Sports What the greatest prize in sport for an Australian

[brahj]

Liz Hurley.

 

[Guardian Hawk]

Whilst many Australians may not even know the award - Ballon D'Or winner (awarded to best soccer player on the planet - think Maradonna, Pele ,etc).

Rationale - If the best player in the most popular sport in the world was Australian, the Australian public and media would go absolutely nuts. Look at Cahill, he is not in the top 150 players in the World yet we sing his praises cos he's the best we've got. Some of our most notable sportspeople - Patty Mills, Andrew Gaze, Harry Kewell, etc were decent (but not close to world's best) at popular international sports. Ian Thorpe, Cathy Freeman, LLeyton Hewitt, Greg Norman, Don Bradman reached the pinnacle of their sports and are Australia's biggest names in history - but they excelled in sports that don't have the same level of worldwide appeal. Add in that no Australian has been near the best in the world at soccer and it would be the perfect storm. He would be Australia's most recognisable face, highest earning sportsmen of all time (if for example Lionel Messi was Australian) and genuine hope and interest (from Australia and overseas) would be placed on Australia's World Cup Team. It would also be viewed as a turning point (rightly or wrongly) in Australian soccer and give credence to the biggest sporting tournament in the World (World Cup) being played in Australia (on the back of producing the world's greatest player and increased interest in soccer in Australia that comes from that). Given the best player in the World has to be absolutely dominant at club level - usually for a Manchester United, Barcelona, etc level club - plenty of other trophies would typically be involved and the fanfare in Australia and the rest of the world would be massive. The fact he is Australian would cause a lot of curiosity and have pople wondering where he came from, how it happened, etc bringing all sorts of publicity to Australia and Australian soccer.

Given its completely unchartered territory unlike other nominations like Test Captain (there's been what 30 of those?) makes it bigger IMO.

 

[Slax]

Vossy's comment is one designed to plug his show, but it isn't actually one he believes.

The greatest prize is so dependant on what sport you chose.
AFL - Premiership
NRL - State of Origin winning series
Union - Wallabies jersey
Soccer - Play for one of the elite European clubs (ie. ones who are chances tow in major trophies)
Netball - Australian rep
Cricket - Ashes Test century/5 wicket haul

Other team sports - Olympic games participation

Individual sports - Olympic medals/world titles

Whilst some have an unhealthy fixation on AFL as the be all, it is not a view shared by the vast majority of Australians.

 

[Miqar_Baqfhied]

Greatest individual achievements:
- Wimbledon
- Tour de France
- Green Jacket
- Gold medal in individual sport at the Olympics

Anything to do with AFL pales into insignificance IMO. You're competition is in Australia only, not the rest of the world. The average skill of an AFL player is miles lower than that of many other world sports such as golf, soccer and tennis. To be the best at these sports you have to be better than hundreds of millions more people playing the game.

 

[Barry_Badrinath]

When we eventually get an NBA star that will be massive. Andrew Bogut still gets referred to as an NBA superstar by the Australian media even though he's been underwhelming for a number 1 pick. The Patty Mills hype has been pretty big this year even though he was a bench player for most of the year. If Exum or any of the new guys become genuine stars then it will be massive.

 

[The_Reaper]

I know next to nothing about cricket, but how big is the discrepancy between playing for Australia and being someone who just plays in the Sheffield Shield? Whenever i've seen highlights of Sheffield Shield on the TV, there are more seagulls on the field than spectators in the stands, just wondering where the money comes from.

Non Rookie shield players would earn $60-70k
The A grade contracts (don't have Australian contracts so think Adam Voges or Alex Doolan) would be $150k-170k
I remember reading a recent article on it.