The Finktank

Bravo, David Crawford. He did a sterling job in giving Australian "soccer", as it was then known, a good kick up the backside back in 2003 and now he's done the same thing to Olympic sports with the release of The Independent Sport Report commissioned by the Rudd Government.

The messages to the Australian Olympic Committee are clear: you can't have your $108m funding increase. Your top-five target at London 2012 is a pipedream. The culture of handouts to sports that no one gives a stuff about is over. Taxpayer funds are going to better spent on "other priorities", such as sports that "carry the national ethos": the football codes, tennis, golf, surfing, netball, et al.

No wonder, then, that Australia's top Olympic poobah, John Coates, says he's "pissed off", describing the work of Crawford's panel as an "insult to some of our great Olympic champions".

"Is Mr Crawford suggesting that medals won in Beijing last year by Matthew Mitcham in diving, Steve Hooker in pole vault and Ken Wallace meant nothing to the Australian people?" he fulminated.

"Is he telling us gold medals won by the rowers and sailors in Beijing meant nothing?"

No, that's not what he's trying to say, Mr Coates. They were great achievements, but not that many people cared. And when all is said and done, the government, which is spending our money (don't forget), are right to direct that money to sports that fire our imagination, that keep us glued to the box, that inspire our kids to get out into the backyard or local park and dream of one day emulating their heroes.

That is what this report is all about. Redirecting money and resources into the sports that are going to not only keep our nation's children fit for their lifetimes but embolden our own sense of belonging, of nationhood, of being "Australian".

Coates says: "Olympians have inspired this nation for decades, they've inspired Australians on and off the sporting field", and that is undoubtedly true.

But what could be more inspiring to an entire nation than seeing the Socceroos, our national men's football team, win the World Cup, the biggest sporting tournament on earth? A sport and an event that has significance in ways beyond our imagining.

I would much rather my hard earned went to achieving that goal than bringing home a gold medal in diving, skeleton, synchronised swimming or archery – sports that only get on television once every four years and only on the host broadcaster's proviso that there is an Australian competing and he or she stands a chance of winning a medal.

Jacquelin Magnay argues today in The Sydney Morning Herald that Crawford has got it wrong, having "totally misread the nation's love of the Olympics and the pride of beating bigger countries on the international stage".

She is right in one sense. We all love beating bigger countries and we love the Olympics – but not for the sports, Jacquelin, for the medals. The fact is, though, they come at too high a price and they have been for a long time.

Crawford has given Australian sport the reality check it needed. Now we just have to wait for Coates and Co to have theirs.


:: For more Fink musings on the big issues in football, check out Half-time Orange on The World Game.