Category: Author – Greg Blood
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The Relationship between the Australian Olympic Committee and the Australian Sports Commission
By Greg Blood. Orginally published in Sporting Traditions, V35 (1) May 2018 Since the 2016 Rio Olympics, the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) and Australian Sports Commission (ASC) have had several very public disagreements regarding the funding and direction of high performance sport. In 1980, the Fraser Government requested the then Australian Olympic Federation to boycott…
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The Australian Institute of Sport Story 1981-2013
By Greg Blood. Originally published Clyde Street Blog, 15 May 2018. In December 2012, the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), as we know it, changed when the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) under Chair John Wylie launched its Australia’s Winning Edge 2012-2022 strategy. A major plank of the strategy was for the AIS to no longer directly manage…
australiansportreflections
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Sports Rorts II – A case of very bad politics not good policy
By Greg Blood. Originally published in The Footy Almanac, 12 February 2020. I have observed closely the last two Federal elections from a sporting perspective and found that both the Coalition and Labor have used ‘sport’ to promote their case for election to particularly marginal or contestable electorates. From the data I collected from the…
australiansportreflections
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2019 Federal election – a sport perspective
By Greg Blood. Originally published by The Footy Almanac, 22 May 2019. With the Federal election campaign now over and the Coalition retaining office, you may be interested in my reflections on how sport was utilised by the Coalition and Labor during the campaign. In the lead up to and during the campaign I closely…
australiansportreflections
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Should Governments fund AFL and NRL high performance centres?
By Greg Blood. Originally published in The Footy Almanac, 16 April 2019. The recent Morrison Federal Government budget announced $60m in funding for three AFL clubs (Brisbane, Carlton, Richmond) and one NRL club (North Queensland). This was followed up by the Morrison Government election announcement of $15m for the Adelaide Crows. These funding announcements generally…
australiansportreflections
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It’s time for a universal sport and physical activity policy
By Greg Blood. Originally published in The Roar, 25 June 2019. I think there is a need for the Australian government to reassess how funding will lead to an increase in sport and physical activity. The government in 2018 released its ‘Sport 2030’ plan that sets a goal to reduce inactivity of Australians by 15…
australiansportreflections
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A critique of the national sport plan
By Greg Blood. Originally published in The Roar, 3 August 2018. The long-awaited national sport plan Sport 2030 has been released and has an ambitious vision for Australia “to be the world’s most active and healthy sporting nation, known for its integrity and sporting success”. I believe that with this vision it should have be called ‘National Sport…
australiansportreflections
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The impact of Sudanese-Australian athletes on the sporting landscape
By Greg Blood. Originally published in The Roar, 1 August 2018. Last week, Joseph Deng, a former Sudanese refugee, broke the Australian 800 metres record, set by Ralph Doubell in winning gold in at the 1968 Mexico Olympics. This feat made me reflect on the impact Sudanese athletes are now having on Australian sport. These…
australiansportreflections
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How should we judge funding of Australian Olympic athletes and teams?
By Greg Blood. Originally published in The Roar, 13 June 2018. Currently there is an interesting conundrum in Australian Olympic sport. The failure of the Australian Olympic team to achieve its target of the top five on the medal table at the Rio Olympics has raised questions about the suitability of medal targets. This failure…
australiansportreflections
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Remembering the contributions of AIS Men’s football to the Socceroos
By Greg Blood. Originally published in The Roar, 27 April 2017. The Football Federation of Australia (FFA) has announced that it will be closing its Centre of Excellence (originally AIS Men’s Football) at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra at the end of the year. It is worth reflecting on the contribution of the…
australiansportreflections