Coronavirus shutdown has left a hollowness in the life of this AFL fan | Paul Daley

Submitted by Paul Daley on Sat, 04/04/2020 - 8:00am

Trips down memory lane help ease the pain but nostalgia can only fill so much of the void

Given how a week seems like a month in this sombre and over-eventful new epoch we find ourselves in, a footy season may well be a decade. Foregoing the rituals that underscore the cadence of our lives is one of the hardest things about now. For many, including me, a big loss is Australian rules football.

Watching my team play a fortnight ago in round one brought such joy, such transporting distraction, as that juggernaut of pain and anxiety bore down on us. I’m a Collingwood supporter (loose your arrows here, I’m impervious) and that weekend as I watched all the televised AFL and AFLW I could (and then some NRL) I fully anticipated that it would probably be all I’d see this year.

Paul Daley is a Guardian Australia columnist