Hamish Bidwell: We need to stand up for our children

Hamish Bidwell says when it comes to sports parents have to be the ones to advocate for their children and call out unfairness. Photo / Paul Taylor

I've long held misgivings about how we do kids' sport in this country.

Going back to my own childhood, as a would-be athlete, something that should have been fun and about participation, was riven with politics and pushy parents.

We huff and puff about why teenagers walk away from sport in alarming numbers and how we can make the experience more enjoyable for them.

The reality is it's rarely a dislike of the sport itself that drives children away, or the lure of a social life, but the unfairness of everything. The belief that codes and clubs are a closed shop being run for the benefit of others.

Far from enticing children to play, many authority figures actively exclude our kids.

But, hey, it's just children. We put it down to life lessons and encourage them to put their energies and experience into something else.

What we don't do is ever acknowledge or deal with the problem.

And so it is that barely a month goes by in this country without a major sport or national team having to conduct a cultural review.

Rugby has been the latest, with a report published last week into the problems besetting the Black Ferns.

Head coach Glenn Moore was not a very nice man. Or at least that's how the players felt.

Never mind. New Zealand Rugby backed its man and Te Kura Ngata-Aerengamate, the player whose emotional Instagram post prompted the review, was jettisoned from the Black Ferns' contract list after years of distinguished service.

It was classic kids' sport, with the powers that be protecting the authority figure and the wounded party left to fend for themselves. The chosen ones had spoken.

The media have earned the poor esteem in which this country holds them. We have let readers and listeners and viewers down by not holding the establishment to account.

That changed a little in the past few days.

Such was the widespread disgust at Moore retaining his position, that he eventually announced his resignation.

Now I rarely believe anyone resigns. They're tapped on the shoulder and asked to stand aside.

If you want to know what purpose the media serve or why it's important, this was an example. Without columnists and commentators expressing their dissatisfaction at Moore's retention, nothing would have changed.

It was a welcome development, but we still have such a long way to go. Particularly when it comes to female athletes.

Parents put their children into the care of coaches and administrators and, far too often, they're not looked after at all.

We've had reviews into women's football and cricket, and gymnastics. Cycling got it so wrong, with the tragic death of Olivia Podmore, that they've had to do it twice.

Sadly, though, the onus is on us.

We have to be the ones to advocate for our children. We have to be the ones to call out unfairness, let alone emotional and physical abuse.

We are failing female athletes in this country, because we continue to allow governing bodies and clubs to place men into positions of power over them.

This month it was rugby, next month it'll inevitably be another sport.

But it starts at the grassroots. It starts with the behaviours we accept from coaches and administrators and teachers.

If we don't stand up for our kids, no one else will.