Why the NZ/Aus Rivalry (Serious question here)

Why the NZ/Aus Rivalry (Serious question here)

All,
I found this article on here today. I've seen this a few times since looking a bit more in NZ matters. Comments such as "we've got to catch up to the Aussies", or I saw recently how a NZ consortium wanted to buy Cairns Airport "to get extra Asian traffic to NZ via Cairns".

Serious question, why the competition? Is it a population thing? What is it? Why does the media feed this debate?

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/3235472/All-Whites-lose-Croatia-warm-up-to-Socceroos

All Whites miss Croatia warm-up to Socceroos <!-- google_ad_section_end(name=storyline) --> By SIMON PLUMB - Sunday News

The All Whites have lost out on a home World Cup warm-up against Croatia � to the Socceroos.

New Zealand Football chief executive Michael Glading told Sunday News recent talks with Football Australia top-brass opened the possibility of sharing a down-under visit from the Europeans.

But with the two federations targeting the same date, it's the All Whites who've ended up playing gooseberry.

"There was a possibility to play Croatia," said Glading.

"We were talking to Australia about sharing the costs and both playing Croatia. Unfortunately we both wanted the same date. They got in first and locked it.

"The problem is we've got to get the players to Europe two days later. If we were to play Croatia on a later date it would mean the team couldn't depart to Austria on time and their altitude training would be affected. It's a catch-22."

Glading told Sunday News hopes of playing European opposition before the World Cup now rest on three nations, including Serbia, who have expressed written interest.

Glading declined the opportunity to name the other contenders.

"The reason I won't announce them is because it's not organised until it's signed. I have a slight fear that another country might spot someone is available and grab them. There's a little bit of that going on at this time of year as all the World Cup teams are trying to arrange friendlies. Getting games is actually quite competitive.

"We could just get a team from Asia to come over. China have been continually wanting to get a game against us. But a game against China doesn't tick all the boxes. We're not playing any teams of that style.

"Our goal all along has been to get games against meaningful opposition."

Glading said the odds of a home warm-up remain no better than 50-50, while adding New Zealand Football considers venue talk a non-issue before a fixture is even secured.

Glading confirmed Colombia are in the running as a potential South American opponent but said the chance of a game against them is no greater than "half-a-dozen Latin nations not qualified for the World Cup", bringing Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela equally into the mix.

"There's no set rule on how long these things can take," said Glading.

"It's a bit like fishing. You put your bait in the water and sometimes you get a bite within a day, sometimes it takes a week."

I guess some use Australia as a benchmark, as far as most things go, you're better than us (realistically) so we're just trying to achieve what you guys have. Personally I'd love to see NZ with a FIFA ranking similar to Oz.

They're the neighbours who always walk home with trophies, accolades and global recognition. You gaze enviously across at them. And then, in thier utter arrogance, they rub it in your face.

Why should we like them? Bunch of f**king convicts.

Yeah, because they're the only neighbouring countries in the world who are competitive with one another. 

we're fecking awesome!!!

DS - see Marius's blog http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/blogs/hand-of-god/3236161/What-was-the-crowd

 

oh and cos they produce utter twats like shane watson, lleyton hewitt, brad haddin

closest thing we have to a big brother.......

I allways thought NZ was just another state of Aus?

The West Island - North/South Island rivalry is just media hype (which the Chappel brothers bought into unfortunately).

Reported.

 

Yes.

 

Sorry, forgot to add this - :rolleyes:

 

Because in the things that matter that can be measured Australia is far, far ahead of us.  By that I mean in footballing and rugby league terms they are far better than us.  Add to that the nicest places in Australia are far better than those in NZ.  Having said that, they have their fair share of hell holes which are worse than our ones.

Yes, the 'guess the crowd figure with your mates' is a thing we do here as well, so Sam is correct. Also we have to almost justify the crowd figures to the "NSL Bitters" so there is some of that 'internal' bickering as well I guess.

LOL at the weather comment! Was 11 degrees and blowing a gale there last week, looked cold just watching it on the TV.

I agree with Watson and Hewitt, Haddin I didn't like but he seems to be improving a bit, he's got time on his side to back this up.

But yeah, the other 2 are bogans, no disputing this.

Sounds like a yardstick thing perhaps? We'll get back to this later, but in the meantime...hmmm, not sure who Australia looks to, the USA a lot of us laugh at, Europe is where a lot of us originate from, but it's crowded there, so I suppose the answer here is, if we can't find it (i.e a good example of something) elsewhere, we create our own standards.

Interesting topic though, good to see some positive responses though.

DS

Walking around Sydney it would have to be Asia.

Sudney sucks, and is (besides the harbour area) a poor reflection on the country.

yeah, Perth or Brisbane are much better :sarcasmmouth