Australia’s sporting mojo has all but disappeared
Roar Rookie By DH, 26 Jul 2012 DH is a Roar Rookie
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- Adam Scott, Australian Cricket, Australian Football, australian netball, Australian rugby, Davis Cup, wallabies
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Adam Scott’s British Open collapse is just another chapter typical of Australia’s sporting story across the past 10 years. Gone are the days when we could boast our sporting superiority on the international stage and draw respect from much larger nations.
In the British Open, Scott became the fourth Australian since 2007 to lose after leading into the final round. Our procession of unsuccessful sporting campaigns now warrants our place as the butt of sporting jokes, which was traditionally reserved for such nations as England, South Africa and Spain.
The rot commenced in 2003, when we lost a sole Ashes Test (before recovering to win the World Cup); Mark Philippoussis lost the Wimbledon Final to Roger Federer (before recovering to help win the Davis Cup); New Zealand claimed Australia’s world netball championship; and Australia allowed England to win their first ever Rugby World Cup on our home turf.
What has followed has been an end of the golden era of Australian sport and the relinquishing of many cherished titles, with a sprinkling of success stories in between.
The Wallabies have been spluttering along in major tournaments since 2003 and could be a permanent second-class citizen now that the All Blacks have discovered their mojo. Even the Kangaroos inexplicably lost to the Kiwis in the 2008 Rugby League World Cup.
The Australian cricket team have joined the middle of the pack at Test level, having previously thrashed the Rest of the World eleven, owned every major trophy, and had legitimate claims that our domestic teams could have made World Cup semi-finals.
Australian tennis has completely flatlined since the 2003 Davis Cup victory; we haven’t won a major golf tournament since Geoff Ogilvy triumphed in the 2006 US Open; and the Socceroos’ golden generation are well into their 30s, with Tim Cahill’s departure to Major League Soccer making it the first time since the late 1990s that Australia has not had a significant player in the English Premier League.
It seems Australia’s plight can be attributed to the new generation of athletes having a greater sense of complacency and entitlement, compared to the previous generation who were forced to work harder through tougher economic times locally in a pre-globilisation era. Everything comes easier these days due to technology, particularly in Australia where the economy is so much stronger than the rest of the world.
Also to blame for Australia’s international sporting struggles is the domination of AFL and NRL in attracting the latest athletes coming through the ranks. These two leagues offer great financial opportunities along with the chance to perform at home and achieve the highest celebrity status in Australia.
We haven’t yet hit rock bottom – that would require South Africa to win a cricket World Cup, and the status quo to be maintained with the loss of our netball, hockey and surfing world championships.
But it’s hard to imagine Australia’s global sporting reputation improving over the next decade.
And perhaps that’s not such a bad thing. We can get back to our roots, backing ourselves as underdogs while enjoying our lifestyle in one of the strongest economies in the world, while we still can.
July 26th 2012 @ 1:39am
Johnno said | July 26th 2012 @ 1:39am | Report comment
-A good article I was thinking about this yesterday. In the last 10 years in our most popular sports we have declined or in the large majority since the year 2003-12.
-1990′s were a golden generation for most aussie sports teams. The socceroo term the golden generation speaks volumes.
-1990′s 2 rugby world cup wins 91,99 plus a lions win in 2001. Nothing since we lost to All blacks and england beat us at home.
-Rugby league world champs 2000, now NZ are world champions holders 2008 beat us in Brisbane at home
-Cricket lost 3 out of the last 4 Ashes series, won the world cup 03- and 07, but test cricket now england are beating us we are losing to the poms at cricket people that is a disgrace when you consider how dominant warney and mcgrath, lee, gillespies, gilchrist, haydens were. Where are the warnes mcgraths, ponting in his prime gilchrists now. Hardly anywhere warner encouraging, and clarke doing well, but nathan lyon is not warne or stuart mcgill even. Maybe pat cummins and Paterrson might step up, but tim paine is not adam gilchrist and ed cowan is not matt hayden or micheal slater or david boon.
Heck Brad Hogg who is from warney’s generation is 40 plus and the nations no 1 T20 spinner he is in the T20 aussy squad still. Doesn’t say much about our cricket depth.
-Rugby we have been talking alot about rugby’s decline here on the roar lately. Where are out 2 world cups no where.
-Soccer where is the new depth coming through we are still relying on our 2006 squad in other words the bulk of the senior leaders in the squad is still players born between 1972-80. Mark scwharcher is 40 now. In his generation he had mark bosnich, and spider kalac 3 world class goal keepers in the biggest soccer league in the world. And schwarcher at 40 is comfortably our no 1 keeper.
-Where are our players in the english premier league , italain seri A, spain la liga. Hardly any left in the old days of the 90′s and early 2000′s that golden generation we had
England: Kewell, Viduka, Neil, craig moore, schwarcher, tim cahill, brett emerton, tony vidmar, paul okon
Italy: Bresciano, vinny grella, frank farina, spider kalac, paul okon for a while
spain: jonhhy aloisi, we had a few in the german bundesliaga as well
dutch league: Jason culina
Now all our boys are either playing english 2nd divsion the championship or in weaker leagues in Europe. Luke whilshere is probably our best europe player now in the strong russian league but that is about it. The next breed of socceroos, wallabies, aussy rugby league players, cricket players, men’s basket ball players have not been as dominant overall.
In men’s basketball we made 3 semi-finals out of 4 olympics. 1988,92, 2000, and did respectiably at Atlanta.
Andrew Gaze, luke longley, shane heal(who can forget his hot trial match before the olympics vs the dream team, ricky grace, scott fisher, sam mckinnon,mark bradke, chris anstey, andrew vlahov, phil smyth. Alot of those players all got some NBA experience.
-Andrew Bogut, patty mills, dave neilson have nba experince, but last 2 olympics our men’s team havent done as well as the mens golden generation of 1988-2000.
-Our women’s basketball players have done well but now cracks are starting to show there. We missed out on the medals at the women’s world championships in the Czech republic in 2011.
-Men’s tennis 1990′s pat rafter, scud, hewitt, and good back up like scott draper, stoltenburg,darren cahill, wayne arthurs, and the doubles greats the 2 woodies. Only bernard tomic flying the flag now.
-Hockey has been good as has our netball, but hockey is not as big in OZ tv ratings wise, netball is good but not as many nations play netball as women’s basketball. Aust/NZ/England/Jamaica but not in big markets liek USA or canada.
-But other than hockey and netball, i think the rest of our big national teams have gone down from the ninteis and early 2000′s. Sadly including our great woman’s opals team who missed out on a medal at the 2011 world championsips, after having won 3 straight silver at the olympics 2000-2008, and world title in 2006.
-The world’s recent economic problems eg like the GFC crisis, are not a valid excuse becoz all nations suffered from it and far worse in europe. Spain for example there basketball, soccer teams have not declined at all, or the american teams, or Italy teams.
-Maybe we need to step up funding yes it is taxpayer’s money but England which is in Europe obviusly despite it’s economic problems and the USA are stlll spending big on sport at Beijing and in London. Some of our aussy cycling coaches are working for england now, and in swimming too. Why are we not matching the poms, with spending taxpayer money on sport despiite there own econmic problems they still find the money. They are building a massive high tech high performance centre at Lord’s. I don’t hear nothing like that in OZ , the AIS needs more money too. Maybe taxpayer’s here in Australia don’t care about sporting glory as much as UK taxpayer’s do. Coz they outspent the aussies at Beijing and now in London.
-So my reason for the decline is we are not investing whether it is taxpayer government funded or private sector funding , overall we are not spending as much as before as a percentage of GDP , .
-But the Australian people have to work out how important winning gold medals, world championships, international torunamnts wins are, and start advocating for more money to be spent on high performance centres and academies, and start turning up to matches, and buying more pay tv subsriptions , buy merchandise, all thigns that fund grass roots devleopment and high performance development otherwise we won’t match nations like China or England or russia or USA or germany or france or italy or spain in the future. If we care I care , but if the aussy fans don’t care or arne’t willing to invest and compete with the big nations of the world don’t complain about less world sporting glory and success form our national teams.
-NZ is now world champion in both rugby union and rugby league . And england are ranked higher than us in the cricket and smashed us last Ashes.
July 26th 2012 @ 7:49am
Viscount Crouchback said | July 26th 2012 @ 7:49am | Report comment
I fear the Australian male has mislaid his testosterone somewhere at the bottom of a skinny latte.
July 26th 2012 @ 1:51pm
King Robbo said | July 26th 2012 @ 1:51pm | Report comment
haha true
July 26th 2012 @ 2:32pm
DH said | July 26th 2012 @ 2:32pm | Report comment
Nice one!
July 26th 2012 @ 8:36am
Rellum said | July 26th 2012 @ 8:36am | Report comment
It’s Gen-Y’s lack of character I tells ya!!!
(That is a joke for those who can’t work it out)
July 26th 2012 @ 8:38am
Punter said | July 26th 2012 @ 8:38am | Report comment
‘Also to blame for Australia’s international sporting struggles is the domination of AFL and NRL in attracting the latest athletes coming through the ranks’.
Although there is a lot of truth in this statement, you cannot blame a sporting person to pick the sport of his choice & as you say able to get financial opportunities while being able to perform at home. You see people like Casey Stoner quitting motor GP to stay closer to home.
The issue in my opinion is that with Rugby League & Aussie Rules, Australia has sports with little or no int’l flavour or even sports like Netball & cricket, that are not huge sports worldwide. We are used to being the best or near the best, so we have this expectation of what success & failure is.
Look at Tennis after our golden period of the 50s, 60s & early 70s, there was a lull until Rafter, Hewitt & Philippossis for a brief period in the 90s & 00s. Even the US who in recent times gave us Sampras, Agassi & Connors are in the doldrums in Men’s tennis at present.
Look at the Tour de France, Cadel achieved what only 1 other Aussie has done in finishing in the top 10 was deemed a failure.
Even the big countries go thru lulls & we had amazing time in the 90s & early 00′s now it’s the time of Spain or England or China. We will do well again, we cannot expect to dominate all the time.
July 26th 2012 @ 8:55am
B.A Sports said | July 26th 2012 @ 8:55am | Report comment
I think our elite athletes train just as hard as our elite athletes did in the past, I don’t think that is the issue and I don’t know that our economy (while not as bad as a few Euro ones in more recent times) helps or hinders us. Fact is we built the AIS and everything that went with it and for a country our size, that was a pretty big deal. Now you will find many more countries have these institutions and programs. Coaches and technology are more readily available and other Governments are recognising the social value of having successful national sporting teams and investing. Sport is more global, making more countries more competitive. In tennis there are so many more countries now with pro players that it is harder to have muliple top 100 players.
I think there are a million reasons for our decline in success in some areas, much of it comes back to a lack of Government investment or mis-investment is selected sports (like $45million on a World Cup bid). But for every failure or decline, there is a success story like women’s surfing, gymnastics, moto GP, improved results in track and field etc..
July 26th 2012 @ 9:32am
Hansie said | July 26th 2012 @ 9:32am | Report comment
In fact, funding to the Australian Sports Commission has increased significantly over the last decade, including in real terms.
July 26th 2012 @ 9:08am
BigAl said | July 26th 2012 @ 9:08am | Report comment
It’s no bad thing to not totally rely on sporting success for healthy self esteem.
July 26th 2012 @ 9:11am
Steve said | July 26th 2012 @ 9:11am | Report comment
World’s biggest sporting myth that the NRL and AFL are nabbing our best athletes. We lost a rugby league world cup to NZ in which they have 25,000 registered players and is the 5th or 6th most popular sport in NZ and as for AFL, well Graeme Hick once looked good when he scored 405 for Worcestershire.
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July 26th 2012 @ 2:36pm
DH said | July 26th 2012 @ 2:36pm | Report comment
Disagree Steve, especially with the influence of AFL becoming a professional sport in the 90′s. I reckon a whole generation of Victorian cricketers were lost to the game and are now playing in the AFL. Consequently, we are seeing an Australian cricket team with no quality depth whatsoever.
July 26th 2012 @ 9:18am
Redb said | July 26th 2012 @ 9:18am | Report comment
I’d be looking at playstation, x-box.
July 26th 2012 @ 9:34am
Titus said | July 26th 2012 @ 9:34am | Report comment
Brett Holman will be in the Premier League this season, a lot of guys on the fringes such as Herd, Lowry, Loungo, Williams.
Troisi going to Serie A, plenty of potential youth coming through, Amini and Langerak at Dortmund.
My only hope for Cricket is we get a few more players showing good sportsmanship in the vein of Steve Waugh, Brett McGrath, a bit more of a multi-cultural makeup would be nice also..
Just hope the Wallabies start to play with a bit more flair an creativity, you just want these teams to make you feel proud to be an Aussie and hopeful for the future of the games.
July 26th 2012 @ 9:40am
Matt F said | July 26th 2012 @ 9:40am | Report comment
A lot of these are cyclical and some are a result of increased global competition. I won’t go into every sport but here’s a few.
Yes, we were the best cricket team in the world for a long time but we were awful in the 80′s and were good, but not the best in the 70′s etc. We had a golden era that happens once every so often. It was never going to last. Have a look at the amount of time other sides have spent at the top since we were deposed. India had it for a little bit but have fallen away badly and England haven’t been great in recent test series and look to be up against it at home vs a very good South African team. Nobody looks like spending the best part of a decade on top like we did. To think that it was going to last forever is ludicrous.
The Wallabies had a fantastic period in the late 90′s to around 2001 but you only have to look at our historical record against the All Blacks (106-45 for the All Blacks with 5 draws) to see exactly where we sit as Rugby nation. We’re in the top few but over an extended period we’ve never really been the dominant number one side. Besides we did make the semi’s at te last World Cup. That’s hardly a bad result.
The current state of Australian Tennis is really the end result of a steady 30 year decline. Yes there’s been some poor management by the officials but we should remember that when we were truly a dominant tennis nation there was really only us, Britain and the USA competing. Now tennis is a truly global sport which means we have far greater competition. That being said, last year we won our first women’s major since 1980.
I’m not quite sure what you’re talking about with us falling away in Surfing? Didn’t Steph Gilmore just win her 5th title very recently? Of the current Top 15 ranked surfer’s 8 are Australian as well. I’m far from a surfing expert but that seems like a pretty good number.
July 26th 2012 @ 2:38pm
DH said | July 26th 2012 @ 2:38pm | Report comment
Surfing comment was an editing error Matt, it was written in reverse originally.
Agree that it is cyclical as you clearly point out. Will be interesting to see if we improve over the next few years.