And though McLachlan had brokered the historical deal to start the season on Wednesday, he was a match-day casualty on Thursday night. He wasn’t so essential after all.
Allowed in from clubs were players, coaches and support staff. From the AFL, just match-day officials and umpires.
Then there was the media, security and venue staff.
But the emptiness of the ground didn’t influence the togetherness on it.
Certainly, the Tigers and Blues were willing enough And nor did it hurt the sense of unity among the rest of the community. At home, millions sat in front of the box.
In pubs about town, it was also different. Richmond’s landmark London Tavern, only a few hundred metres away, would usually be crowded from lunchtime as footy fans flocked to the pub.
But publicans Bill Perry and Matt O’Kane put plans in place to allow only 200 customers at a time — 100 indoors and 100 outside in the expansive beer garden.
Perhaps Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said it perfectly when he explained how football helped deliver unity to a displaced society.
“There’s going to be detractors, but there is some real unity in us playing when the community is in a bit of a crisis,’’ he said.
“I used to enjoy running out in the twos at 11am at the MCG. In the colosseum it echoed, and I loved that.’’
It certainly echoed on Thursday night in the first match of an historic season. And an echo is better than nothing at all.
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Originally published as As footy season kicks off, fans must get used to the couch