ANALYSIS: Why the 2020 AFL season matters, and why the AFL matters in 2020
On Thursday night, with great relief and to many congratulations, the 2020 AFL season will officially be restarted.
From a football point of view, the very makeup of this season makes it unique and unreadable. Fixtures devised on the fly, players fast-tracking preparations after dormant months at home, teams in hubs scattered across the country, shorter quarters, empty stadiums slowly refilling at random and inconsistent rates — the season will be defined by its challenges, the greatest of which may not have even arisen yet.
The first thing to acknowledge is that this season won't be fair. Some teams will face disadvantages greater than others by the makeup of the season alone, and some teams will be unable to overcome those obstacles. In that sense, 2020 is really no different to any AFL season before it. In fact, many will argue that winning this year's premiership, with all its many warts and caveats and footnotes, would be one of the sport's greatest accomplishments.If our coronavirus-induced trip down memory lane has taught us nothing else, it's that a certain type of team and premiership is valued above all others.
The team that triumphs in 2020 will be viewed through that same lens. Gillon McLachlan said he believed this year's would be "one of the great premierships", and that will very likely soon become conventional wisdom.
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