Could it be that the two major football codes are trying to bluff Australia into allowing them to begin playing their games at the top level much sooner than envisaged?
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The NRL has been bold enough even to propose an actual date - May 28.
But then its chairman Peter V'landys is that out-there-take-me-on sort of guy.
He eased racing out of the equine flu disaster with many accolades. But that same assertiveness may not be the recipe as this crisis affects the whole nation, not just part.
In the AFL where the calls are mostly made or conveyed by senior staff rather than the chair, the approach has been less black and white, leaving most of the musing to the commentariat.
Potential solutions are accordingly presented as if they are fact, then almost as quickly as glitches are pointed out, explained away as one or two of a whole lot of ideas being thrown about.
There is desperation for certainty from everywhere within the game but as the nation and the whole world has come to know over the past few months, there is rarely anything that can be regarded as definitive in the current situation.
It's fair enough that folk like Eddie McGuire and Craig Hutchison have put themselves out there as head cheerleaders to get AFL games back on the park. They are passionate advocates for the game for sure, but both are also personally heavily invested in the competition at the highest level.
McGuire is not only the voluntary head of the league's most famous club but through his own television production company JAM TV has recently sign up to a $10million arrangement with Amazon to deliver AFL-based product
Hutchison acquired the Footy Record from the AFL and has a range of media interests like radio station SEN that are heavily dependent on a flourishing footy industry.
AFL players are said to be keen to get back playing footy. It's a time to be very cautious, but if they are remotely serious about it it's no time to be precious.
If there is anything concrete in the competition hubs concept and if it were to be the only viable means of resuming competition quickly, then the players would have to stop sooking and accept it.
The amount of rhetoric that followed the floating of that idea was extraordinary.
Even before the footballers could express themselves former stars and media commentators were doing the job for them.
Having to isolate away from family in the wilderness of Western Australia, Tasmania or the Northern Territory for up to six weeks could, it seemed, neuter the plan before it went anywhere.
What a load of codswallop! It's a theory that doesn't get much of a run when, for example, it comes to an end-of-season trip.
These guys are still highly remunerated, even with a pay cut.
And a concept like this one is designed to ensure that remains the case.
Compare and contrast with so many higher end and journeymen athletes in Olympic and amateur sports - both male and female - who head off alone for training camps and overseas competitions year in year out.
And many of those sojourns are for longer than six weeks and further away than the apparent horrors of interstate.
What's even more poignant is that those athletes are on the equivalent of Jobkeeper payments - on a permanent basis - not generous contracts however reduced.
As the nation was rapidly shutting down both the NRL and AFL tried to hang on - setting themselves apart from the rest of the country.
Part of their argument was that they would provide good cheer to the rest of us as we drifted into isolation.
Since then at least from the AFL players' point of view, the case has been more about getting things going again for the sake of all their colleagues in support roles who now find themselves stood down.
The truth of course is that it's all about the way the viability of the NRL and AFL competitions have been structured in recent times.
In essence that means delivering to those who pay the massive broadcast fees that have allowed the two leagues, their players and support crews to operate in the styles to which they have become accustomed.
No surprise that an essential pre-condition for potential competition hub grounds is that they have LED perimeter signage capacity.
