Outimage Publications - 2005 Rolex Sydney Hobart - The point is that they did do their very best, Alfa is second over the line.

Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.

From December 26th, 2005.

The point is that they did do their very best!

Alfa is second over the line.

Article By Peter Andrews

January 5 , 2006.

Being so close to the leading boat it was unfortunate and physically impossible to get shots of Alfa Romeo's Hobart arrival. Back at the Hobart media centre and still in the process of filing shots from Wild Oats XI's line honours finish, Neville Crichton walked past with helmsman and multi Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie from the UK and Alpha Romeo's tactician, the America's Cup helmsman and sailmaker, Michael Coxon.

Having put so much effort into being the first boat into Hobart and beating Bob Oatley's new Wild Oats XI in many of the lead-up races to the Hobart, it came as no surprise that Neville was clearly disappointed with the result.

Alfa Romeo in Hobart.

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At Alfa for the 2006 race, his reply was "…not in a million years, but who knows?"

Back in November last year, former Australian Rugby League coach Wayne Bennett highlighted during an ABC Grandstand radio interview what seems to be a growing problem with Australian sport and how many sporting events are reported in the media lately. Yes, there is a winner and a loser in any competition. But as a kid growing up in the 70s, the true sense of sport that I remember was one where all participants of any sport were ultimately the winners in the end.

Getting back to the basics, why do we have sport in the first place and what is the true message or meaning of sport that we would like to pass on to children and their children?

Somewhere in the transition between living in a cave and a house, sport provided humans with the opportunity to maintain a reasonable level of fitness and health (as life became physically easier) and it also provided the opportunity for humans to enhance their levels of social interaction.

Team sports such as the numerous codes of football and other team games that utilise a ball or some other object clearly provide some huge social dividends that enhance the society we all live within.

From left to right, Ben Ainslie, Neville Crichton and Michael Coxon face the media in Hobart.

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Ocean yacht racing clearly fits into the team-sport category when one considers the effective team dynamics needed to get a boat safely down to Hobart year after year. And as for any ocean yacht racer, it is the elements of the weather and ocean conditions that usually provide the real challenge. At times, this includes some pretty dangerous opposition often found within this sport on any given day.

After Wayne Bennett resigned from his coaching position after the Kangaroos were defeated by New Zealand in the final of the Tri-Nations Series late last year, he presented this thought-provoking issue within the current direction of sport in general in Australia; one of an obsession of winning.

Bennett highlighted that Australian Cricket and Rugby teams have recently spent many years at the top and they have worked quite hard to get there. But he also makes the point that: "All of our competition is improving dramatically all the time. They are doing all that they can to match us now and so we are going to have more losses."

As to the obsession of winning and the damage it can cause, you only need to look at the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team according to Bennett..

Ben Ainslie, Neville Crichton and Michael Coxon.

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"They are the best rugby players I've ever seen and yet they haven't won a world cup for 20 years; because they are obsessed with the mentality that the All Blacks have to win every time they go out to play."

As to the real issue for Bennett, it is "…not about losing, it's about how we play and did we do our best?"

In a climate where winning has become so critical for many Australians at a time when the rest of the world are beginning to match many of our best teams at their game, perhaps its time to wake up and refocus on the true meaning of sport that many of us were taught to respect while we ourselves were growing up as kids.

As I guess it was for Wayne Bennett, the message I grew up with was also not so much about winning or losing. It was more about just doing your very best.

Back to Neville and his team on Alfa Romeo, the decision to seek more wind out to sea rather than to take a course closer to shore cannot be dismissed as simply a bad decision.

Alfa Romeo was first over the line in last years Big Boat Challenge on Sydney harbour.

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Just as no-one knows how next week's winning lotto numbers will fall, nobody knows what nature can throw up in the way of wind and other weather conditions at any given point in time.

Neville and his team looked quite weather-beaten and exhausted when they walked into the media centre. The message I got from this image is that these guys really did put in their very best effort to get to Hobart. And looking at many of the other crews that followed, all presented a similar image.

As for Neville's comment: "…not in a million years", I'm so glad that he left the option open with the "…but who knows?" bit that followed. This being the case, I'm sure many will be happy to see him front up again for another go at the big race with Alfa Romeo, later this year.

References:

Audio Highlights:
Wayne Bennett spoke to Gerry Collins about his decision to resign as Australian coach and his problematic relationship with the football media. [Real]: [Windows]: [Mp3]. (November 27).

The above reference was an additional article to that found with the following link, and was located in a separate column to the right of the main article.

http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200512/r66875_184987.mp3

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