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Professional sport is driven by two competing forces: the pursuit of unrealistic achievement and the need to be entertaining. Shane Warne has spent his career playing buffoon-genius, and cricket now celebrates the buffoon over the genius. It remains to be seen if tennis' Bernard Tomic can escape the pressure of his own ego.
By showing the wider community that an Aboriginal footballer could be smart as well as strong, Artie Beetson set an enduring example to all Indigenous people about what they could aspire to, on and off the sporting field.
In the Olympics, the countries with the biggest populations win the most medals. Not in the World Cup. The United States' underdog status is one of the unifying pleasures of football fans around the world.
The salary cap in sport is one of the last remnants of Australian egalitarianism. This is one of the reasons why the Melbourne Storm's behaviour is so offensive. It is an offence against one of the values Australians hold so dear, especially at Anzac Day — a fair go.
The Winter Olympics make for beautiful television — skiers hurtling down the slopes, snowboarders doing somersaults in the air, skaters dancing on the ice. Yet they occupy an unusual place in our imagination. They feel more like recreation than competitive sport.
Everyone from Roger Federer to Kim Clijsters would know that when you're in the top 100, tennis is a mental contest. It's when you walk around the outside courts at the Australian Open that you discover the players who really set tennis apart from other sports.