A bad week for Aussie sport. Why we keep coming up short.

[disco]

Well it started off bad & just got worse from there, sure the Kangaroos can feel slightly robbed with forward passes & injuries but they didn't really do enough to win the four nations.

Well we've seen it all time & time again with Dingo's wallabies & then they backed up Twickers with another killer performance in Ireland.

Then Mark Webber saved his worst for last as did Will Power in the Indy cars earlier this year.

Our champion Netballers also bottled it in the big one this year & now the Socceroos have just been reamed in Cairo as well as being shit during the world cup.

The cricket side is a shambles & are looking shaky for the 1st home ashes series since Beefy was in his prime.

So what's changed since the late 90's early 00's? why do we always come up short in the big ones?

All above codes (soccer aside) we have world class players but can't win when it matters.

 

[matty_k]

swings and roundabouts

 

[Epi]

Because we used to take sport more seriously than everyone else. Now they all take it seriously as well...

 

[sevenpointdropgoal]

The recent tendency for NZ to cause an upset has made international league games worth watching for the first time in quite a while. Not that I'd watch them anyway, but if you are into that kind of thing...

The Wobs... well, it's hardly limited to this week.

Webber's been exceptional this year, and there was a time when an 8th place would have us all jumping up and down about actually getting a number, rather than the customary DNF.

The netball's a shame, as we are usually pretty good at that. Invert that for the football.

The Cricket side's problems are obvious. There are no keg shaped cricketers, no one sending for emergency care packages containing nothing but tinned baked beans and spaghetti, no flamboyant mustaches, and no Australian cricketer has set a drinking record in well over a decade. How can we expect to win with such a shambolic and amateurish lack of parochial eccentricities?

 

[JJJ]

The Cricket side's problems are obvious. There are no keg shaped cricketers, no one sending for emergency care packages containing nothing but tinned baked beans and spaghetti, no flamboyant mustaches, and no Australian cricketer has set a drinking record in well over a decade. How can we expect to win with such a shambolic and amateurish lack of parochial eccentricities?

Symonds had a crack at turning that around, and paid the price. I stopped watching cricket right around then.

Edit: @OP let's blame it on a younger generation raised with Xboxes and Playstations.

 

[I like to watch]

The answer is obviously Robbie Deans, had he been sacked I'm sure Webber would be world champ, the Kangaroo's & Netballers victorious.Not too sure about the poofballers. Definately you can chart the demise of Aust cricket with the appointment of RD.
Robbie is also responsible for our hung parliament & the NBN fiasco, the shitty weather lately & the fact that the girl in the Coffee shop continually puts too much froth in my flat white.
Lets not even start on the GFC, but it's got his fingerprints all over that as well.

 

[MajorlyRagerly]

Hey - blaming Deans is a NZ trait, you can't pinch that of us!

Historically I think Aussie sportspeople have a mental edge over the rest of the planet - not sure why, but there seemed to be that extra push of determnation which got you lot across the gain line. I'm not sure that edge is there anymore, not due to aussie going down, more the rest of us catching up.

But of all countries, I'd still back Australia to get the next edge on the competition - be it mental, physical etc.

 

[Thomond78]

Part of it is that it's not enough to want to win.

You have to absolutely, utterly, hate, fear and dread the thought of losing from the core of your being.

The ABs do. Munster do, especially at home. I'm just a fan, but I can't enjoy watching tight Munster games; the fear, the nerves, the dread, the ab-so-fucking-lute determination that it will NOT be today, all add up to getting me even more wound up that I used be playing. And I'm not alone; you can see it all around TP, and everyone there winding up to the stage where even in the stands we will do whatever it takes to get a result. And that, let it be noted, is nothing compared to Cork matches. If Cork play badly, it wrecks my mood for at least a week.

The Wobblies used do, and certainly the Aussie cricketers historically have.

And a big chunk of it, IMO, is mortal dread of going back home, and knowing you left everyone down when you are brought up, from birth, to win. In a year, there will be kids playing on the full Munster team who have never in their rugby-playing lives seen us not be in the HEC knock-out stages; one was on the bench on Tuesday. The fear of being the first to lose that record is terrifying. The scars from the 2007 nightmare will never heal, and just drive everyone on to make sure we never have to go through it again.

Historically, Australians have always had that in most sports. And it's been your key weapon in most sports.

 

[Richo]

It's easy to confuse mental toughness with just being a c*nt. Steve Waugh had the former, Punter a bit more of the latter. The Wallabies have neither.

 

[qwerty51]

Australian sport is corrupt because of it's small market, the money is made through bookmakers.

 

[Epi]

So we threw those games?

 

[qwerty51]

Yes although this is what I like to believe when I lose money on Australia

 

[RugbyFuture]

thought we could live of the same teams a decade later *cough*kick ponting*cough*

we didnt have a slow process of change so we had to rebuild from the start.

 

[GC]

Presence of non-Queenslanders in the respective teams. Simple.

 

[Jnor]

Yeah we should just get the Reds to play as the Wallabies and not worry about those other shitheads...

 

[DPK]

It's easy to confuse mental toughness with just being a c*nt. Steve Waugh had the former, Punter a bit more of the latter. The Wallabies have neither.

He may be a c%nt, but at least he's our c#nt...

 

[fatprop]

All above codes (soccer aside) we have world class players but can't win when it matters

Other counties have better players - it happens

 

[Crow]

So who wants to watch some AFL?

 

[liquor box]

It has coincided with players shaving their chests and legs and caring more about their appearance than their on field performance. We dont seem to have any hard bastards that put fear in the opposition. Just looking at Rugby, I dont think there are too many players in the Wallabies that opponants would be scared of?

I think the more advertising that players are involved in the worse they get, look at how many crappy ads the cricketers are in.

 

[farva]

Danny Green won...