Cricket
Racing
Rugby
League
Motorsport
Football
Golf
Combat Sports
Basketball
Tennis
Other Sports
Sport Nation
There's still no place for petulance in sport
Ian Healy • January 28th, 2025 11:35 am
There's still no place for petulance in sport.
Primary school, junior club ranks and senior players have always drilled it out of us in sport. So I hope that's continuing.
But evidence is backing up in front of us to believe it's becoming OK to make a goose of yourself at the expense of someone else's moment. Time seems different. Our tennis seems different.
With many emotional cultures, individual teams, building their players up to believe and maybe they never really consider losing until it's too late.
Then there's a racket and a hard surface close by and it becomes so easy to forget some principles that you always play by. Respect is the one I'm talking about. The umpire's decision, well that's been taken away with technology helping the umpires get through that.
Your opponent and the fans, even as shoddy as they can be recently, that the respect goes a long way and it should go both ways. And then throw in the kids whose lives are shaped by what they feel while watching you play.
No greater example than Mitch Owen last night as a 13-year-old in the crowd watching the Hobart Hurricanes. His dream has been realised.
Highly paid so-called professional players like Aryna Sabalenka and Daniil Medvedev commit actions that you'd be sent to bed and grounded for they're that tiny. So what comes over such problem solvers through the day that they can't deal with their issues in private? That's their question to answer and be better.
There's nice scenes of Aryna Sabalenka consoling her previous round defeated opponent. So she's very aware of what you encounter on losing, but still she couldn't control herself and thought it was a good idea to remove those bad feelings from the body by smashing the crap out of her racket.
David Warner last night was exemplary, as frustrated as he appeared. Most champions are.
So let's hope that standards in juniors of all sports are high on the compete skill and respect stakes, and fun to go with it. So that this isn't an influx, that it's not being tolerated at those younger levels.
There's too much wonderful tradition in sport that's always been tolerated to spoil right now by a generation of out-of-control sooks.
You lost. It's not about you having lost. It's time to celebrate with the winner. That's called respect.
Now a job for our listeners and readers - Can you name some of our best losers? Our most respectful and respected losers.
Pat Cummins seems to cop a loss very well and he maintains composure. He blows smoke to the opponent and he supports his own boys as well. So there's one for you.
And in rugby league, I think Ivan Cleary's a ripper when they happen to lose surprisingly
What have we got in Australian sport at the moment when it comes to our best losers?
