Life on the West Island - Home and Away

Throughout 2023, West Island sporting teams and individual competitors achieved great success, dominating sport in many areas. Some achieved great recognition in their own nation, while others were largely ignored. For example, pole vaulter Nina Kennedy reached the pinnacle of world athletics with a gold medal at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, yet she is far from a household name on the West Island. In fact, in a survey of 100 citizens, not a single person could recall her name.

Then there were the World Aquatic Championships, where the West Island dominated in the pool, winning 15 gold medals to the mere seven gathered by the United States. Can you recall the names of some of those world champions – such as Cassel Rousseau or Rhiannan Iffland (diving); and Jack Cartwright or Meg Harris (swimming)?

Not to mention the three-time champion in the Financial Modelling World Cup in Las Vegas. Remember him? Adrian Ngai is a household name in international computer programming circles, but little known in his own country.

In team sports, the Diamonds won the World Cup in South Africa for the 12^th time – more than twice as many as the next most successful nation in their chosen sport, thrashing England in the final. But what sport do they play? And can you name a single player among the host of star athletes in the team? Reporting on the West Island focussed more on the players’ ongoing pay dispute with administrators than on their outstanding winning results.

Perhaps better known were the amazing achievements of the national teams in cricket. Both the women’s and men’s teams sit atop the world rankings in all three formats of the game – tests, one-day Internationals and T20 games. They won international tournaments in England, India and South Africa. Unusually, neither the women’s nor men’s teams have nicknames – such as Opals, Wallabies or Kangaroos - but their success is unrivalled. For example, the women’s team has won seven ODI World Cups – as many as all other nations combined, while the men dominated India on their home turf to triumph in the 2023 ODI World Cup.

So when it comes to the usual end of year summation of the best teams or players of 2023, which of these earned the plaudits for the outstanding performances of the year? In fact, it was none of those remarkable efforts which made the grade. Instead, the award went to a team which galvanised the nation by placing fourth in a World Cup, after winning just three out of six games and scoring 8 goals while conceding the same number. Those results look humdrum, but the soccer-playing Matildas were hailed as having galvanised the nation with their performances on home West Island soil.

What could account for the massive attention and adulation given to the Matildas compared with the stellar results of other West Island teams and players? There are probably a number of factors.

Firstly, the winning results of those listed above did not come as a surprise, given the long record of success of the West Island in “traditional” sports such as athletics, netball, swimming and cricket. In soccer – known in much of the world as “football” – is a relatively minor sporting code in the wide brown land. Success of the national team – even a relatively humble fourth place – came as a welcome surprise to the public and media.

Second, the tournament was played in New Zealand and Australia, with all of the Matildas’ games played on local soil, with consequent home ground crowds and pitches giving them the advantage of support and familiarity. The successes listed above for other sports all came in overseas venues.

Thirdly, the Matildas’ games were shown live on free-to-air television, garnering record audiences after massive promotion by the televising stations. Almost all of the successes in swimming, cricket and netball did not get such blanket coverage and/or were played on the other side of the world during West Island hours of darkness.

Soccer players such as Sam Kerr, Courtnee Vine, Mackenzie Arnold and Mary Fowler suddenly became well-known celebrities and sales of Matildas’ merchandise boomed, to the point where many items sold out nationwide. The life stories of players – even minor participants – dominated West Island media and key politicians and celebrities were keen to be associated with their achievements. Sporting clubs reported huge numbers of new recruits to junior soccer teams, especially among young girls. Even the AFL and NRL showed live big-screen coverage of Matildas' games before and during key premiership clashes.

All of this led Life on the West Island to contemplate just what it is that can galvanise the nation and capture our collective attention, even if only for a limited time? Perhaps the most dominant element was the “home and away” factor. We attend and watch home games much more than those played on distant shores. For example, the national women’s cricket team drew a record crowd of over 86,000 to the T20 World Cup final at the MCG in 2020, just as COVID was beginning to wreak havoc in the community. The home team smashed India by the huge margin of 85 runs and broke television viewing records for a women’s cricket match.

A similar syndrome applies to dramatic world events, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions or other disasters. The first question asked by West Islanders and their media tends to be – were any Aussies hurt or killed? By contrast, a major bus crash or public murder at home gets wall-to-wall coverage, with breathless interviews with “witnesses” who saw or heard little: “There was a loud bang and I ran outside” or “He was a nice quiet neighbour” (before he shot and killed his wife and children).

In the case of the West Island, home events and personalities gain much more attention than greater world happenings. Could that be why our most successful and watched soap opera is called Home and Away?