Patrick Carlyon: Perks of going to football in COVID-safe world

Half as many people at the ground and queues that don’t stretch to the next suburb — there are perks of going to the footy in a COVID-safe world.

There’s a big advantage of going to the footy in this COVID-world; there’s only half as many people there as there might be.

Attending Thursday night’s game at the MCG was easy.

Queues at ground gates did not stretch to the next suburb.

The ground announcer at Gate 2 wasn’t imposing restrictions in his guidance, but making light of the changed football experience.

As with every game this weekend, you could enter only one section of the ground.

You entered from your designated gate with a pre-purchased ticket.

The season opener between Richmond vs Carlton was a nailbiter. Picture: Michael Klein

The hardest part, it seemed, was in getting the ticket in your hand before the game.

The AFL issued a prescriptive list of things to do and not do during the week.

But there was little evidence of their enforcement. Tickets were checked by officials for assigned seats, but these were cooperative exchanges. They seemed happy to help; the fans just seemed pleased to be there.

There were no draconian oversights of crowd behaviour. Walkways and toilets did not press with the masses.

Officials did not look to move along loiterers, even though patrons had been asked to go to their seats.

As Carlton supporters, two blokes sitting near me in the members area were popping up and down for beers, perhaps to medicate against their frustration. Their journey to and from the

bar was never more than five minutes.

Going to the footy in this COVID-safe world felt exactly like it did pre-pandemic, writes Patrick Carlyon. Picture: Aaron Francis/The Australian

Going to the footy is back, and it felt much the same as it did in the pre-pandemic world.

Of course, one fan’s advantage is another’s disadvantage.

The MCG erupted with 50,000 fans as Marvel Stadium and others may not when filled to half their capacity.

But it felt like the footy, in all its visceral immediacies of raging opposition fans, and the wholesale roars in the delivery of each tribe’s judgment.

There was almost a leisurely air not normally associated with football passions, as if the fact of a return — as opposed to the on-field spectacle — was in itself enough.

Another added benefit on Thursday was how Carlton fans, crushed by the prospect of victory soured in the final moments, started streaming from the ground five minutes before the final siren.

COVID or not, some things never change.