- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Yesterday I asked why Australia’s sporting status in the world had slipped, and gave some possible reasons why. Today, I offer a left-field explanation, with a theory that the AFL may have a hand in it.
AFL fans claim that their sport has never been stronger.
It’s hard to officially gauge such a claim. With no international contests (no, the hybrid International Rules series against Ireland doesn’t count), there is no clear way of evaluating the competition.
But it is true that the standard of play in the AFL is exceptionally high at the moment, even allowing for the initial dilution of talent with the creation of the Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney.
Apart from the standard of play, the game has great attendance figures, fantastic membership numbers, is generating hundreds of millions in revenue, and appears to be going from strength to strength. This is most clearly evidenced by the AFL’s impressive TV deal and the birth of the two new clubs.
According to a Government report, participation in Australian Rules football increased by 38% between 2001 and 2009.
So the question needs to be asked: could the strength and growth of the AFL be harming our global sporting performance?
Could it be that more talented young Australian athletes are playing Aussie Rules, rather than sports with international representation? Ahead of rugby league, union, football, cricket, basketball, tennis, swimming, or a any others?
Karmichael Hunt and Israel Folau are two obvious examples of athletes playing in the AFL rather than another sport, but that’s not quite who I mean. Those players were poached once they had achieved success at rugby league.
What about the ramifications of AFL players and juniors choosing, in the first instance, Aussie Rules instead of a sport with international representation?
In a parallel universe, if the AFL had not existed, or had failed to identify him, could Chris Judd instead have been playing midfield for the Socceroos?
Or Jonathan Brown lining up as lock for the Kangaroos? Adam Goodes playing small forward for the Boomers? Matthew Pavlich in the second row for the Wallabies? Nick Riewoldt opening the bowling on Boxing Day?
I’m not suggesting that those players could cross over to other sports now and be successful. But all are such great natural athletes with unbelievable skills that if they had taken up the respective sports as teenagers, who knows?
As the AFL gets stronger, and attracts more and more of our best young athletes, does it have an adverse effect on our international performance in other sports?
Perhaps the performance of our female athletes will give us an insight into the answer.
Whilst women do play Aussie Rules, it’s in smaller numbers at an amateur level. It’s therefore safe to assume that the talent stocks and achievements of our female athletes should be unaffected by the strength of the AFL. And there is some evidence to support that assumption:
Behind superstar Lauren Jackson, our female basketballers, are ranked second in the world. They won gold at the World Championships in 2006, and whilst they are yet to defeat their nemesis, the United States, at the Olympics, they’ve won 3 consecutive silver medals in 2000, 2004 and 2008.
Sam Stosur is currently ranked 4th in the world in women’s tennis. The Netball Diamonds are world champions. Our female cricketers won the Twenty/20 World Cup in 2010.
Meanwhile, in the pool, Australia’s male swimmers were unable to win a single gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, leaving it to the girls to bring home the shiniest metal.
Compare that with yesterday’s breakdown of the recent performances of our men internationally.
It does seem that whilst our women are performing stronger than ever internationally, our men are tailing off.
And yet the AFL has never been stronger.
Coincidence? Rubbish? Or the hint of a valid point?