Australia: The world’s premier sports nation
Roar Rookie By jono52795, 31 May 2010 jono52795 is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- AFL, football, hockey, Rugby League, Rugby Union
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If a foreigner judged Australian sports fans unity and diversity by viewing comments on The Roar alone, they would get the unfortunate impression that Australia is a nation that looks to establish its sporting differences – not celebrate its amazing diversity.
No matter what code you prefer, I would ask you for one brief moment to sit back and think broadly about the quality and quantity of professional sport in this country.
Is it exaggerated to suggest that it is unrivaled by any other nation on earth?
First of all, consider the amount of choice you (the average sporting fan) possess.
At reasonable price and over a 12 month time time span; the following options are available for a sports fan:
1) AFL Football: The only native code to this country, combining sheer pace and skill with tough tackling, awesome marks and at times perhaps the best and most unique atmosphere you are ever likely to experience in a sporting stadium. If you have never had the opportunity to witness an Anzac Day Clash or Carlton V Collingwood game at the MCG, do yourself a favor and do so.
2) Rugby League: Two years ago, I had never been to a game of rugby league. Last year, I was witness to a cracking game at Etihad Stadium for the first State of Origin Game. The game was fast, frenetic and electrifying under the roof. I can only imagine of the opportunities New South Welshmen and Queenslanders receive with these games in their own backyard. A word of advice to staunch AFL and Soccer fans: see State of Origin or the NRL Grand Final at least once and appreciate the atmosphere and passion involved in these fixtures.
3) Football (Soccer): Long regarded as the “sleeping giant” of the Australian sporting scene, I believe football can grow the most of all sports in the next 20 years. I remember a few years ago leaving my Aussie Rules Sunday game and noticing a huge crowd of parents and children playing Football on the pitch next door. At a professional level I think the A-League can still grow; and I am looking forward to the Melbourne Heart clash with Melbourne Victory in October. The only question: who to go for?
4) Rugby Union: This is one particular sport I haven’t been able to immerse myself in. Although strong at my private school, I am hardly built for the game. No Super 14 team in Melbourne for many years meant that the game did not feature too much in my mind. Now though I am determined to get behind the Melbourne Rebels for the next years comp and already have plans to attend the Wallabies V All Blacks clash at Etihad Stadium in July. Finally, a Victorian sporting fan will have the ability to see pro standard rugby in this city more than just once a year.
I hope the same can continue for other areas in Australia.
Of course, I have yet to mention cricket, basketball, netball, motorsport or even … hockey?
I suppose the true diversity of our sporting landscape is fully realized when the average sports fan can attend at least one game of AFL, rugby league, rugby union, football, cricket, basketball, netball and hockey during the year.
If that’s something our great nation cant unite together behind, then I don’t know what can!
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- AFL, football, hockey, Rugby League, Rugby Union
May 31st 2010 @ 7:37am
Trusters said | May 31st 2010 @ 7:37am | Report comment
America wins hands down and no contest.
Ireland would also certainly up there. Gaelic football is absolutely massive for an amateur sport. Never seen passion for a sport like it except maybe in Melbourne. There is also hurling, football and rugby is growing very quickly there with the current side enjoying some success. All this with a population half of ours.
May 31st 2010 @ 10:12am
alan said | May 31st 2010 @ 10:12am | Report comment
I think Spain deserve an honourble mention IMO – They are ultra competitive in some of the world’s most important sports such as Cycling, Golf, Formula One, Tennis, MotoGP, Basketball and of course Football.
May 31st 2010 @ 10:18am
True Tah said | May 31st 2010 @ 10:18am | Report comment
I would argue Argentina
futbol – two FIFA World Cups, enough said, produces heaps of professional players
rugby – 3rd place in 2007 IRB World Cup, produces heaps of professional players
basketball – Olympic gold medallists in 2004
tennis – top ranked players like Nalbandian, Sabatini, del Potro
hockey – womens team very strong, generally can be counted to be a medallist at the Olympics
polo – probably the best team in the world
May 31st 2010 @ 10:30am
BigAl said | May 31st 2010 @ 10:30am | Report comment
.
East Germany anyone ?
.
May 31st 2010 @ 10:54am
sheek said | May 31st 2010 @ 10:54am | Report comment
Yeah, pass the needle…..
May 31st 2010 @ 10:42am
lucyfanclub said | May 31st 2010 @ 10:42am | Report comment
What about China? We should be good at sport – the place is such a cultural wasteland, there’s not much else to occupy us.
May 31st 2010 @ 11:03am
sheek said | May 31st 2010 @ 11:03am | Report comment
We Aussies are inclined to talk ourselves up regarding our strength across many sports. We’re good, but not as good as we sometimes like to think. Other countries also have their variety & moments of domination.
We have two, perhaps 3 achilles heels. We’ve never won the FIFA world cup, the greatest team sport on the earth. We hardly rate a mention these days in athletics (track & field), the most competitive sport at the Olympics. And we aren’t anywhere near the top of road cycling, another major world sport.
It’s also been a very long time since we had a truly dominant tennis player or golfer. We don’t know know how good our Aussie rules players are, although they tend to be only fair playing hybrid International rules with Gaelic football players.
We do dominate sports that don’t attract huge numbers of countries – cricket, rugby league, rugby union, aquatics (swimming & diving). So perhaps we shouldn’t be as smug as some of us pretend to be.
However, we do have great sporting diversity, & we should embrace that.
May 31st 2010 @ 11:45am
Coops said | May 31st 2010 @ 11:45am | Report comment
Sheek
You should check the world rankings for road cycling sometime, Australia was/is ranked number 1. We are also ranked as a nation as number 1 in basketball, on the back of our Opals being the current world champions and the strength of our juniors and wheelchair basketballers. If you want to coamper apples with apples bring everything down to a per capita basis and you will find it hard to find a country that comes anywhere close to second.
May 31st 2010 @ 2:31pm
sheek said | May 31st 2010 @ 2:31pm | Report comment
Coops,
You sure we’re number one in road cycling? As opposed to indoor track cycling??? Road cycling to me is Tour de France, etc.
Overall, my comments still stand. I’m a proud Aussie, but we’re big fish in small pools with sports like cricket, both rugby codes & swimming.
When we win the football world cup & produce half a dozen track & field gold medalists at the Olympics, then we can really crow…..
May 31st 2010 @ 2:33pm
sheek said | May 31st 2010 @ 2:33pm | Report comment
Coops,
BTW – NZ might argue they are better than us on a per capita basis. They’ve got less than one-fifth our population & punch very well above their weight.
June 1st 2010 @ 7:41pm
Trusters said | June 1st 2010 @ 7:41pm | Report comment
We’ll be long dead by then Sheek.
May 31st 2010 @ 11:37am
Al said | May 31st 2010 @ 11:37am | Report comment
For insiginificant sports yes Australia is a sporting powerhouse, for the two most popular team sports on the planet (Association Football and Basketball), Australia have nothing. These two sports funnily enough have been given absolute crap by AFL types for decades.
May 31st 2010 @ 12:47pm
Ken said | May 31st 2010 @ 12:47pm | Report comment
Soccer fair enough, no arguing it’s the number 1 team sport on the planet but I have to take you up on the Basketball call. Firstly – we’re pretty good at it, I’m pretty sure we were on the podium for both the men’s and woman’s at the last Olympics. Secondly, how does it get rated the second most popular team sport in the world (vague as that description may be)? surely there’s half a dozen sports that would rate higher (Cricket would be an obvious one with the fanatical – and hugely populous – subcontinent cheering it on)
Sports significance is in the eye of the beholder of course. If you personally don’t care about it then it has no significance to you, arguments are made by non-sports lovers that all sport is pointless, nihilists would say that since we all ultimately die nothing is significant and we’re just passing the time…
May 31st 2010 @ 12:55pm
Al said | May 31st 2010 @ 12:55pm | Report comment
Basketball is clearly the second most popular sport in Europe including Russia, second by far in South America, is obviously huge in North America, has become one of the most popular sports in China, has always been the The Phillipines’ most popular sport and is popular in the middle east and sub-saharan Africa, all whose populations exceed those that are interested in cricket, including India.
May 31st 2010 @ 1:02pm
True Tah said | May 31st 2010 @ 1:02pm | Report comment
The spread of basketball is much wider than cricket – yes cricket is huge in the subcontinent (with a population of about 1.6 bln people), but apart from Australia, South Africa, West Indies, NZ, no one cares about the game, and even in the West Indies, cricket is pretty much dead.
Well the Chinese are crazy about basketball, just behind their absolute passion for futbol. Obviously the US is huge, plus continental Europe (in places like Lithuania, Greece, Spain), the Phillippines, Argentina, Brazil.
May 31st 2010 @ 1:24pm
JF said | May 31st 2010 @ 1:24pm | Report comment
The Phillipinos really love basketball – its amazing, in the regional city I live in, in Queensland, the Phillipino community have their own Basketball League! Who would of thought such short people could love Basketball so much?
May 31st 2010 @ 4:31pm
BigAl said | May 31st 2010 @ 4:31pm | Report comment
US occupation would have a lot to do with it.
May 31st 2010 @ 7:03pm
titus said | May 31st 2010 @ 7:03pm | Report comment
like my coach used to say: “if you’re good enough, then you’re tall enough”
May 31st 2010 @ 5:50pm
Mushi said | May 31st 2010 @ 5:50pm | Report comment
I don’t think the men have ever medalled at an olympics and we are miles behind the top tier in Europe + the US and Argies
May 31st 2010 @ 4:00pm
slickwilly said | May 31st 2010 @ 4:00pm | Report comment
your anti-afl stance taken to a new level… on what evidence are you basing your claim that afl types have ‘crapped’ on basketball for ‘decades’. basketball is fairly popular in victoria and appears to be a game of some interest amongst those who play afl at the elite level – but dont let that get in the way of your agenda
May 31st 2010 @ 4:39pm
Bristler said | May 31st 2010 @ 4:39pm | Report comment
Absolutely correct. The Boomers side is dominated by players from AFL states, as is any list of Australia’s greatest basketballers. Furthermore, the overwhelming majority of NBL championships have been won by teams from AFL states. People like Brett Maher and Phil Smyth are as highly revered as any AFL footballer in Adelaide. Whilst I understand that some people hate the AFL, outright lying is pretty pathetic.
May 31st 2010 @ 4:53pm
Galloping Guru said | May 31st 2010 @ 4:53pm | Report comment
Phil Smyth was a pretty handy footballer ( australian football) as a junior, Luc Longley is a big Dockers fan who had all Dockers tapes sent to the USA and became a bit of a cult hit with the Bulls, Mark Bradktes father was a very good footballer in the SANFL.
Chris Anstey, Bogut and Andrew Gaze are all from footy states and are either big fans or were pretty good juniors.
I could go on ….. but as usual the anti AFL brigade clog up this site with their crap.
May 31st 2010 @ 5:09pm
Bristler said | May 31st 2010 @ 5:09pm | Report comment
Yes the list goes on. Lindsay Gaze was a good footballer and Andrew is a well-known Hawthorn fan. Although not quite of the calibre of the above players, I believe Tony Ronaldson’s father played in the VFL. There has long been cross-over between the two sports and there has never been much rivalry. In fact, the Sports Editor of the Sunday Mail wrote an article in which he said that upon arriving in SA from NSW, he was told upon landing that SA is a basketball state (obv. aside from AFL) and how popular it is here.
Just as an aside regarding Luc Longley, I remember hearing somewhere that when he was on the road with the Bulls he was watching a game that had been sent over when Michael Jordan came in. Apparently Jordan, after watching for a few minutes declared that he could dominate this game. I am sure he could have! I have no idea of the validity of the information, I just recall reading it in the paper years ago.
May 31st 2010 @ 12:30pm
JF said | May 31st 2010 @ 12:30pm | Report comment
I am not so crazy about the fact we embrace such a wide range of sports in this country, I mean choice is great but in terms of how sport influences national culture and identity – the more sports we play, the more genericised our culture becomes. Our language, our food and our arts, all very much ‘Western Generic’, the strong sense of national identity that comes with a more concentrated national sporting landscape – is something we will never get to experience.
May 31st 2010 @ 1:05pm
AndyRoo said | May 31st 2010 @ 1:05pm | Report comment
JF
I think our cultures more about the fact we love sport so much and such a big % of us play it.
So pigenhole us with a love of sports rather than say “they love Sumo, Cricket. Ping Pong or Rugby” like people do with other countries.
May 31st 2010 @ 4:21pm
BigAl said | May 31st 2010 @ 4:21pm | Report comment
How many countries in the world have a strong enough sense of identity to create and support en masse a sport of their own ??
I’d struggle to get beyond 4 and Australia is in there!
Not too shabby ?
May 31st 2010 @ 4:38pm
punter said | May 31st 2010 @ 4:38pm | Report comment
Which 4 BigAl? This will test you!!!!
May 31st 2010 @ 4:42pm
Bristler said | May 31st 2010 @ 4:42pm | Report comment
Whilst I am sure there are many more, off the top of my head:
Ireland – Hurling/ Gaelic Games
Canada – Ice Hockey
USA – American Football and Baseball (Basketball was invented by a Canadian in America)
Australia – Australian Football
May 31st 2010 @ 4:44pm
Harvey the Scouser said | May 31st 2010 @ 4:44pm | Report comment
France has petanque
Italy has bocce
Uzbekistan has goat heads rugby
May 31st 2010 @ 4:47pm
BigAl said | May 31st 2010 @ 4:47pm | Report comment
. . . yes, but – are they supported enmasse ?
May 31st 2010 @ 4:55pm
Galloping Guru said | May 31st 2010 @ 4:55pm | Report comment
I support bocce, love playing it when camping.
May 31st 2010 @ 4:58pm
Harvey the Scouser said | May 31st 2010 @ 4:58pm | Report comment
is goat head’s rugby supported en masse?
dunno
May 31st 2010 @ 4:54pm
punter said | May 31st 2010 @ 4:54pm | Report comment
What about
golf – Scotland,
Tennis – French,
Handball – Denmark,
Cricket, Football, Rugby – England,
Athletics -Greece,
Bull fighting – Spain,
surfing – Polynesians
May 31st 2010 @ 4:46pm
BigAl said | May 31st 2010 @ 4:46pm | Report comment
Aus.; US; Ireland ; Scotland; England; Japan – there did it ! – even excelled myself
May 31st 2010 @ 4:46pm
True Tah said | May 31st 2010 @ 4:46pm | Report comment
Japan – sumo wrestling
Canada – Canadian football, lacrosse
Afghanistan – Buzkashi
India – Kabbadi kabbadi
Southeast Asia – Sepak taktraw
May 31st 2010 @ 8:17pm
ohtani's jacket said | May 31st 2010 @ 8:17pm | Report comment
Sumo isn’t supported en masse. Japan’s two biggest sports are imported.
May 31st 2010 @ 4:39pm
True Tah said | May 31st 2010 @ 4:39pm | Report comment
I guess some countries maintain their identity by A – playing their own sport or B – by speaking a unique language.
Examples of A include Australia, USA, Ireland
Examples of B include Brazil (only Lusophone country in the Americas), South Africa (ok, only a minority speak Afrikaans, but it is unique to the country), Madagascar
May 31st 2010 @ 4:55pm
punter said | May 31st 2010 @ 4:55pm | Report comment
Handball – Denmark.
May 31st 2010 @ 4:56pm
punter said | May 31st 2010 @ 4:56pm | Report comment
Tennis – French