Our poor cousins

Well I was overwhelmed by the response to the quiz question provided yesterday. As all my female and transsexual readers know, the highest participation sport in Australia is netball - quite logical really, bloke's loyalties are split into league, union, AFL etc while the sheila's choice is a bit more limited.

I learnt this fascinating fact on weekend radio. However what was more interesting was the poor state of netball across the ditch when compared to what's happening here. In NZ we have this perception that Australia pours shitloads of money into sport and we will never be able to compete with them. Except in netball it seems. The top players in the Australian league are paid a whopping $6,000 - with others "earning" either $1,000 (new recruits) and $3,900. Wow. Compare that to the NZ national league players, where the top players are paid $40,000, some others $20,000 and so on.

The root of the problem is of course TV rights and income. In Australia, netball is televised on ABC but they don't pay for the privilege, hence the money needed to pay players properly is not generated. To all those who believe there is a direct correlation between money and results, perhaps the Silver Ferns will never lose to Australia again :-)