Insecure Australians scale down London 2012 Olympics medal target. What would Glenn McGrath say?

Reality check: Ian Thorpe doesn't look like contributing medals any time soon (Photo: REUTERS)

In a shockingly un-Australian display of modesty and reticence, Australian Olympic Committee Chairman John Coates has admitted that the country’s London 2012 medal chances are “worrying” – and that they are projecting fewer gongs than the Oz team managed in 2008.

The AOC is predicting 30 medals next summer, which would represent the lowest haul since Barcelona 1992. Worse yet, the Aussie boffins have calculated that they might finish eighth in the medal table – below the hated Poms.

What has the world come to?

Is this the nation that gave us Glenn McGrath’s metronomic pre-series forecast of “5-0, mate” prior to every Ashes series? Talking up your hopefuls’ chances prior to a sporting event ought to be an Australian’s birthright.

But it’s not just the Olympics guys, who, after all, could be forgiven for not wanting to bet the farm on a medal haul that will be missing Ian Thorpe’s traditional 17 golds. Elsewhere in Aussie sport, we are seeing outbreaks of humility and proportion.

Shane Warne, coming out of retirement for domestic Twenty20 cricket in Melbourne, offered a muted: “I wouldn’t go into playing these games without a sense of confidence in my ability that I can go out there to make a difference” where once he would have been grinning broadly and wondering about what to spend the Man of the Series cheque on.

The rugby union men are also chastened. After comprehensive defeat in the last four of the Rugby World Cup, Michael Lynagh shrugged: “Defeat in a semi-final to New Zealand represents a good performance in the tournament.”

But this is the most damming of all. Is Aussie popstar-turned-celebrity-hoofer Holly Valance shooting her mouth off about winning Strictly Come Dancing in the traditional manner?

Not at all: “I don’t know if I’ll do it but I’ll have a good go,” said Holly deferentially, while somewhere out in Narromine, New South Wales, Glenn McGrath wept into his tinny about the cowardly over caution of his countrymen.