Geographical distribution of Australian sporting teams

Next weekend, the Bendigo Spirit will host the Townsville Fire in the final of the WNBL. I think having two "small market" teams in the final is terrific, and hopefully its a sign of things to come.

I have, on a few occasions, had discussions with people about Australia's cities. In particular, a few years ago there was a lot of talk about the projections for Australia's population over the next 40-100 years, with many sources (including the ABS) projecting that we could be at 40-50 million people by 2050.

I am firmly of the opinion, that expanding to this kind of number but maintaining our current pattern of huge proportions of our population being centralised in 5 cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth), is less than ideal. It might be doable, but it will put huge strains on infrastructure, and more importantly, its pretty boring. I would like to think that if we're increasing our urban population (which seems unavoidable - rural vs urban is a different debate), then the way to do it is by growing the number of significant centres, not by growing those that are already big.

How to do this escapes me; I'm not an urban planner, and discussions I've had about how to shift industry/government sectors out of the capitals have left me convinced of that. However, one place I think is ripe for decentralisation is sport.

Taking a quick glance at the teams which compete in some of Australia's biggest sporting leagues (AFL, NRL, Super Rugby, domestic cricket (using BBL), A-League, W-League, NBL, WNBL, Netball and ABL), an overwhelming number of the teams are based in the five major cities. Of the 90 Australian teams competing in these leagues (the NRL, Super Rugby, A-League, NBL and Netball leagues include teams from New Zealand and/or South Africa), 70 come from one of the big five metros:

• 22 in Sydney: Swans, Giants (AFL), Eels, Panthers, Roosters, Tigers, Dragons, Bulldogs, Sharks, Rabbitohs, Sea Eagles (NRL), Sixers, Thunder (BBL), Sydney United, Wanderers (both A-League and W-League), Waratahs (Super Rugby), Kings (NBL), Flames (WNBL), Blue Sox (ABL), Swifts (Netball)
• 21 in Melbourne: Magpies, Blues, Bombers, Tigers, Kangaroos, Saints, Hawks, Bulldogs, Demons (AFL), Storm (NRL), Renegades, Stars (BBL), Victory (A-League and W-League), Heart (A-League), Rebels (Super Rugby), Tigers (NBL), Boomers, Rangers (WNBL), Aces (ABL), Phoenix (Netball)
• 10 in Perth: Eagles, Dockers (AFL), Scorchers (BBL), Glory (A-League and W-League), Force (Super Rugby), Wildcats (NBL), Waves (WNBL), Heat (ABL), Fever (Netball)
• 9 in Adelaide: Crows, Power (AFL), Strikers (BBL), Adelaide United (A-League and W-League), 36ers (NBL), Lightning (WNBL), Thunderbirds (Netball), Bite (ABL)
• 8 in Brisbane: Lions (AFL), Broncos (NRL), Heat (BBL), Roar (A-League and W-League), Reds (Super Rugby), Bandits (ABL), Firebirds (Netball)

The others are split across smaller centres:

• 5 in Canberra: Raiders (NRL), Brumbies (Super Rugby), Capitals (WNBL), Cavalry (ABL)
• 3 in Newcastle: Knights (NRL), Jets (A-League and W-League)
• 3 in Townsville: Cowboys (NRL), Crocodiles (NBL), Fire (WNBL)
• 2 in Gold Coast: Suns (AFL), Titans (NRL)
• Geelong Cats (AFL), although some of their games are played in Melbourne
• Central Coast Mariners (A-League), based in Gosford
• Wollongong Hawks (NBL)
• Cairns Taipans (NBL)
• Bendigo Spirit (WNBL)
• Logan Thunder (WNBL)
• Hobart Hurricanes (BBL)

A strong case can be made that a few of those cities could easily support more teams - Hobart, Gold Coast, Geelong, and Wollongong and Townsville have all had other teams in the past. The list of second-tier (by population) cities without teams is huge. The Sunshine Coast, Darwin, Toowoomba, Launceston, Albury and Ballarat are all bigger than Bendigo, and there are other large population centres without teams in central Queensland (Mackay, Rockhampton, Bundaberg, Gladstone and Hervey Bay) Mandurah in WA, Coffs Harbour and Wagga Wagga in NSW, to name a few.

The recent trend has been to put new teams into Western Sydney, but if I were looking to expand or realign one of the smaller leagues, I'd be looking at these smaller centres where a team has a chance to be the only (or one of the only) games in town. Even the AFL and NRL would be wise to look that way, rather than to continue with half of their league in the one city.

It may be that the league most poised to go in this direction is the A-League, which has made some noise about moving to a promotion/relegation system. I would have thought this would necessitate adding quite a few new teams, and it could be that the success (from what I've seen) of their Central Coast franchise leads them to look at some of these new areas.

cricket

I went along to the ODI cricket final last night at the Gabba with Gav, Adam and Nicole. the game was OK, although Australia again played poorly. The top order collapsed yet again (all but one game this season, pretty much), and although James Hopes almost dragged us across the line with the tail, we probably deserved to lose. Nonetheless, it was an entertaining game.

The sideshow of being in the crowd was also fun. We were in a reasonably boisterous section, with plenty of guys getting plenty drunk. We also got a really good view of Roy's hit on the first streaker.

storms in an SCG-cup

The reason I'm back to blogging probably has a lot to do with the second test match having finished in Sydney yesterday. I basically missed out on the three first days, ironically because I was down in Sydney on holidays, but I saw a bit on Saturday, and lots yesterday.

The match was very exciting. Anyone who says differently, and I'm talking about Spanky Roebuck here, is full of crap. There were some real heroes on the day, from Hussey and Symonds building Australia's total, to Dravid, Ganguly, Kumble and Harbhajan who held out so well on a difficult pitch, to Michael Clarke who bowled well when it was finally demanded of him.

The umpiring was bad. I didn't see the decisions on the first first few days, but from what I hear they were pretty rotten, and Dravid's dismissal on the final day was a shocker, and was compounded by its importance. The Australians were excited, and the clip of the pad would have sounded like a nick to them in the heat of the moment, but Bucknor had to be better than that, and he wasn't. The bat was behind the pad, and although that's not a tactic I like (pretending to be playing a shot to avoid LBWs), Bucknor should have seen it for what it was.

The two catches with sniffs of dirt on them, by Clarke to dismiss Gangles, and by Ponting in an unsuccessful appeal for bat-bad against Dhoni, were handled properly. Ponting's was fairly caught, but there was reasonable doubt about whether the ball had hit the glove. Clarke's was close, but I've seen no replay which contradicts his claim that he caught it fairly on the first grab, and mumblings about his roll are just stupid.

Overall though, the Indians got a bum run with the umps, and deserve to say so. They've done themselves no favours, though, in immediately asking for them (and Bucknor particularly) to be stood down for future matches. The rules say they have no right to influence umpiring appointments, which is entirely correct, and if they'd waited a day or two then the ICC could have stood the umpires down of their own volition. Now that the Indians have requested it, though, the ICC's hands are tied. If they stand them down, the'll be seen to be bowing to Indian pressure, but they can't really let them continue after their performance in Sydney.

Harbhajan's suspension for racial abuse is a real shame, but he has no-one to blame but himself. Regardless of whether 'monkey' is a racial slur in India, it was made quite clear to the Indians in September that it was thought to be as such by the Australians. After that, there is no defense for having used the term. He might get his suspension knocked down on appeal though; I reckon 1 or 2 tests is more on the money.

Kumble covered himself in glory in the match, with both bat and ball, but stripped himself of it when he started questioning the Australians' approach to the game. The claim is baseless, and just comes off as hypocrisy coming from the team whose player has been quite rightly suspended for racial abuse. If he wants to make claims like that, then he needs to condemn Harbhajan's behaviour first. In reality, his real gripe should be with the umpires.

Its a real shame that all this crap interfered with the test, which was otherwise a pretty great contest.

Things that go bump in the night

(Apologies to Laurie, if he reads this before his time-shifting reveals the capitulative horror of it all)

With my incessant talking about it, people at the lab here have started to ask me about the Ashes each day when I arrive. They didn't today, though, because yesterday I declared in no uncertain terms that the match would wind towards a draw on what had been a pretty uninspiring pitch.

How wrong I was. I woke up late this morning - there was no reason to get up early - to the cricinfo headline that England had collapsed and that Australia were pretty much cruising towards an unlikely victory chasing 168. Even the pirate radio I had been tapping seemed to have abandoned the match for dead, as they weren't passing on the coverage for the final 10 runs, which I watched float by as text commentary on cricinfo.

It's a remarkable victory, as surprising a result as I can remember perhaps since Langer and Gilchrist sank Pakistan in Hobart. I watched highlights this morning and the Australians seem to have bowled really well. Warne was more hostile even than his figures suggest - the ball that got Pietersen was a jaffa, which beat him in the air and then ripped outrageously off the pitch - and Lee swung it both ways at pace. A few of the decisions were shaky - Strauss, and McGrath's LBWs - but that's going to be the rub of the green when you're playing attacking cricket. What's more, said green is always going to rub hard against a side that scores only 70 runs in 54 overs of batting.

Once the batting collapse was over with, the English were basically playing a one-day game against the world's best one day side.

For the record, Australia made their 168 in just under 33 overs. Imagine the figures reversed: England make 168 in 33 overs and force Australia to chase 265 off 54. This probably should have been their plan, but it certainly didn't look that way the way they were batting.