Junior sport Gold Coast: No good reason not to lift crippling restrictions

There is no good reason for stretching out the pain for sports clubs on the Gold Coast. And one event proves it, writes Keith Woods.

LEGENDARY Liverpool soccer manager Bill Shankly once made a remark which summed up for many people how they felt about the game.

“Some people believe football is a matter of life and death,” Shankly said. “I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much more important than that.”

Although tongue in cheek, almost 40 years on, the quote still resonates. It speaks to the important role sport plays in so many people’s lives.

People like the thousands who turn out for junior footy sessions on the Gold Coast every weekend.

A statue of Bill Shankly outside Liverpool Football Club’s Anfield stadium. Picture: Getty Images.

This Saturday, football fields across the Gold Coast will again be deserted. Children will be kicking their heels rather than kicking goals.

They should be allowed play. Because this Saturday is also two weeks to the day since 30,000 people attended the Black Lives Matter protest in Brisbane – and it has yet to prove the source of any new infections.

If 30,000 can gather in Brisbane without an outbreak resulting, why can’t we have 300 around an oval? Why are we talking about only allowing 100 people at sports venues when stage three of the Palaszczuk government’s road map to easing restrictions takes effect on July 10?

A couple of hundred parents, coaches and players spread out over a suburban sports field will be able to social distance far more easily than the protesters who crammed into King George Square.

Like so much of the government’s recent behaviour, it seems cruel, unnecessary and illogical.

It’s as tone deaf as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s statement in parliament yesterday that Queenslanders don’t want the border open. Are we no longer Queenslanders on the Gold Coast?

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It’s not just footy clubs that are affected. Little athletics clubs, scout groups and many others - most of them reliant on volunteers - are having to grapple with these burdensome new rules too.

The government says it understands the dilemma clubs are facing, and is providing $51.3 million to help struggling clubs.

It says clubs could allow more than a 100 at a time if they prepare a COVID-safe plan that satisfies health authorities.

The clubs themselves are pressing the government to scrap the 100-person limit in favour of a policy permitting one person every four square metres at a venue.

But instead of red tape and handouts, there is a far simpler solution. The New Zealand approach. Currently, there are just five active coronavirus cases in Queensland, most of them diagnosed in people who returned from overseas. If, when we get to Saturday, there is no evidence of any outbreak as a result of the Black Lives Matter protest, it will be pretty clear it’s safe to ease restrictions far further.

We won’t be in quite as good a position as our Kiwi friends, where restrictions have been done away with, but we’ll be close. Close enough to give the sports clubs a real break and let them go back to normal. They’re full of responsible people who can be trusted to social distance. They already do it at Bunnings, at shopping centres, outside schools. There’s no need for heavy-handed regulations and the threat of fines.

The Black Lives Matter protest was not an experiment in mass gatherings that the government wanted, but it happened and we can learn from it.

If there’s no cases by Saturday, the way should be clear for a dramatic loosening of rules.

Junior footy should be back on. Yes, it’s not as significant as the life and death struggle with COVID-19.

But compared to how it’s being treated by the state government, well, it’s much more important than that.