Another season of the AFL has wrapped up, and throughout all the craziness from the year, did it feel that different watching?
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Sure, the Victorian sides had to flee their home state.
Sure, the games were shortened and more compact.
And sure, the big dance itself was played on nontraditional grounds and almost staged on the final Saturday night in October, not a last September's afternoon as accustomed.
But, wasn't it great?
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It was great just to have a season of footy to occupy us through uncharted waters.
The AFL should be commended on its determination and ferocity to prevail a 2020 season.
Facing backlash right from the inception of the 2020 season idea, the AFL powered through adversity and delivered a stellar, no asterisk needed season.
Now, some of the umpire decision making and tribunal outcomes were questionable and head-scratching at times. But, none of it brought down Australia's great game leading the way through COVID times.
The NRL, also sublime throughout the odd 2020 season.
March 11 2020, one day prior to the scheduled start of the premiership season, COVID hit and put the league into a spin.
The first round played as normal, but audience numbers were depleted due to the fear of the pandemic.
On March 23, the NRL suspended the season indefinitely for the first time in the competition's history.
With most details still in the air, on April 9 the league announced less than a month after the season cancellation, that the season would restart May 28.
And what a season we got.
With a majority of Australians pulling together and complying to COVID restrictions, that in itself helped our great sporting codes put together oddly fantastic seasons.
Other continents didn't have it as easy.
The NBA had a bubble in Orlando, Florida with all invited teams located there and solely there.
No travelling gave the NBA finals a 'pick up ball' sort of feel.
Playing to green screen fans and immersed in social issues which even saw the Milwaukee Bucks chose not to take the floor for a playoff game gave the season a distracted and less travel gruelling feel.
Let's also not forget Utah Jazz's, Rudy Gobert's microphone mishap.
The tennis tours of the ATP and WTA had tournaments from March 9 to August 21 cancelled, but are now back into the swing of things.
But, with world number one Novak Djokovic organising a tennis tournament in the Balkans during the thick of the pandemic, unsurprisingly, lots of people got COVID-19, including Djokovic.
The Formula 1 has done an excellent job this 2020 season.
With their season opener in Australia fully prepped and ready to go, it was cancelled with audiences at the gate.
That would be very mentally straining for the heavily European based racing organisation.
Now more than half way through the season, Mercedes and the once in a generation like talented driver, Lewis Hamilton have a stranglehold on the season.
But even so, we have still seen some excellent races with young Redbull Alpha Tauri racer Pierre Gasly winning a Grand Prix and the adding of defunct classic racecourses added to the 2020 season.
Fellow future's of the sport, Mclaren's Lando Norris also notched a podium finish, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc is getting his struggling Ferrari into high positions and next big fish of the pond, Max Verstappen is constantly on the Mercedes' heels.
With the world of sport struggling and doing its continual best to overcome the pandemic, Australian sporting codes and its people can hold their heads high as they came together to prove they can work together to create a memorable sporting season.
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