Why Australia won't pool its resources

The Australian Institute of Sport, which has closed its doors to Kiwis.

First, the good news story for Kiwi rugby fans.

The Australian Government will siphon A$70 million ($77 million) over the next four years to their crucible of sporting excellence in the national capital and - unless the budget breakdown has been cunningly doctored - not one brass razoo is going towards a scrum machine.

And while the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) prides itself on being at the cutting edge of sports science, medicine and high-tech gadgetry, none of their boffins appears to be focusing on improving the Wallabies' wobbly forward play.

The Brumbies' fortress may just be a punt away from the AIS but rugby just doesn't fit the profile of a sport or team worthy of a lot of time or resources.

If the Wallabies had a chance of winning gold in Beijing, perhaps, but since the United States haven't defended their title since beating France in Paris in 1924, rugby remains largely on the outer.

Wander around the AIS and it's clear the quest for medals, preferably those of the five-ringed variety, is what drives the athletes, coaches, biomechanists and catering staff to co-exist in one of the world's blandest capitals.

Possibly the Australian Sports Commission had a perverse sense of penance in mind for future generations of athletes when selecting Canberra as the location for an institute conceived to ensure little old New Zealand never won more Olympic gold medals than Australia.

Ever. Again. Or at least until Barcelona in 1992.

The AIS sprouted in the scrubland in 1981 and after slow beginnings it has churned out a procession of world-class athletes in every discipline from swimming, cycling, hockey ... the list is endless and a tad tedious if you haven't got a boxing kangaroo flag hanging in the garage.

Non-events at the Montreal, Los Angeles and Seoul Olympics, Australia has, as they say, punched above its weight since, culminating in back-to-back fourth rungs on the medal ladder in Sydney and Athens.

After zero golds in Montreal, Australia has achieved more since Barcelona, with hauls of seven, nine, 16 and 17.

So with Beijing looming in 2008 and a sack full of money, that upward trend is set to continue, right?

Well, not necessarily if you listen to a fairly pessimistic forecast from AIS director professor Peter Fricker and Australian Sports Commission chief executive Mark Peters.

Kids are getting fat playing PlayStation 2 at home and physical education is not compulsory in primary schools.

Further afield, talent-laden Asian nations such as China are waking up to the advantages of sports science, the English are finally getting their act together and even the pesky Kiwis are asking more and more questions about Australia's sporting supremacy.

Fricker says Australia has to reassess what equates to success after a less than spectacular year.

"Is it how the Wallabies are doing, or the cricket or netball teams? If so, are we in crisis now because New Zealand significantly beat us in netball and the Wallabies came back [from Europe] with their tail between their legs?

"The Kiwis beat us in league and we lost the Ashes.

"Realistically we have to position ourselves so our expectations aren't over the top," he says.

"We've had some fantastic years of success but every other country is challenging because so many of them are now using sport to position themselves internationally, like us."

It hasn't helped that the AIS rolled out the welcome mat for decades, proudly showing rivals how clever it was.

Fricker, whose arrival in the role unhappily coincided with the concession of the Ashes and a string of losses to New Zealand in rugby, league, netball and rowing, has moved to lock the front door.

"We were generously giving it [expertise] all away. We're over that now, we're going to be very protective about our competitive edge."

From Fricker's perspective, the medal haul at the summer Olympics is closer to the mark, though expectations there also have to be tempered.

The fact is Australia was represented in all but one of the 37 sports in Athens - handball - yet struck gold in just six, with 77 per cent garnered from swimming and cycling.

WITHOUT doubt, Advance Australia Fair will boom out with monotonous regularity in Melbourne in March as the Commonwealth Games host dominates a variety of AIS-backed sports.

But, warns Fricker, the days of the AIS pumping money into every conceivable sport are numbered.

In 1981, the AIS supported 10 programmes, now there are 35 nationwide.

"We financially support 68 sports in Australia, way beyond anywhere else in the world," he says.

Unlike most other countries, including New Zealand, Australia has sought to excel at everything rather than cut its losses and target about 10 to 15 specific sports.

Australia qualified for more team sports at Athens than any other country but the AIS has been doing the maths and figures it could be better to invest in 30 individuals to win medals than a team of 30 winning one.

"One of the debates we have is whether we can continue to support the number of sports we do," Peters admits. "We think it's un-Australian not to support team sports, so our philosophy is always to do that, but how wise is the investment, especially in a time of sports relying on government funding?"

Fricker thinks the AIS has little choice but to follow the world's way of thinking and place the golden eggs in fewer baskets.

"It's been great that in 25 years we've been able to keep adding sports but we can't keep stretching ourselves that thin with the resources we have and keep providing the results internationally.

"It doesn't work anymore."

Women's volleyball and men's water polo programmes have already been spiked, but the AIS has bolstered its talent identification programme with three new scouts targeting cycling, rowing and canoeing.

It is also looking at encouraging athletes to transfer to other sports if they have the potential.

"Our divers have come out of gymnastics and trampolining. A lot of our canoeists have come out of surf lifesaving," Fricker says.

"We have a programme to encourage more of that - there's a lot of medals in the Olympic Games in canoeing."

Rowing has a Breaking the Drought programme, targeting high schools which are asked to nominate their most promising athletes for testing and possible scholarships.

The aim is to "dig up" 20 or 30 rowers.

The AIS is also undergoing a makeover.

A A$14 million high-tech pool is nearing completion to spawn the next generation of swimmers, while a six-lane indoor athletics track with sports science and sports medicine facilities is also under construction.

Some of the 1980s-vintage training halls are also being air-conditioned for the first time, making it easier for the netballers who had previously suffered in stifling summer camps.

Another key to ensuring future success is also taking shape in the north of Italy, where the AIS is setting up a European training base, a home away from home right down to the jars of Vegemite.

Meanwhile, outside the record-setting swimmers, medal-laden cyclists and normally reliable cricketers, Fricker and Peters admit several sports have been and still are guilty of letting the side down.

Take soccer.

Before the John O'Neill-inspired formation of the Football Federation of Australia (FFA), the ASC endured a long-running battle with the old Soccer Australia, an organisation riven by mismanagement and infighting.

The FFA subsequently remodelled the domestic competition, creating the A-League, succeeded in transplanting the Socceroos to the Asian federation from Oceania and brought in Dutch manager Guus Hiddink to help Australia break their World Cup qualifying drought by beating Uruguay in November.

"That wouldn't have happened unless the commission hadn't taken on the recalcitrants of soccer 2 1/2 years ago," Peters said.

Tennis is spearheaded by Lleyton Hewitt, Alicia Molik - and that's about it.

"We are going to see a resurgence in the next five years, maybe seven, but we still have people in the state system trying to hold on to the glory of the past," Peters complained.

Golf only merged its male and female divisions after a 3 1/2-year battle with the ASC.

"They came together because we suspended their development funds and froze their AIS programme," Peters said, adding: "If we couldn't hold a gun at their [sports organisations] heads and withhold money, they would meander into the future."

Athletics is also a work in progress. The governing body was close to bankruptcy and is going through significant change as it tries to keep youngsters in the sport.

"We have to deal with the fact we're struggling at international level," Peters says.

"And we have to find ways to encourage those kids that are very talented but are offered football contracts straight away rather than train hard for four years, with the incentive of one day maybe competing at a Commonwealth Games."

- NZPA