There are only so many torn ACLs, Tik Toks and footballers behaving badly you can stand during a global pandemic.
So thank you, Australia, for heeding the "stay home" message when asked. Managing our collective COVID-19 behaviour has had more than the obvious health benefits.
It's meant we can gradually slide our way off the couch and into our new altered reality - which, errr for rugby league fans, is, umm, live sport with no fans. So ... back to the couch we go.
Not though, before another scandal. Yes, a late addition to the burgeoning NRL file - and again involving the Cronulla Sharks.
Rising star Bronson Xerri has been provisionally suspended and faces a possible multi-year NRL ban after reportedly testing positive to a number of banned substances last November.
Regardless of Xerri's involvement or otherwise, the NRL - via the new man with the gift of the gab, ARL commission chief Peter V'Landys - kicks off again tomorrow night and it is a coup of sorts.
The 26-round NRL season was suspended in March after two rounds due to the coronavirus shutdown. Almost immediately V'Landys began preparing for the season's resurrection.
Six weeks ago the odds on the NRL successfully meeting V'Landys' preferred restart date of May 28 were longer than the queue to Dominos on State of Origin night.
Yet such is the fine line between genius and madness of sports administrators. Particularly, economically aware sports administrators.
The not so national nature of the NRL has also helped. There are few border restrictions to negotiate when barely a handful of states and territories are involved. Which, of course, brings into question the "national" part of the name but let's not drill down too far. It's worked in its favour this time.
The AFL, which so often from the northern side of the NSW-Vic border seems to be the most smoothly run gig in Sports Town, will enter the post-pandemic fray a fortnight later.
The revelation that Thursday night blockbusters are set to be a weekly occurrence this year is not accidental.
With Australia a professional sports wasteland for so long, the AFL will have no intention of slipping quietly back into the season.
But before planning marches on too far, the AFL is turning its attention to the viability of South Australian and Western Australian hubs as the respective state governments are, so far, not allowing AFL clubs to fly in and out of the state.
