Australians love to anoint a sporting hero. Australians value the grafter. We are obsessed with the consummate professional that gets the best out of themselves and their career. From that viewpoint, one can understand how the often-disproportionate outrage towards the likes of Nick Kyrgios manifests itself in the national discourse. Further to that is the total apathy with which the public reacts to the seemingly endless list of scandals involving NRL and AFL players, who can ill-afford a misstep in this age of intense scrutiny.
Do we even have a male Australian sporting hero anymore? The reaction to Keisuke Honda’s comments in a couple of recent media appearances suggests we do not. Melbourne Victory’s Japanese marquee signing made some mundane comments about continuing to attack whilst being 4-0 up, entertaining fans, training hard and doing extra sessions on days off. One would have thought we would be accustomed to the cliched speak of the increasingly media savvy modern day sportsperson. But instead it was a breath of fresh air for many people that have been disenfranchised by the numerous indiscretions of sportsmen in this era.
Perhaps it also shows where Honda diverges culturally from his Australian counterparts. And it is important to remember that Australian sporting culture does not exist in a vacuum; it is a by-product of wider cultural trends in this country. This includes, but is not limited to, the “boys club” culture in men’s team sports – particularly rugby league, cricket and Australian rules football – that spur on other negative behaviours in young males. We have seen this result in the win-at-all-costs mentalities that overstepped the lines of legality in the case of both the Essendon Football Club and Australian national men’s cricket team. Numerous drug, alcohol and sex scandals that continue to plague men’s sport in this country are also indicative of the underbelly of toxic masculinity that permeates through it.
Changes in governance such as what we have recently seen at board level at Cricket Australia will hopefully instigate some cultural change. However, it is infinitely more difficult to change culture from the top-down when in this instance it is predominantly ingrained from the bottom up. Many of these negative behaviours are instilled at grassroots level.
But it is not all doom and gloom across the Australian sporting landscape. Female athletes across the country are stepping up and filling the voids vacated by their male counterparts. Women’s sport in Australia is as popular as it ever has been, partly due to the successes of Australian sportswomen in football, rugby sevens, cricket, basketball and netball, amongst others. It can also be attributed to the commitment that is starting to be shown by Australian sporting codes in promoting and developing local professional leagues, with the WBBL, AFLW, Super Netball and W-League continuing to improve on a yearly basis in terms of quality and professionalism.
It is refreshing. Not only does it add more to the calendar for this sports-mad country, but it provides genuine role models with star power for girls – and boys – who might otherwise have to look up to male athletes they may not share the same connection to.
And many of these athletes are so unquestionably likeable. Captaining the Australian cricket team, Meg Lanning is not only one of the best players in the world but leads a successful team and commands respect as a leader through her own integrity and her positive approach to the game. Sam Kerr is the face of Australian football, recently placing fifth in the inaugural Women’s Ballon d’Or. She also became the W-League’s first marquee player this season. And Daisy Pearce miraculously juggles playing Australian rules football with her burgeoning media career while recently announcing that she is expecting twins next year. They are just three examples.
A recent study from True North Research also indicated that Australians are more passionate, trusting and emotionally connected towards various women’s teams including the Matildas, Opals, Diamonds and the rugby sevens team. Meanwhile, the least trusted teams were headlined by scandal-plagued Essendon, the Australian men’s cricket team and the Canterbury Bulldogs.
It is crucial that male athletes understand the privileged position they find themselves in – the ability to dedicate themselves full-time to their sport has only become a recent reality for many elite-level Australian sportswomen – and they should look to their pioneering female counterparts for inspiration.
