Elite Athletes and Positive Role Modelling
Sport; the very
activity that can effectively “make or break a career” or “divide a nation”,
has long served a significant role in the sculpturing of Australian culture,
history and identity. Australia, widely regarded as a ‘sporting nation’,
is home to many impressionable sports fans who are so passionate about their
sport and the elite athletes who partake in it, that it is seen as an integral
part of life (Amezdroz, 2004, pg 503). Australian
Rules Football, (or ‘AFL’ as it is erroneously known) of all sports has traditionally been very popular
amongst Australians, however in recent times this particular code of football
has been undermined by intense and at times negative media scrutiny on its
players and the franchising and globalizing of this sporting code.
