Organised sport faces challenges
SPORT is part of our country’s identity.
At primary school I was lucky enough to witness Australia come together as one for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
I can clearly remember kids and families from my school being inspired by teams and athletes over the games.
As a direct result from the Games, sports participation and interest dramatically in-
“They are a very good side, it is going to be a mammoth task for us,” Kumar said.
“It is made worse with a couple of our tall defenders out as well as Sara Hill.
“We will call on our reserves and everything we can creased. However in recent years organised sport has seen a decline in participation rates.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, participation was at its strongest in 2001 with more than 4.2 million registered members.
In recent years, those numbers have declined by 7 per cent and last year a number of sports saw a worrying decline in participation.
This decline was more evident in team sports with union, league, netball and softball all losing numbers.
Fortunately at a local level, hockey has maintained healthy numbers. This is due to our record number of junior players (aged four to 16) and get a hold of. Hopefully we can put up a bit of resistance against Saints. The good thing is that there is a lot of girls putting their hand up to take those spots.”
In the other week five contest, CTB Bulldogs tackle Leprechauns at the same time.
Meanwhile, Cairns Netball Association is calling on the netball public to help get behind three of their emerging stars.
Chantelle Tikitau, Rachael Fa’anana and Wendy Stafford our healthy masters competition.
The challenge for hockey is to maintain players aged between 17 and 34 when they are probably going through the busiest time of their lives.
Locally a high proportion of our school leavers (17-23) leave Cairns for university or employment opportunities. This leaves quite a hole in the local competition and puts added pressure on some of the more senior players to hang around.
The cost of sport in general and length of the seasons are also challenges faced by sporting organisations.
Hockey Queensland and Hockey Australia must recognise that changes are required have made high-profile representative teams and all need sponsorship or assistance to get where they are going.
Marlins representative and Cairns Saints midcourter Fa’anana was named in the under 19 Queensland side after the state championships in Brisbane. Tikitau will represent the Cook Islands at the Netball World Youth Cup in July. to freshen up the sport and make it more appealing for the struggling age groups.
Some of the options they could explore are social leagues and competitions for players what may not wish to train; playing more hockey on grass to reduce the costs; and a stronger presence in universities.
If the sport can reconnect with the target age group (17-34), I believe hockey has a solid platform to expand and become one of Australia’s leading team sports. What are your thoughts on this? Are there any changes we any other changes we would make to our sport that might help? Let me know; rcc@cairnshockey.com.au