Things just aren’t the same in a COVID world
This COVID stuff really has changed the way we do things in our world and I’m not fussed about it at all.
Opinion
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THIS COVID-19 stuff really has turned the world upside down.
Did you ever think we would see such unbelievable sights as:
* The Melbourne Cup run before empty stands at Flemington;
* State of Origin in November - in Adelaide;
* Karl Stefanovic on the State of Origin commentary team;
* A US election that might take weeks to sort out and may be destined for the Supreme Court?
All we need now to complete a year of upheaval and disaster is a brewery strike.
Heaven forbid! The only positive to come out of COVID 2020 is the rise in beer sales.
Who couldn't help but feel for jockey Jye McNeil who reached the pinnacle of his riding career to score the most prized possession in Australian horse racing - The Melbourne Cup - only to come back to scale on Twilight Payment to empty stands.
Fair dinkum, there are more people at a Joe Biden rally than were at Flemington on Tuesday.
It must be one of the great moments in Australian sport to ride the winner of the Melbourne Cup and usually there is a huge roar as the winning jockey brings his horse back to the yards, cantering past the 100,000+ crowd.
It just didn't seem to be the Melbourne Cup without the crowd.
I heard one Melbourne racing journalist on Tuesday night telling a news service that maybe The Cup isn't about the horses after all but the people, the crowd, the event.
The horses were the reason for the day, but without the packed stands and all that goes with Cup atmosphere, it wasn't quite right, he said, and I agreed.
And, for mine, if it wasn't for that stirring comeback by the Maroons in the second half on Wednesday night, I would have struggled to enjoy State of Origin.
In the lead-up to the match, it too didn't feel much like Origin.
For a start, playing Origin in November when ordinarily the players are on summer break felt weird.
Sitting on my couch in shorts and thongs when normally I'm shivering through a ghetto winter watching the match also felt strange.
Certainly, the change of venue and month of Origin didn't impress my second-hand cat who was curled up beside me on the couch.
Even my screaming at the TV in the second half didn't wake him so obviously he's no fan of summer State of Origin.
And, as usual, the Channel 9 commentary of the match didn't do much for either of us.
The best part of the coverage was HG and Roy's comments on past State of Origins early into the night.
As for that other game going on in Washington, what a joke!
The Yanks claim to be the world's superpower and leader of the western world and they can't even run an election.
And they laugh at us because Test cricket takes five days to play.
They mightn't have a winner for weeks and only then after the Supreme Court has had a say.
Originally published as Things just aren't the same in a COVID world