Michael Moynihan: What are the changes that won't change back?
Now that we have sport back, some of the effects have been unanticipated. Picture: Larry Cummins
When the virus first laid its dead hand across sports a few months ago, we couldnât stop speculating.
What exactly would it mean for sport? Would we even have sport? If we did, what precise form would it take, given the way the virus spread?
Once you made your way past the jokes about masks improving playersâ looks, and defenders whoâd been social distancing for years, the uncertainty tended to weaponise itself when sport was imminent. Apocalyptic scenarios became more common, and minds started drifting to overgrown playing fields, to dressing-rooms with cobwebs in the corners.
Now that we have sport back, some of the effects have been unanticipated.
Early on - in the gingerly-taken-steps phase of the return to action - the effect of empty stadia was noted in America, for instance: observers suggested that the unconscious tendency of officials to lean towards the home team, because it had the louder support, wasnât as prevalent.
Without that home support baying for blood referees and umpires would be far more objective, according to this logic.
Are they really? A hefty sample size would be needed, but itâs a plausible view.
Other impacts are clearer.
In Gaelic games, for instance, the water-break is now a watershed in almost every game. Introduced to eliminate the water-carries, the water-break has now become synonymous with something else: a shift in momentum in the game.
Yours truly was in Waterford last week for the senior hurling semi-final between Passage and Mount Sion, a game which turned completely after the first water break: after an even first quarter, Passage hit six points in a row to give them a lead they never relinquished.
Would the game have had a different result if proceedings hadnât stopped when they did? Who knows?
The impact of what are euphemistically called âthe restrictionsâ isnât confined to what happens on the field.
Later in the week I was in touch with Passage chairman Michael Murphy, who pointed out that the current match experience is a far more streamlined one.
âIf you think of the old way, youâre in the dressing-room an hour before the throw-in. Youâre getting togged off and watching some lad get a rubdown. Waiting to get out there.
âNow youâre literally getting out of the car and walking in the gate of the pitch so the ref can throw in the ball.â
Itâs the same when the final whistle blows. There was a good deal of comment after last Sundayâs Wexford county final, which featured Shelmaliers captain Simon Donohoe climbing the steps in a practically empty Wexford Park to accept the cup.
These are radically different consequences, but they encapsulate the two-pronged influence of the pandemic.
The water-break is an on-field result, which is having a material effect on games. It shows in the bluntest terms possible that the pandemic is influencing games, though influencing is not the same as deciding.
But itâs a fair bet that canny managers are already puzzling out how to exploit it: the return of the sin bin to the football league earlier this year saw management teams working the officials on the sidelines in order to get players back in action at the end of the ten-minute exclusion period.
The water-break is an opportunity that coaches and managers will soon get the hang of.
The second strand, the impact on matters before and after the game, may have a longer lifespan.
Granted, the return of crowds will make trophy presentations the kind of joyous mass gathering they once were, but Michael Murphyâs point about just how necessary those lengthy preambles to games are? Thatâll chime with a lot of other club chairmen. And with their treasurers.
Very sorry to hear of the end of one of the great radio sports shows - Only A Game, the US show which made a virtue out of stories that were off-beat and off the beaten track.
I enjoyed chatting to producer Karen Given a couple of years ago for a piece you may have read here, but after 27 years the show has been cancelled by its parent station, WBUR, with Covid-induced revenue loss to blame.
This is a great shame, given their ability to find great yarns. One of their greatest recounted the unlikely friendship which NBA star Charles Barkley and a Chinese cat-litter scientist, Lin Wang struck up after an accidental meeting, one which led to an emotional eulogy from Barkley at Wangâs funeral (look it up).
Thereâs a note of hope - one of the other producers, Gary Waleik, suggested the show might return as a podcast: âI think the future is bright for us to do that if we wanted to do that. Good stories always emerge.â
Extraordinary scenes last week in America, where several teams involved in the NBA opted out of the play-offs, led by the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Bucks play in Wisconsin, the same state as Kenosha, where a black man was recently shot seven times in the back; the team refused to play in protest and others followed their lead.
Bucks players demanded the Wisconsin legislature reconvene and got on a conference call - in their locker room - with the stateâs attorney general and lieutenant governor.
Maybe extraordinary doesnât quite cover it.
The reason I mention it here is not just because, as noted in US media all week, it has set a new bar for political protest from athletes, though it has. Nor is it that future protests will have to begin at this level if they're to have any significance, as shown by the Bucks.
The question worth raising is what happens when protests like this occur in Ireland? Itâs easy to shake the head at the mess in the States, one exacerbated by interventions such as this from human waxsimile Jared Kushner (âThe NBA players are very fortunate that they have the financial position where theyâre able to take a night off work without having to have the consequences to themselves financiallyâ).
How will people here react when teams withdraw from crunch games in their competitions?
Cast your mind back to the unhappiness and flailing when various leagues and championships were shut down back in March.
The reaction to a politically-motivated boycott here is bound to be measured and sympathetic. Bound to be.
Congrats here to Eoin OâCallaghan, a frequent member of this parish, who has published his first book.
Keane: Origins delves into a specific section of Roy Keaneâs playing days - the stretch between 1988 and 1993, when Keane sank the foundations for one of the great playing careers.
There can hardly be a Cork person who was a grown adult in this period who doesnât have a story about Keane in this period, so hereâs a chance to check them against the historical record.
Another one worth picking up is The Nolan Variations: The Movies, Marvels and Mysteries of Christopher Nolan by Tom Shone.
The author wrote the brilliant Blockbuster: How the Jaws and Jedi Generation Turned Hollywood into a Boom-town a few years ago, which is a fair recommendation. Add both to your list.
