But, let's be honest, as far as Tasmanian sport is concerned, it does more of the former.

Fresh from hosting an unprecedented amount of AFL during our sport lovers' winter of content, the state is about to embark on a golden summer of national cricket involvement.

Maybe there are some advantages to taking this virus thing seriously. Along with the whole not dying stuff, obviously.

The state might even be on the verge of joining another national sporting league.

Hop on the NBL website and sure enough, among the logos of 10 competing teams for 2021-22 is the oversized head depicting the breed of endemic ant nobody north of Bass Strait had heard of until it was announced that Tasmania would be joining the competition.

However, click on the "fixture" tab and things are less certain as all teams still await to see when, or indeed if, the season will start.

Originally set for October, it was subsequently rescheduled to November 18 but no fixtures have yet been released and that date looks about as stable as a holiday home on the idyllic Spanish island of La Palma.

However, another seismic shift in the Australian sporting landscape appears destined to fill that gaping void of uncertainty.

On Thursday, the seventh edition of the Women's Big Bash League begins with the Sydney Sixers taking on the Melbourne Stars.

Such has been the impact of COVID-19 on Australia's two biggest cities that this fixture, and indeed the next eight, will take place at Hobart's Bellerive Oval.

All teams then head up the Midland Highway - presumably making the obligatory stop for toilets, coffee and backyard cricket contest at Campbell Town's Valentine Park - for the remainder of the 24 matches that Tasmania will stage in the 59-game season.

UTAS Stadium (12) and Invermay Park (three) will bear the load before the competition moves on to Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia.

Just over a month later, UTAS will stage the first of two fixtures in the BBL.

With the Northern venue routinely attracting larger crowds than the traditional home of Tasmanian cricket, the investment in three drop-in wickets at UTAS appears to have paid off handsomely.

And all of this follows an AFL season which saw the venue host six Hawthorn games and two memorable elimination finals which happened to be Sydney and Melbourne derbies.

It was a similar story down south where Bellerive Oval staged five North Melbourne games plus the state's former tenant St Kilda versus Fremantle in Round 23.

The vision of late Premier Jim Bacon to keep footy in the North and cricket in the South has been somewhat blurred.

If Tasmanian sport fans have been the big winners of COVID, certain mainland counterparts have been the losers. Fortunately, Cricket Australia sympathised with their situation when announcing the enforced changes.

BBL general manager Alistair Dobson said: "We understand that this revised schedule means our fans in New South Wales and Victoria won't be able to attend WBBL|07 matches in their own backyard. We are thinking of all our fans in those states as they continue navigating the challenges of lockdowns and hope they enjoy tuning into the broadcast."