Come on Oz, or GB, or Oz or... (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Come on Oz, or GB, or Oz or...

8:48am Wednesday 13th August 2008 in News By Peter & Kiran Rowe

It's our big dilemma: who to support in Beijing.

Being dual citizens (yes, we have two passports each) we are often called to cheer on one side or the other.

Thankfully, we have yet to be put in a position during these Olympic Games where it's black and white: Aussie v Pom (oops, sorry: Brit).

See, it's so easy to become a chameleon and take on the colours of our adopted country.

Kiran probably has stronger ties to the Mother Country than me, but we still shout for England in football.

Thanks to satellite TV the world has become much smaller and we enjoyed live games from Nottingham Forest, Barrow and Wembley last weekend.

Football League, even low-league Blue Square Premier on Setanta Sports - a must for any Pom who loves his football.

Add the Sky Sports equivalent of Fox Sports, which carries every Premier League game live, with a pick the game you want to watch or split your screen and see them all, and it really is football heaven.

Of course rugby league is a different matter.

League is king here in NSW, and three hours north of us, and just across the Queensland border, is the Gold Coast Titans of the NRL.

The Titans, having lost key player Scott Prince, have slipped off the pace, but with the finals beckoning, the office weekly tipping competition is hotting up nicely.

Having lived in Wollongong for four years Harry and I follow the Dragons (St George Illawarra) And I happened to catch up with former Dragon and former Bradford Bull Graeme 'The Penguin' Bradley last year. He now coaches one of the junior sides on the south coast.

South Sydney Rabbitohs owner and Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe lives just 30 minutes away from us here on the Coffs Coast on a sprawling country estate, so the red and green is very visible.

'Rusty', as he is known, lives with his parents and a brother in beautiful Nana Glen, a stunning country area about 20 miles inland from Coffs Harbour.

Spotted from time to time, driving a stretched Hummer, he usually keeps himself to himself, although he did donate a large sum of money ($50,000) for a community swimming pool last year.

And cycling hero Cadel Evans, who finished second in the Tour de France recently, spends time with his dad, who lives near here.

But back to that dilemma, before we digress again...

We have been cheering loudly for the Aussie swimmers at the Water Cube in Beijing, and they have so far rewarded us with four golds.

Sport here in Oz is king - there is nothing to compare.

Retired swimmers are always on TV promoting the latest health bar, health juice or breakfast cereal.

There's wall-to-wall Olympic TV coverage from two channels, and a dozen exclusive pages per day in the metro and national newspapers.

And as we cheer for more Aussie victories, we'll always keep an eye on any British winners - of which there already have been a couple.

Sporting talk, The Brits don't rate here, sadly seen as second rate as a result of countless years of failing to turn up for the Ashes.

Neither do our Trans-Tasman cousins from across the ditch.

The land of fush and chups, New Zealand.

A poor Kiwi in the office is so often the butt of jokes over their lack of Olympic medals. It's a sort of payback for the defeat at the hands of the All Blacks two weeks ago.

As for the Brits, perhaps when the athletics start in Beijing we might see some great tussles between the two nations that will test our support.

And of course there is the rugby league World Cup to look forward to later this year, and that will test our support.

I will admit here and now, I will be cheering for the Kangaroos, by far the best team in the comp. The splitting of the UK countries by the RFL has virtually handed the title on a plate to the Aussies.

But Kiran will be showing her allegiance and shouting for England.

As for young Harry, our five-year-old?

"I cheer for England in the first half and the wallabies in the second half," he told me, this week, before I informed him the wallabies play that other code of the game, the Kick and Clap version.

As for who to support in the football (or soccer as it's called here) I'm not sure Harry understands who or what Bradford City is yet!

I usually get the 'who's in red' question, or 'who's in black?' when watch as game I'm not sure he understands the role of the referee yet!

Here in Australia we have the A-League. Eight teams at present (ten next year), with Newcastle Jets the current champions, although Sydney FC are the Man Utd of the, the big spenders, owned by the man who owns the Westfield Shopping Centre empire.

The standard is so-so, which should be a good reason why Stuart McCall needs to get City back into the big time asap, so we can watch them on live TV.

It would certainly beat Forest or Barrow!