To paraphrase Liverpool manager, Jürgen Klopp, sport is very much the most important of the least important things, but it, along with the closure of playhouses and cinemas, has suffered the biggest shock to our society from coronavirus.
Because of the way in which seasons operate in both northern and southern hemispheres the virus has brought some sports to a premature end, and prevented the start of others. With that comes some questions to ponder and what might have been.
Premier League
We began with Klopp, so let us first look at the Premier League.
For all long suffering Liverpool fans (myself included) this is bitter one. It is hard to capture just how amazing the 2019-20 season had been for the Reds:
So far in front are they that with nine games still to play they are just two wins away from securing the title. Out of 29 matches, only one loss, and one draw. The rest wins.
So far in front are they that the real competition was history. They were five wins away from tying Manchester City’s record of 32 wins in a season, and just 18 points behind their 100 point record set in 2017-18:
After 29 matches they have amassed four more points than any other team at that stage in the history of the Premier League.
A truly great team, and one that even if they are awarded the title, will always have with it a dreaded, and decidedly undeserved, asterisk.
NBA
This season’s NBA has been one of the most fascinating in a decade. No one team seemed dominant, with no Miami Heat or Golden State Warriors style super teams.
At one stage the Milwaukee Bucks looked on track to become the third team ever to achieve 70 wins. Their three consecutive loses before the shutdown probably put paid to that, but the unanswered questions remain: could the Bucks’ style of play win in the playoffs?
Would instead LeBron James lead the LA Lakers to a title at the age of 35 and win with his third different team?
What of the LA Clippers and last year’s playoff beast Kawhi Leonard? And what the heck do the Philadelphia 76ers make of this season – a season that promised so much and became an injury soap-opera?
If the season ends now (and can you really re-start a season after such a long suspension and still call it the same season?) it also will put an end to one of the great individual seasons by Giannis Antetokounmpo.
His “player efficiency rating” (which attempts to gauge a player’s overall performance) for this season is bested in the modern era only by Michael Jordan in 1987-88 and James in 2008-09:
That is hall of fame level stuff. And again the asterisk is likely to appear.
Tennis
Tennis has had one of the more odd seasons – the Australian Open was played without issue, but it looks like no other grand slam will be played. Right now the site of the US Open is being used as a make-shift hospital.
The shutdown brings many questions – firstly directed at Roger Federer and Serena Williams. Both turn 39 this year, and even for these two age is an issue. Does this put an end to their hopes of another grand slam title?
For both, Wimbledon and the US Open are their best chances, meaning that next year will see them almost 40 by the time the final slam rolls around. (To be honest, though Federer seems to be taking it all in his stride)
Djokovic looked so dominant in Melbourne that a calendar year slam was again being mooted – now gone.
Is the year off for Nadal good for resting his troublesome knee, or does it put the younger generation that bit closer to taking over.
Speaking of whom, Dominic Thiem, and Alexander Zverev looked ready to truly challenge at the slam level – their frustration must be seething.
On the women’s side, we see Ash Barty sitting at No 1, perhaps the only one who understands taking time off from the sport. But now she is being robbed of a peak year, and any sense of momentum she might have constructed over the past 12 months. Can you restart where you left off?
AFL and NRL
Neither of these competitions really began. Sure the NRL played two rounds and the AFL, one, but so long will have been the lay-off that any restarted season really should scrub those points.
For both competitions there is less the what-if question of the EPL and NBA, and more a wonder what this means for the players.
While it is not a perfect indictor, a look at the 20 highest scoring players in the Brownlow medal show that players have three real peak years from 25-27 years of age, and after 31 the drop-off is severe:
That means players like Patrick Cripps, Josh Kelly and even 24-year-old Marcus Bontempelli lose what is expected to be the year that sees them take over the completion.
For others like Andrew Gaff, who turns 28, soon to be 29-year-olds Nat Fyfe and Dustin Martin, and 30-year-old Patrick Dangerfield, a key year at their best is lost.
For those over 31 like Scott Pendlebury, Joel Selwood and Buddy Franklin, the time at the peak goes ever further in the rear-view mirror.
For Gary Ablett Jr, it is gone for good?
The NRL has announced it will start on 28 May with 13 more rounds. While this will be great for fans if it happens, if it means the end of NRL Island, then I weep for that gloriously wacky idea.
Rubgy union
Maybe this could have been the year the Wallabies win the Bledisloe Cup?
OK, maybe that question is answerable.
Tokyo Olympics
The deferment of the Tokyo Olympics introduces an added level of difficulty for those athletes whose careers are based around one window every four years.
Gone is the opportunity to see the contest between Kenyan Robert Keter and Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei, who both broke the men’s 5km road world record earlier this year.
We also lose the sight of Swedish pole vaulter, Armand Duplantis, who broke the pole vault world record twice in February, operating at his peak powers.
For one great athlete the odds are now stacked just that bit higher.
Women’s gymnastics is well and truly a young person’s game – so much so that in 1997 they made 16 the minimum age. In 2016, Simone Biles, at 19 years of age, won the women’s all-around. Even then that made her the oldest winner since the Sydney Olympics:
Since 1972 only two women have won medals in the all-around Olympics competition over the age of 22. Biles is now 23. To win next year aged 24 (and half) would make her the oldest winner in the modern era by more than three years.
As they say, if anyone can, she can, but it just shows how losing a year of your sporting life matters a great deal more than it does for other careers.
The sporting loss of coronavirus is not just a full season but also the time to play at your peak. For some it will just be an annoyance, a small halt on their climb to the top. For others the lost year takes with it their last chance.
Greg Jericho is a Guardian Australia columnist
