Why is Australia better than England at sport?

Thank you tomasito. I could watch that drop goal again and again.

What is the per capital funding rate of Oz vs England for sport?

i reckon this one is a bit of a red herring, cos it depends on how you spend the cash. you can plough shitloads of cash into grassroots participation and not win anything, or you can plough shitloads of cash into talent ID/elite development programs and win a few trophies. sure, you need a reasonable pool of talent, and funding elite programs to the exclusion of grassroots will result in long-term diminishment of this pool, but in the short term it works.

Australia has done well at sport over the last 30 years because we built a great Institute-based infrastructure for developing elite talent, both for players and coaches, across a range of sports. This incorporates talent ID, professional coaching and a very scientific approach to training (sports science, nutrition, recovery, physio, the works). This all came out of our near-complete failure at the 1976 Olympics. Once this system was shown to work, it spread across heaps of sports in Australia, and eventually to other countries (see the UK cricket academy and track cycling program).

Other factors are the weather (of course), and our strong desire to win things rather than be 'diffident poofter artists'*. we have space to play sport, we have the weather to do it for most of the year, and we have a culture that rewards sporting prowess highly. you're just lucky that the most popular sport in australia is only played there. If the money, passion and effort that goes into AFL was channeled into international sport England would never beat us in anything ever again!

*this is of course intended as an exaggerated satirical view of the stereotypical aussie sports culture, not my own personal view.

England's population is just over 50 million. Don't confuse England and the UK.

OK, if we're only counting England then we'll be subtracting a large bunch of medals from the UK's olympic haul next time there's a discussion about whether England beat Australia in that particular contest. Sweet!

I think it's got something to do with Aussies being such awful losers.

Hang on...they're ungracious winners too. Erm...

OK, if we're only counting England then we'll be subtracting a large bunch of medals from the UK's olympic haul next time there's a discussion about whether England beat Australia in that particular contest. Sweet!

Exactly.

every country has their favorite sports they excel at. take top level motor racing the u.k has the highest number of F1 champions and the second highest number of moto-gp winners.
with a lot of racing circuits and manufacturers based here it's not difficult to see why.
finland have the highest number of rally world championship winners, their 2 year driving test for young drivers involving skid pans and ice driving is definately a factor.

What I want to know is, if Australias so fucking brilliant, what the hell are they all doing over here?

I was embarassed to call myself a rugby fan the way the Australian contingent of the pub conducted themselves on the weekend. It was like I was at a 1980's football match. Bloody ridiculous.

every country has their favorite sports they excel at. take top level motor racing the u.k has the highest number of F1 champions and the second highest number of moto-gp winners.
with a lot of racing circuits and manufacturers based here it's not difficult to see why.
finland have the highest number of rally world championship winners, their 2 year driving test for young drivers involving skid pans and ice driving is definately a factor.

How muh of your information about Finland did you get last night watching top gear?

How muh of your information about Finland did you get last night watching top gear?

figures from wiki, test info from top gear. a long list of funny sounding names ending in 'unen' 'inen' and 'ola' from memory.

What I want to know is, if Australias so fucking brilliant, what the hell are they all doing over here?

umm, earning money and living somewhere other than home for a bit to see what it's like before you get too old. but there are more english in aus than there are aussies over here.

I was embarassed to call myself a rugby fan the way the Australian contingent of the pub conducted themselves on the weekend. It was like I was at a 1980's football match. Bloody ridiculous.

being lectured about poor sportsmanship of fans is a bit rich considering the english fans booing, whistling and slow-clapping while Matt Giteau was lining up kicks on the weekend. The English RFU was embarrassed enough to call the Australian High Commissioner to apologise: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/article-1086407/RFU-say-sorry-Aussies-bad-sports-Twickenham.html

I'm not defending drunk Aussies being fucktards, and I'll cringe as hard or harder as anyone about dickhead Aussies, but drunken loutish behaviour on tour is definitely a sport the English are world champions at, and by a good margin.

I'm not defending drunk Aussies being fucktards, and I'll cringe as hard or harder as anyone about dickhead Aussies, but drunken loutish behaviour on tour is definitely a sport the English are world champions at, and by a good margin.

makes me think of the australian prime minister handing out those rugby world championship medals like he was a dinner lady dishing out the last of the dumplings before she could go home. i can't believe a nations leader could exhibit such surly behavior in front of the millions of people.

makes me think of the australian prime minister handing out those rugby world championship medals like he was a dinner lady dishing out the last of the dumplings before she could go home. i can't believe a nations leader could exhibit such surly behavior in front of the millions of people.

yes we all know that John Howard is/was a complete cnut.

i reckon this one is a bit of a red herring, cos it depends on how you spend the cash. you can plough shitloads of cash into grassroots participation and not win anything, or you can plough shitloads of cash into talent ID/elite development programs and win a few trophies. sure, you need a reasonable pool of talent, and funding elite programs to the exclusion of grassroots will result in long-term diminishment of this pool, but in the short term it works.

Australia has done well at sport over the last 30 years because we built a great Institute-based infrastructure for developing elite talent, both for players and coaches, across a range of sports. This incorporates talent ID, professional coaching and a very scientific approach to training (sports science, nutrition, recovery, physio, the works). This all came out of our near-complete failure at the 1976 Olympics. Once this system was shown to work, it spread across heaps of sports in Australia, and eventually to other countries (see the UK cricket academy and track cycling program).

Other factors are the weather (of course), and our strong desire to win things rather than be 'diffident poofter artists'*. we have space to play sport, we have the weather to do it for most of the year, and we have a culture that rewards sporting prowess highly. you're just lucky that the most popular sport in australia is only played there. If the money, passion and effort that goes into AFL was channeled into international sport England would never beat us in anything ever again!

*this is of course intended as an exaggerated satirical view of the stereotypical aussie sports culture, not my own personal view.

Which opens the broader question of what sport is for and whether the money spent on winning Olympic medals,in Australia or Britain, can be justified when there are many other areas where it could be spent and which might seem more worthwhile than the nebulous idea of boosting 'national pride' or the entirely unproven idea that Olympic success leads to a generally healthier and more active population.

We can still have you on the Darts.. look at this fine figure of an athlete and tell me it doesnt make you proud...

although to be fair on the Viking he has lost 2/3 of his body weight recently.

Top 250 world chess players: ENG 8 AUS 0

Nobel Prize Laureates: ENG 114 AUS 9

why are we all biting at such obvious bait from Dale?

for shame.

Which opens the broader question of what sport is for and whether the money spent on winning Olympic medals,in Australia or Britain, can be justified when there are many other areas where it could be spent and which might seem more worthwhile than the nebulous idea of boosting 'national pride' or the entirely unproven idea that Olympic success leads to a generally healthier and more active population.

there is a lot of debate about this in Australia. my view is that spending money on elite sport is worthwhile, because it makes people proud and it makes them feel part of a community - people engage with the country in a positive way and feel proud to be Australian. This does have a positive benefit (which is very difficult to measure) in that it people behave better and are more productive when they have a sense that they are part of something (in this case a nation) that is worthwhile and successful. If you feel like your country is achieving something on the world stage it puts you in a positive frame of mind, you're happier and less likely to be antisocial.

Of course, you have to be careful to guard against national triumphalism, and i think we've gone a bit further than is healthy over the last decade or so (egged on by a conservative and very nationalistic PM the aforementioned arsehat John Howard). But generally I think that sport is one of the best ways for a significant chunk of the population to drop their differences and support a common cause.

I was involved in grassroots sport (athletics) in Melbourne for over a decade, and we received a fair bit of government funding, without which we would never have been able to maintain our facilities (which are used by thousands of people every week). I don't know the balance between elite/grassroots funding, but there is a lot of funding for community sport from federal, state and local governments in Australia.

We can still have you on the Darts..

Not too sure about that. Current PDC World Champ is a Canadian, while a Welshman is the BDO Champ (beating Aussie Simon Whitlock in a classic final back in January).

Are our drunken cricket fans better than the drunk soccer hooligans?
Both make their nations so proud.. :P

For the record, my archery club received fuck all govt. funding. I was a junior state champion but stopped shooting because we no longer had enough members to support the club and it shut down. Maybe in capital cities, popular sports get money but country towns and/or minor sports are all about DIY.

parody

why are we all biting at such obvious bait from Dale?

for shame.
it is merely a fact

Are our drunken cricket fans better than the drunk soccer hooligans?
Both make their nations so proud.. :P

For the record, my archery club received fuck all govt. funding. I was a junior state champion but stopped shooting because we no longer had enough members to support the club and it shut down. Maybe in capital cities, popular sports get money but country towns and/or minor sports are all about DIY.

you should've shot some kangaroos or dingoes or something to raise money.

or picked a real sport like running in circles.

why are we all biting at such obvious bait from Dale?

for shame.

you are doing it from me too ;)

it is merely a fact

no it isn't. it's a reason for national pride. you should be thankful that australia has given something to the rest of the world.