If you already have Nikon lenses, you can just keep using those.
If not, well...
The 70-200 f/2.8 AF-S G VR Nikkor is very very good. Add a 1.4x or 1.7x
Nikon teleconverter and you have a quite decent range.

On the low end, get yourself a 35mm f/2 or 18-55 Nikkor.

There are very good zooms and very bad ones, with most sitting somewhere in
between. If you steer clear from the bottom segment of the market you should
be fine for now.

Which ones?

Since you don't mention how much 'some money' is, you can't go wrong
with the AF-S 70-200 VR. Top mechanic, top optics. For some kinds of
sports, it kan be too short. For sports, you need the light (f/2.8). A
used AF-S 80-200 could be a cheaper option.

You probably want something more normal (wider than 70mm) as well.

-espen

Others have mentioned the 70-200 f/2.8 AF-S G VR Nikkor. I love mine. Use
it on a D70 and D200 with/out a TC-II.  Not cheap but worth every penny as
a lifetime investment, imo. If money and size no object the new 200-400mm
f/4G ED-IF AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor is to drool for.
http://www.nikonusa.com/template.php?cat=1&grp=5&productNr=2146
But you'll need a little red wagon, first to hold the $$ to buy it and then
to haul it around. :-)

http://www.naturfotograf.com/lens_surv.html is a decent review site.

Several fast 4 GB CF cards are a must. See
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-8197
speed comparisons.
--
Ed Ruf    Lifetime AMA# 344007 (Usenet2@EdwardG.Ruf.com)
http://EdwardGRuf.com

You should buy the 18-70mm 'kit' lens as it is optically very good and
remarkably inexpensive, especially when purchased with the camera
body.  That will give you a good range of focal lengths from moderate
wide angle (equivalent of 28mm on 35mm film) to moderate telephoto
(equivalent of 105mm on 35mm film).

What tele zoom you should buy depends on what you want to use it for
and how much you wish to pay.  Unfortunately your description of
"mostly country sports, action shots, etc." is almost meaningless, and
you didn't even hint as to what you budget might be.  So it is
difficult to make a recommendation.

However, a good budget option is the 70-300mm f/4-5.6D ED AF Nikkor.
Avoid the similar-sounding but optically inferior 70-300mm f/4-5.6G
which lacks the ED glass.  The ED version produces excellent results
in the 70-200mm range but performance deteriorates to merely good as
you zoom towards 400mm.

If your budget will stretch to the 70-200mm f/2.8G AF-S VR Nikkor, you
will own one of the finest telephoto zooms ever made.  There is also
an 80-200mm VR lens but it lacks the AF-S "Silent Wave" focusing which
makes it very slow.  It is also not particularly sharp.

Only you can judge whether fixed focal length telephotos will suit you
better than a zoom.  If the 70-200mm f/2.8G AF-S VR Nikkor suits your
needs and your budget, it is the tele zoom lens I would recommend.

There are already some good sugestions in this thread as to tele lens,
however you might probably also want "normal" perspective from time to
time. Cheap (and rather good) is kit lens for D70(s), that is 18-70 mm
f/3.5-4.5G , however its resolution does not quite match sensor of D200.
Better and brighter (and expensive, too) is 17-55mm f/2.8G .

B.

Whatever zoom/telephoto you decide make sure you get the 18-70 kit lens (not
the 18-55). This is is the best/most cost effective way to get a pretty good
quality lens for wide-angle (28mm equivalent) shots. To go wider than this,
even with third party makers (SigmaTamronTokina) is $500 and up; the Nikon
is $900. For ordinary uses this is really an indispensable lens for Nikon
dSLRs.
Whatever you do avoid like the plague the Nikon 55-200 unless you want to
learn what is meant by the word "horrible."

Especially for a 1.5x crop factor DSLR like this, an f/2.8 70-210
zoom is going to be wonderful for the stuff you do.  If you can stand
the price (about the same as the camera body), Nikon's VR version is
supposed to be great, but *I* haven't been able to stand the price yet
so that's hearsay, not personal experience talking.  For action shots
and sports you're going to need first-rate focusing (so the D200 is a
good body to have bought, I think), and you want to pair it with a
long lens that doesn't bog it down; which is to say one of the AF-S or
AF-I versions, not the straight AF or AF-D (these bigger lenses
benefit from additional motor assist in the lens; Canon EF has the
motor in *all* lenses, whereas Nikon can drive the lens from the body,
but can also have a motor in the lens if they need it for the
performance).

And a first-rate 70-210 type lens can usually stand a 1.4x or even 2x
teleconverter pretty decently, too, if the 200mm isn't enough
sometimes even with the 1.5x crop.

Or the 18-200 VR has a good rep at half the price -- but you'll see
it's a couple of stops slower, which means you'll be using a higher
ISO or maybe running out of light completely in some conditions.  VR
helps with camera shake induced by hand-holding, but remember that for
action shots you still need a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the
action.  I personally don't like slow lenses very much.  

I'm personally faunching after the 17-55 f/2.8 for a "walkaround" lens
for my D200, but it's not quite really out yet, and I haven't seen a
lot of reports on it yet.  And it's also pretty expensive -- good fast
lenses are expensive generally, for some strange reason.  Also heavy
and bulky.  But I find I'm using wideangle more and more (I didn't get
anything wider than 28mm until I had been photographing for almost 20
years, but in the 20 after that I'm out to 17mm, and using it fairly
often).  So I am not you :-).  

70-200mm F2.8 VR,  http://www.macattack.com.au/