THE many pairs of bleary eyes on worksites and in offices and schools across Bathurst at the moment is a sure sign that another major sporting event is under way on the other side of the world.
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This time it’s the FIFA World Cup but it could as easily be the Tour de France, Wimbledon, another Olympic Games in an unfriendly time zone, a Rugby World Cup or an Ashes cricket series.
Whatever the contest, there’s inevitably an Australian flavour taking part and millions of Australian fans wanting to follow the action.
And while our sporting nation continues to punch above its weight, we may just be our own worst enemies when it comes to getting to the top of the sporting pile.
Sporting excellence at the elite level largely comes down a question of supply and demand, and Australia’s sporting obsession essentially works against us.
We have a relatively small population base of around 25 million people but we want a dog in every fight. The numbers just don’t add up.
Take the football codes, or example. Where football (soccer) is the dominant code across Europe, Africa and South America, in Australia it probably ranks third at the top level right now behind rugby league and Australian rules.
Then there is rugby, another football code vying for young hearts and bodies to fill the national uniform.
And none of those codes is the national code – that honour belongs to cricket and while the national team is struggling at present, there are still thousands of young men and women dreaming of one day representing the country.
By diversifying our sporting base – particularly in men’s sport – we effectively have our own codes competing against each other for the best young athletes, which makes any success we enjoy on the national stage even more remarkable.
For women, netball has traditionally been the dominant sport in terms of participation, meaning the national side has been selected from the largest available talent pool.
As a result, our netballers have been consistently the top-ranked side in the world but the rising popularity of women’s football, cricket, rugby league and Australian rules might slowly threaten that dominance.
But success at the elite level should never be the primary goal of sport. Participation at the grassroots is far more important, and that’s where we want to be top of the world.