Home » AFL Footy News » How much damage did COVID-19 do to our sporting nation? Here’s what the data shows
How much damage did COVID-19 do to our sporting nation? Here’s what the data shows
Eighteen months ago, Australia was thrown into a tailspin.
In an almost unprecedented manner in peacetime, Australian society ground to a halt. Shops were shut and offices closed. Behaviours ingrained over decades, like going out for a movie on a Tuesday night or a quiet meal at a restaurant on the weekend, disappeared suddenly.
Australia, the great sporting nation, has also suffered on the field, in the water and on the track since then as well.
Since that first lockdown, the country has lived through a patchwork series of lockdowns and restrictions, altering the lives of everyone. At both the professional and local levels, competitions have started, stopped and been halted across the past year and a half, with little certainty from month to month.
At the same time, Australians have embraced the need for physical exercise more than ever and are also watching more sport.
While few people have been able to experience live sport at the same levels as before, television ratings for sport have skyrocketed. And while organised sport has suffered from a participation standpoint, more Australians are exercising regularly since COVID-19 first hit.
Sport, like the rest of society, has had to grow and adapt to suit the realities of COVID-19. But the damage hasn’t been dealt with equally and the effects of COVID-19 have differed drastically.
The top levels
It’s hard to remember now, but initially, the impact of COVID-19 on professional sport in Australia was expected to be limited.
On March 9, 2020, AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan stated that as a domestic sport, AFL’s exposure to COVID-19 was expected to be limited. That view was far from isolated.
Within the next two weeks, almost everything changed.
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan described the pandemic as “the most serious threat to our game in 100 years”. (
AAP: Brendan Esposito
)
Both the AFL and NRL grand finals will be played away from their traditional homes in 2021, and the upcoming cricket season has already had its first few elements relocated or postponed.
In sporting parlance, the path to ensure the survival of the different sporting codes through the effects of COVID-19 is a marathon, not a sprint.
The community fabric at risk
The beauty of sport is that it goes beyond the top level and the shiny product we see on TV.
What keeps sport alive is the grassroots and the week-in, week-out competition between friends and rivals nationwide.
The profits or losses of the top leagues mean little to the weekend warriors.
Faced with lockdowns and the shutdown of most community sport, Australians responded by becoming more active than ever.
According to data from Sport Australia, more adults are exercising more regularly than before the lockdowns started.
Women are leading the way, exercising far more than they did before the lockdown. However, overall participation in sport or recreational activity is slightly down on the previous year due to lower organised sport activity.
Kelly Ryan, chief executive of Super Netball, acknowledges the challenge to win people back to organised participation.
Kelly Ryan acknowledges there are challenges around trying to get people reengaged with community sport.(
Supplied: Netball Australia
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“There’s no doubt there’s going to be a lot of work to win the hearts and minds back for a lot of people, everybody has had to change their lifestyle quite significantly.”
In line with this change in lifestyle, according to the early data, the biggest increase in the key motivations for regular exercise is physical and mental health and fitness, and social reasons, rather than fitness or fun and enjoyment.
Endurance sports such as walking and running have been popular during COVID-19.(
ABC News: Simon Winter
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Most of this rise has come in what is dubbed as the endurance sports: running, cycling and walking. It shows the new pattern to staying fit in a time where social distance needs to be maintained. Also holding solid are golf and tennis — two sports where distance can be maintained.
Participation in junior sport has dipped sharply since the pandemic has started and team sports have suffered.
Participation in organised out of school physical activity has dropped 5 per cent in the last year, with the impact of COVID-19 clear.
Competitions all across Australia have been postponed, paused, compressed and cancelled at times since the pandemic started.
This is also shown in the biggest drops in participation, namely the football codes, basketball and swimming.
Also dropping significantly is use of gyms, hit by closures to activities in indoor spaces.
Most of the adults and children who played organised sport before the start of lockdowns had returned to them by March 2021. For adults who hadn’t returned, the biggest individual reason was concerns about COVID-19.
But it’s the fabric of community sport, the volunteers, that have struggled to return.
Only 53 per cent of volunteers had returned to their previous roles by March 2021, a huge blow to club rooms and sidelines around the country.
Without volunteers, the backbone of sport around the nation will be damaged. The stars of the future will find it harder to shine through and competitions in some parts of the country will be put at threat.
The end in sight?
Sporting administrators at both a national and local level are likely resigned to doing what most of us do in the mornings now — watching the daily COVID-19 press conferences.
The announcements of daily case numbers, vaccination rates and policy positions nearly play as much a role for the future of sport as anything else right now.
There is hope that community sport can return fully across the country once vaccination rates rise high enough, and some areas have been lucky enough to proceed almost uninterrupted.
As society returns to normal, COVID-safe measures are likely to remain in place for sports at both the local and professional level. (
ABC News: Tim Swanston
)
McLachlan hopes that the ample resources at the elite level will help with the task of re-engaging former participants.
“We will make sure our clubs, junior and senior, have got the financials, the resources and the programs to come out of this strongly and re-engage all the boys and girls, men and women who have found that their connection with their club, their local community club, their leagues have disconnected,” he said.
“So it is an absolute priority for us.”
Despite the uncertain future environment, the continuing love for sport and recreation through the pandemic has continued unabated.
The nation was still gripped by the Olympics and the success in Tokyo and footy finals fever has taken hold in September like normal.
As society begins to return to normal, the sidelines and stands might be a little different to before. Face masks and check-ins might be a feature of the experience in years to come.
Sport might not be the same as it was before COVID-19, but Australians will try to make it work regardless.
