BY CURTIS WOODWARD

@woodward_curtis

The rugby league lord giveth and the rugby league lord taketh away. And here we sit – begging for the mighty game back. The COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged the modern world as we know. But what have we footy fans learned?

It certainly puts shit in perspective doesn’t it?

Many have died.

Our sport can sit on the sidelines for as long as it needs to.

When it comes back, some say it will be sooner rather than later, we need to grow. As a code, we need to regenerate.

Rugby league was never meant to be a billion dollar sport but it happened. Our leaders were never to get around in fancy limousines. We’re the people’s game. Built on the shoulders of toilers, workers and those that gave the last of their pay cheques to take their kids to the Sydney Cricket Ground for the match of the day.

On players like Noel Kelly who, before representing the Kangaroos against Great Britain, spent the morning working at a local butcher.

Other hard bastards like ‘Bumper’ Farrell who walked his beat as a copper in Darlinghurst all night before turning out for Newtown the next day.

We’re John Sattler’s broken jaw.

We are Kelly… we are Farrell… we are Sattler.

Rugby league is an idea.

It’s more than pretty fireworks, flashy silk jerseys and player managers.

Thank heavens for the coronavirus.

It might just pull our heads in and bring us back to earth.

Lord giveth.

Lord taketh.

Rugby league has paid for our sins for decades. We have continuously let her down. Civil wars, greedy pigs, you name it, rugby league has had it.

Even now, hungry hippos and slithering snakes slide their pieces around the chessboard.

Now is the time to cleanse ourselves.

If we don’t realise what we miss now, the true essence of our game, than it will never be the same. Even after a mass-murdering virus.

Dragons fans…

Do you miss rolling down to Kogarah Oval from Carlton train station? Or sitting on the hill above the Pacific Ocean in Wollongong?

Does anyone miss the sheer anarchy of trying to get around a packed Leichhardt Oval on a Sunday afternoon?

The smell of hotdogs wafting across the ground?

Melbourne Storm fans watching a Cameron Smith conversion go over from the sideline at AAMI Park?

The vibe at Sharks Leagues Club before a big match at Cronulla?

Go back further to when you were a kid.

The smell of the chewing gum as you open a new packet of footy cards…

A brand new jersey at Christmas…

Doubles in the main game.

Deep Heat.

Fresh cut grass.

Yeah rugby league was never meant to be a billion dollar sport.

But it did happen.

We became something we were never meant to be.

Was rugby league ever meant to be about multi-media monopolies, social media and sleazy businessmen in expensive suits?

At least give us the cheap suits back!

Rugby league has become a monster too big for itself.

A version of itself.

Top of the Props podcast now available on iHeartRadio

Funnily enough, Tina Turner would have made it right for a while.

Mmmm nostalgia – breath it in.

But it would have only patched over the cracks.

If COVID-19 teaches rugby league anything it’s that we need to appreciate what we had.

What we have.

Before it becomes something we can never get back.

Rugby league is OUR game.

We are the keepers until it’s us in the dirt and the next generation take over.

We fans are the guardians…

It’s our galaxy.

@woodward_curtis