Is the drunken Ozzie image ready for overhaul?
Booze is to the back page of Australian newspapers right now what China is to the front. Many of the major sports stories at the moment start with the bottle or in the bar, just as many of the news stories originate from Beijing.
Take the case of the Australian swimmer Nick D'Arcy, who pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm on his fellow swimmer, the Commonwealth Gold medallist Simon Cowley after a boozy night in a Sydney bar. Cowley was left with fractures to his jaw, eye socket, cheekbone and nose, and D'Arcy was left with his swimming career in jeopardy. He was blocked from competing at the Beijing Olympics, and again at the forthcoming World Championships.
Nick D'Arcy admitted to a problem with binge drinking: "I feel like I've got to catch up, like I've got to get all the drinking in that everyone else got in, in the 12 weeks or so that I haven't been drinking (during training),'' he said. 'I get absolutely sloshed. I do lose some of the impulse control that I do have when I am sober.'
This week we also learnt of the death of the cylist Jobie Djaka, who had been fighting a long battle with depression and alcoholism. And this weekend will also see the comeback of Brett Stewart, the one-time poster boy of Australian Rugby League, who this week pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting a 17-year old girl. Stewart had received a four-match ban from the league for breaching the code of conduct regarding consuming alcohol in public places - in this case, the Manly Sea Eagles pre-season launch event held at a harbour-side bar.
Alcohol bans on players. Booze-free days. Breathalyzer tests to ensure that players do not drink over a pre-agreed level (which is what Russell Crowe's South Sydney Rabbitohs do). Various strategies have been thought up to combat booze in sport in general, and rugby league in particular.
But many insiders believe that the culture of sport has to change, whether it means limiting alcohol advertising and beer-related sponsorship deals or publicly questioning the sanctification of legendary sporting boozers.
Consider the hero-status of the former Test cricketer and present test selector David Boon. Is he best remembered for a) scoring 7,422 test runs at an average of 43.65 or b) consuming 52 cans on a flight from Sydney to London ahead of the 1989 Ashes at an average of 2.26 every flying hour? Now, of course, you can get the 'Boony doll,' the mascot of one of Australia's best-known brewers and one of the sponsors of the national team. The adverts - you can You Tube search them - are hilarious.
Of course, there will be others who will argue that Australian sport is basically holding up a mirror to Australia society - a country where one in eight people is thought to drink at 'dangerous levels,' and where 230,000 children have a parent or carer who drinks excessively.
+ I promised not to mention Rudd again for a while, but I enjoyed his appearance on local radio earlier in the week when he found himself fielding calls about how people were planning to spend their $A900 cash hand-outs from the government. One woman said she planned to spend it on a new tattoo.........
With that, I'll wish you all a Happy Easter.
I'm 
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