It's the "what if" nature of the situation that is hard to take.
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But it's the abrupt severing of relationships and once-in-a-lifetime experiences, in what was a glorious time in the lives of a group of young men, that is even harder to take, according to former Raiders, NSW and Australia star Tom Learoyd-Lahrs.
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When the NSW Rugby League cancelled the under-18 Laurie Daley Cup because of the coronavirus, it left the Greater Northern Tigers, whom Learoyd-Lahrs coached, dangling in the breeze.
A 24-18 defeat of Parramatta at McKinnon Field, in Aberdeen, had the Tigers sweating on the result of a final-round clash between the Eels and the Northern Rivers Titans.
If the Eels had won, the Tigers would have advanced to the finals.
"I thought that Parramatta game, our last game, was probably our best performance," Learoyd-Lahrs said.
"So it looked like we were heading in the right directions. It's one of those things where you don't get to find out .. To not find out where we sat in the spectrum, I guess, was frustrating."
As bad as that was, Learoyd-Lahrs said the "biggest thing is the experience for those young blokes: they don't get to do that again".
Learoyd-Lahrs has a deep connection to a number of the Greater Northern players, having coached them at the Bears for years. There are other Greater Northern players that he got to know at Farrer, where he is the Aboriginal liaison officer.
Following the Tigers' 32-4 opening-round defeat of Newcastle, he said he decided to coach the side because he believed in them: he knew they would work hard and had plenty of "footy in them".
"I honestly just looked at them, and I know they're great young boys, and I see a lot of potential in the squad," he said. "And I thought, 'Well, I wanna try and help them reach that potential.'"
The coronavirus may have prevented that from happening. A sad observation in a sad time.
