Australian sports has come a long way in the past thirty years - a long way from the top.
After a season of controversy, Australia's second Ashes loss in a row has been hard to swallow, but hasn't come as a surprise.
What is surprising is our national sports teams' consistent underperformance in recent years.
London 2012 Olympics was Australia's worst medal haul in 20 years, last month the Wallabies faced an embarrassing 41-16 loss to the British and Irish Lions on home soil; even Australia's tennis performance is weighted heavily on stars from yesteryear, not young talent.
As a result, Australia may start looking to overseas for guidance to bring national teams back to top form.
“I believe we can learn some lessons from the UK,” said Matt Favier, Director of the Australian Institute of Sport.
“The UK sport philosophy of 'no compromise' has been one of the corner stones of British success.”
But with even top-tier sports like swimming facing funding cuts, it could be some time before Australia sees itself at the top of the ladder once more.
