It’s hard not to be excited by the quantity of top class sport on at the moment. As OUTinPerth went to press, there were international competitions in men’s rugby union, women’s soccer, men’s Twenty20 cricket as well as domestic finals series in AFL and Rugby League. For the avid sports fan, such as myself, that’s a lot of choice in how to spend viewing time.
Of all the sporting events I have followed over the past few months, the women’s World Cup has been one of the most exciting. The Matilda’s – Australia’s women soccer team – won their first ever World Cup match and drew one all with the world’s fourth ranked team, Norway. In thrilling style, Australia scored the equaliser on Norway in the dying minutes to give the Matilda’s a great shot (no pun intended) to progress through to the knockout stage of the World Cup. In the next match against Canada, a goal in added injury time drew Australia even with Canada 2-2 and secured the Matilda’s first ever quarterfinal berth, where they faced Brazil. While the Matilda’s went down 3-2 the strong Brazilian side, who had 23 shots on goal to Australia’s 4, the Matilda’s made a valiant effort, scoring 2 goals against one of the tournament’s most impenetrable defences was an impressive accomplishment.
Unfortunately, there was little promotion of the event, and with a plethora of highly promoted sports on at the same time there, many sports fans missed the action. Women’s sports, with few exceptions, receive less sponsorship and promotion than men’s sports. Stations will show what people will watch, and so, I urge every sports viewer to read the papers and the television guides, and look for women’s sport, such as the current World Cup action. Because while there are blowouts in women’s sport, just as there are in men’s, if we only watch what is rammed down our throats on commercial TV, we may miss out on some of the best quality sports going on.
