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With the end of 2016 in sight it is worth reflecting on some of the issues that that Australian sporting administrators have had to deal with.
The issues I’ll be looking at generally do not relate to performances on the field but to societal issues – After all, sport can be seen as a microcosm of Australian society.
The recent coronial inquest into the tragic death of Phillip Hughes in 2014 raised issues of sledging and intimidating bowling – bouncers, in other words – in first class cricket. It was the belief of cricketers at the inquest that this was normal and acceptable behaviour, but Hughes’s family believed this was beyond the ‘spirit of cricket’.
Elsewhere, Cricket Australia was under pressure to explain the balance of its international program in terms of Test cricket, ODI and Twenty20. Poor Australian team performances against Sri Lanka and South Africa raised questions related to the depth of Australian cricket and player workloads.
Racism raised its ugly head again in the AFL when a female Port Adelaide supporter threw a banana at Indigenous Adelaide player Eddie Betts – this after Adam Goodes was racially abused by a spectator a few years earlier.
Just as the AFL was able to put to bed the Essendon supplements scandal after the players appeal was dismissed by a Swiss court, along came the Lachie Whitfield case. GWS player Whitfield and two support staff – Graeme Allan and Craig Lambert – were suspended for conspiring to a avoid a possible drug test.
Rugby League started the year badly, with Sydney Roosters player Mitchell Pearce gaining lots of media attention for his drunken behaviour on Australia Day. Pearce was banned for eight matches and substantially fined. During the mid-season the NRL penalised the Parramatta Eels for major salary cap breaches. The Eels lost 12 competition points, were fined $1 million, had the registrations of five senior officials cancelled and had its 2016 Auckland Nines title revoked.
In September it was announced that there a NSW police task force is investigating match fixing in two NRL games. League has finished the season in a turmoil with the battle between the NRL and clubs over funding distribution. Beyond these issues the NRL has been in the headlines for matters of domestic violence, drugs, consorting with criminals and gambling.
Rugby Union came under scrutiny with several former Wallabies criticising the ARU for its lack of support for the grassroots of the game and the lack of free-to-air coverage. The ARU appears to be grappling with how to structure high performance competitions with limited financial resources.
Football had a relatively quiet year except for the ongoing issue of flares. The friendly between the Socceroos and Greece in Melbourne made headlines for flares before and during the game. Despite strong FFA penalties this issue is likely to remain, as it is present in many overseas competitions.
Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic had their battles with the Australian Olympic Committee over their place at the Rio Olympics for their antics on and off the court, and both players withdrew from the Olympic selection process. In October Kyrgios was banned for eight weeks and fined US$16,500 for his poor behaviour and lack of effort at the Shanghai Masters.
But the Rio Olympics had other controversies. Dual Olympic gold medallist Michael Diamond was ruled ineligible for selection following criminal charges relating to use of a firearm and drink-driving. At the Games nine Australian athletes were detained after they tampered with their accreditation to watch the men’s basketball semi-final featuring the Boomers. It was suggested that some Olympic officials did not follow through with Chef de Mission Kitty Chiller’s order to stop accreditation tampering.
Australia finished tenth on the medal tally at the Rio Olympics, and this raised questions about the Australian Sports Commission’s winning edge strategy and the level of funding for high performance sport. The year finished with ASC chairman John Wylie arguing for an online sport lottery to improve funding.
The Australian Paralympic team were rocked just prior to the Rio Games when cyclist Michael Gallagher tested positive to EPO – a rare occurrence in Australian Paralympic sport.
In April the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse held public hearing into cases relating to several sports, including football, cricket and tennis, and child protection policies at sporting organisations were examined.
The cobalt doping scandal in horse racing led to suspensions for leading trainers Peter Moody, Mark Kavanagh and Danny O’Brien. Kavanagh and O’Brien have appealed their suspensions and Moody has walked away from training.
NSW and ACT Governments banned greyhound racing after an inquiry found systemic animal cruelty, including mass greyhound killings and live baiting, in the industry. The NSW government backflipped on the ban in October due to community pressure from regional areas.
Last but not least is that women’s sport has raised several issues. Players in netball, cricket and AFL have had their income increased by governing organisations, but football and basketball were criticised for the level payments to their players. While there has been an increase in women’s sport coverage on free-to-air television, the ABC was widely condemned for dumping its coverage of the WNBL – for many decades women’s basketball led the way in television coverage for women’s sport.
In many ways 2016 was just another year in sport. Many of the issues raised during the year were not new. Australian sport is a microcosm of international sport, and many of the issues of 2016 require global solutions. Australia can lead the way through its sport administrators continuing to improve the integrity of sport in terms of strong policies and actions.
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