It may surprise many of you but I’m no expert on viruses. I barely understand anything more complex than the tens timetable.

I’m not even an expert on anything, even AFL, something anyone who reads my columns knows all too well.

But I do know that any pandemic is a worrying thing. People can say ‘this is just effecting old people’ but then, a lot of people are old, and despite their demographic status, they are still people.

Therefore, if we have to shut things to protect people, I understand.

I’ll fall in line, panic buy toilet paper, even consider beginning washing my hands.

But a winter without footy?

This is going to be tough. I’m not sure how to handle it. I’m not sure I can handle it.

I know it’s not a sure thing, but with the news the NBA is being suspended it seems that little bit more likely.

Many would rightly say that as a Melbourne supporter, the idea of me being unhappy about the AFL season being cancelled is odd.

It’s like a duck being saddened by the idea that duck hunting season may be cancelled.

There are many times in my lifetime that a few rounds in, I’ve wished the season would be cancelled. Last season, I don’t think I even got to round two without wanting that.

Footy however is so much more than winning and losing. It’s the closest thing I have to a social life. If I didn’t have footy, I’d probably never leave the house, something that will now be seen as an important skill.

But winter revolves around the footy, like the moon sets the tides, footy effects the timing of the week.

Monday is when we dissect the weekend’s events in forensic detail, Tuesday the media analyse all the issues they invented on Monday, Wednesday we start to worry about who will be fit, Thursday is when we wonder why our clubs make such terrible selection decisions, then there’s the games themselves, when we invest more emotional energy on a group of twenty-year-olds we don’t know, than we do on our own family in decades.

That rhythm could all be gone, and I’ll be crushed.

Some would say, ‘you need to get a life’ and they’d be right, but I’ve tried with, at best, mixed results.

I’m not arguing this shouldn’t happen, what would I know, I’m an e grade blogger.

What I’m saying is that while there are bigger things going on, the Coronavirus reminds me of how much I love this game and how much I’m going to miss it if it’s gone, even if it’s just for a short period of time.