It appears that with golf both sexes play it and an increasing number of men are playing netball, but male dominated sports like Rugby League, Rugby and AFL tends to be a limiting factor.
My son Wesley who is a sports writer for Christian Today Australia, having lived in the UK for seven years and travelling extensively, playing soccer, says that throughout Europe, soccer (football) is dominant. His observation is that Australia is good at a range of sports internationally that don't complete against soccer.
Australia is very good at rugby league and rugby, field hockey, cricket and netball to name but a few, but doesn't have the same international standing in soccer (football) as only a few of the outstanding 'home grown athletes' play that sport.
But it cannot be as clear cut as this as the Germans, the Netherlands and Spain are all very good at field hockey as well as soccer. Moreover each nation has an occasional outstanding tennis player or golfer or archer, or swimmer or runner or whatever.
Traditionally, field hockey is a sport that Australia does very well in. Over the years Australia has dominated both men's and women's hockey internationally, and like soccer almost every country plays hockey, but Australia has an historical record in field hockey and therefore little wonder we're at the top of the international tree.
This is because Australian hockey is largest in rural and regional Australia. With small towns in rural districts, hockey is popular and many youngsters who have potential are encouraged into hockey, mostly through family connections.
Herein lies one of issues with Australia and sport. Some very specific sports in Australia have developed a home grown affinity and recognition. Other classic examples are Netball, Aussie Rules, Rugby League, Rugby and Cricket.
Therefore, how might Australia develop those many 'other sports' that do not have such a grip on the nation;s psyche as these 'home spun media' popular sports.
As to soccer, Wesley Tronson is with every other soccer commentator in Australia, that the Government working alongside soccer officials needs to bolster the young Australians chances of playing soccer at top level. Soccer is played throughout the world, mostly as if it was a matter of life and death. Australians know this feeling but it's associated with their home spun sports, not soccer.
But others are not so sure soccer deserves such Government support. They have an almost antipathy towards soccer, and a view that says it should not and never will become 'Australia's national sport'.
This view claims that Australian soccer is in reality a third rate sport on the international scale. The 2010 World Cup results illustrated as much. Soccer simply does not cut it in the world of sport performances in the eyes of the majority of Australian sports fans.
So although people may watch World Cup soccer on the television, it is to field hockey teams, the surfing champions, the cricket lads, the squash players, the softballers, the swimmers and divers who perform at the very top level internationally that Australians take proper pride in.
Watching soccer is more about entertainment, like going to the cinema.
There is also a surprising rate of soccer injuries. Sports injuries treated at local hospitals on a weekend come from .... no, not rugby league; not Aussie Rules .... no.... try.... soccer. Broken legs, broken arms … you name it.
And it's little wonder, since soccer referees allow such a high degree of 'rough and tumble' under the guise of it being a robust physical contest.
And, although all sports have their politics, there is no sport as dogged by internal politics as soccer, and that is largely because of the high ultimate prize – the big European money. This is another element why soccer is seen as a little off centre in the Australian psyche, as Australian pride and national identity is not as high on soccer's agenda, rather it's personal gain at the highest professional level in Europe.
What some English soccer players earn in a week is what many Australian professional footballers of the various codes might earn in a year or two years or three years.
This all reminds me of something. The message of God's Grace, Salvation offered by Jesus Christ as a free gift, is completely opposite to the idea that Salvation can be earned.
And this is the rub, that so many religions offer something very close to a gift, that one only need do this or that to earn Salvation, like behaving, obeying or chilling out, whatever, but it all revolves around the person earning Salvation.
To Christian Grace, this kind of thinking is off centre, it doesn't sit right. Salvation cannot be earned, it is Gift from God, one either accepts the gift or in effect, you don;t want it. But it cannot be earned and anything that reflects is off centre.
In my view, that's a bit like soccer in Australia, it somehow doesn't quite sit right with the national psyche, it's a bit off centre. Maybe because soccer in reality is base in Europe.