Covering a sporting league without games

This chapter analyzes how the media reported on the start of the Australia Football League’s (AFL) 2020 season and its subsequent postponement, which occurred after the AFL held its opening round of games between 19 and 22 March in spectator-less venues. The AFL abandoned games after the first week as a result of the global health pandemic; however, media reporting on the AFL’s decision to start its season had widespread Australian media coverage, that ranged from supporting the league’s decision to start the season to reports the AFL decision was ill-timed because of the global pandemic, referred to as Covid-19. The dataset – which consisted of 1,342 news articles – for the study upon which this chapter is based, was the media reporting of the AFL and Covid-19. A thematic analysis of both print and online media reporting was conducted and seven main thematic frames were uncovered.