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Rugby Union, field hockey and football
Radike Samo of the Wallabies with the ball in a Tri-Nations match against the All Blacks from 2011
Along with New Zealand (All Blacks) and South Africa (Springboks), Australia (Wallabies) made up the Big 3 in world rugby for a very long time. The All Blacks are of course the most successful rugby union side ever in history with a mind-boggling win % of 75.65%, followed by the Springboks at 62.62% and the Wallabies are third at 52.99%.
The Wallabies were the first team to win two Rugby World Cups when they won the 1999 edition to follow their maiden triumph in 1991. As in other sports, they have taken a few steps back since then, being overhauled by European teams such as England, France, Scotland and Wales.
They have always had to contend with being second best to the all-conquering All Blacks, but they still used to do well at the major tournaments. But during 2005 and 2007, they suffered the ignominy of finishing the year outside the top 3 in the world, a rarity for them. The 2009 season onwards though, the Wallabies have picked up their performances, but still struggle to get wins against the big two – the All Blacks and the Springboks.
When you look at the Socceroos, both the men’s and women’s football teams continue to be amongst the top two teams in Asia (after having moved from the Oceania confederation in 2005).
Field hockey is where it gets interesting. The men’s hockey team, despite being one of the dominant forces in the game, has only one gold medal to its name, from 2004 in Athens. They have frustratingly only picked up the bronze in 2000, 2008 and 2012. They did win the 2010 World Cup, after finishing runners-up in the previous two editions.
That was their second World Cup triumph. The Champions Trophy meanwhile has become somewhat of an Aussie playground; five straight titles on the bounce since 2008 means they will be going for their sixth straight title next year in Argentina.
It is something of a mirror image with the women. Three Olympic Gold medals and two World Cup Gold medals to their name mean they have a better trophy cabinet than the men. But again, despite being amongst the elite teams, they have not picked up an Olympic medal since 2000 and only have a silver to show since the 1998 World Cup.
What could be the reason?
About 30 years ago, most suburbs in Australia, especially the affluent ones had a tennis court, grass, clay and concrete, within walking distances for kids to go out and play on. Today, they no longer exist, replaced instead by swimming pools. Tennis officials in Australia are only too aware of it. The tennis courts which also served as a make-shift cricket pitch or basketball court are nearing extinction in Kangaroo land.
On the Olympic front, you could perhaps fault the investment; while Britain committed £304 million to the 2012 games, Australia committed £113 million.
As per a research report from about 3 years ago by Sweeny Sports, an Australian sports research firm, (as reported by the Guardian), among men, the most popular organized sports are golf and cycling (both 8.8 per cent of the male population), swimming (8 per cent), running (5.4), tennis (4.9), football and cricket (both 3.9). Among women, the top organized sports are swimming (10), netball (4.8), tennis (4.7) and cycling (3.9).
The total value of construction works in the form of public swimming pools, football grounds and other stadia has also increased from £520 million to close to £1.2 billion in the past decade. Four-fifths of that spending comes from the private sector. Yet, oddly enough, while all these numbers are on the rise and surveys reveal that the most popular sports in Australia in terms of ‘interest’ and participation are tennis, swimming and cricket, those three sports are exactly where Australia have taken a beating.
More and more Australians are also seemingly engaging in non-competitive physical pastimes and extreme sports such as skateboarding, surfing, mountaineering and off-road cycling, which have seen a massive spike in popularity. Some Australians believe that the country’s Australian Rules Football is at fault, with participation in the sport having gone up almost 10% in the last decade, thus being accused of gobbling up the country’s best cricketers, tennis players, footballers and basketball players.
Verdict
Piecing together the various elements of the jigsaw, you get a fair idea of why Australian sport has fallen behind that of other countries.
But you also have to give the other countries their fair share of credit. Some of Australia’s best programmes such as the ones in cricket, swimming and athletics have been adopted by other countries as a model and improved upon. Even the Australian Institute for Sport (AIS), which was formed after the dismal showing in the 1976 Olympics, has been taken up as a benchmark by other countries’ Olympic associations.
Australia underwent a similar phase of sporting barrenness sometime in the early 80s, when as now, things looked alarmingly glum and the mood of the nation was sombre. Australia managed to rebound from that, creating a generation of elite athletes and sportsmen who would go on to be amongst the best in the world.
The country needs another renaissance in the wake of this latest fall from grace, to spring back up and rise from the ashes of the fallen. The sporting world will be better for it.
