The NRL and local governments are still talking like it will blow over now a few token things have been done. It won't.
People here are still not convinced there is much of a threat and call some of the media "alarmist".
Things have already changed rapidly here in two days, so there is still hope they will further change, and we won't be like Italy (or Spain in a week).
The NRL season will be severely disrupted. If that is the biggest thing you have to worry about this year you are very lucky.
The season may run without crowds, even with NZ Warriors stuck here for a week or two, for a little while. I can imagine the NRL redoing the draw so that they get a bunch of away matches early, and they can go back home in a month or two when it "all blows over". But it won't blow over, any time soon.
South Korea and Japan, and even China do give us hope. We won't have months of peak Italy and Iran if we get social distancing right, very soon (like, this week, or as I predict, next week). But the hope they give us is not of a smooth experience where we can just go back to watching footy. We will be stuck inside for months. There will not be public things at all. You will be allowed to go to the shops and chemists, and that is about all.
Hopefully that is how we will live for the next few months. Because the alternative is the horror that is Italy (they too, were laughing at coronavirus and saying it was a hoax, and overblown, just 3 weeks ago. Two weeks ago they tried some soft social distancing measures. Last week, way too late, and you can only go out to get groceries or medicine). Then we will still have these awful lockdown conditions, but with the cold comfort of knowing the extra two weeks of freedom we bought ourselves came at the cost of thousands of people (and will extend the social distancing times at the end by more than this anyway).
This is another glimpse at the horror of Italy:
https://www.newsweek.com/young-unaf...d-you-now-stop-killing-people-opinion-1491797
But in the end, if we do stay isolated, South Korea has shown us that we will have a few months inside with our families, we'll be working from home, where possible, and after an unpleasant pandemic made about as bad as a nasty flu season thanks to social distancing, we should be out enjoying a pleasant spring (ready for another f***ing hot summer...).
Don't worry about footy, I say stock up on PS4/X Box games, and keep your Netflix going for autumn and winter. Maybe the NRL will be able to play a short season in spring.
