Comments on: Fearless Crawford hits back at Coates in funding row

By: Jameswm

Jameswm — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:50:10 +0000

What about athletics? Where does that sit?

Does the grass roots (ie Little Athletics and interclub) get funding but not the elit level?

I’m curious as to where Crawford draws the line.

By: AndyRoo

AndyRoo — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:08:13 +0000

I vaguely recall positive mentions for Swimming as one of those sports important to Australians. i.e. a Bronze medal in swimming is important but a bronze medal in greco Roman wrestling not so much.

By: Pippinu

Pippinu — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:05:22 +0000

I would have thought that both swimming and athletics fit the bill as sports that need to be supported at grass roots level.

Crawford did not mention either of them as examples of sports getting far too much funding in relation to their participation rates and cultural significance.

By: Jameswm

Jameswm — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:48:39 +0000

I still want to hear where sports like swimming and athletics fit into this.

Both are original and well known Olympic sports, but both also enjoy enormous participation levels at a kids level. They are also lifetime sports.

I think you need funding at all levels for each – kids, up to elite training for the most talented, then grants for Olympic level performers.

By: cruyff turn

cruyff turn — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:16:01 +0000

Excellent comment Kurt. Kudos also to Crawford for standing his ground.

By: gary blaschke

gary blaschke — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:14:45 +0000

Everyone has their own opinion and always for the ulterior motive. The Olympic sports want more to compete against the rest of the world’s elite, fringe sports see it as an opportunity to get their fingers in the trough, yet where does it leave Disabled Sport ?
Crawford gave a massive single page towards the disabled sports that receives close to nothing. Infact you need to read the fine print behind the report and the National Plan for Disability Sport, as it says exactly what the government wanted. Promote “Community Sport’, yet what exactly is it, they won’t tell me ?

Is it participation, having a go or is it as the Australian Sports Commission states, it has to be competitive to be classified as a Sport. Regional, State and National titles, can anyone tell me of any sport I can place my Qudripligic friends needing breathing assistance, other than Disabled Surfing ? They are competing against life itself and the ASC and Federal government want to compete ?

What a joke !

By: AndyRoo

AndyRoo — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:36:41 +0000

Coates also sounded like a dill when he had a go at the Sports Minister Kate Ellis.

By: albatross

albatross — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:23:13 +0000

And spell checker challenged.

By: JiMMM

JiMMM — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:28:44 +0000

Interesting peice of info about the Hockey funding Kurt, I’m surprised that that didn’t amke it into the public domian (or that the media ignored it). My Issue is that example is that I still see Hockey’s funding under threat of being severly cut (it is one of teh highest now), let’s face it the sport only got mentioned as part of the Australian psyche because one of the committee members was involved with Hockey Australia (if you don’t believe me look at the article again and tell me which sports that is part of the Australian psyche wasn’t mentioned).

And on a final note yes I am bracket happy ().

By: Kurt

Kurt — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:34:23 +0000

Good comeback by Crawford, some of the nonsense that has been written about this report is quite astounding. Listening to muppets like Roy Masters you’d believe that funding for Olympic sports will be savagely cut and all the savings given to the AFL. Whereas in fact the report simply states that if we’re going to be spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on sport, wouldn’t it be better if we used that not just to pursue Olympic medals for their own sakes, but to develop the overall health and fitness of the population. And while we’re at it, maybe we should spend the money on sports that actually mean something to the Australian people as indicated by participation levels and not just those we’re targeting because we think we can win a few cheap medals.

Case in point, a colleague of mine is relatively senior committee member within Hockey Australia. He told me last year they had effectively been put on notice by the AOC that their funding would be cut as the most gold medals they can contribute is two, whereas a single shooter can knock that over in a good morning’s work. Anyone who thinks that’s a good approach to funding sports in this country and that any suggestion to the contrary is part of an AFL plot to hobble rival sports is genuinely deluded.