What is The Roar’s Australian sporting team of 2009?

Roar Pro

By The Roar, 25 Nov 2009 The Roar is a Roar Pro

Tagged:: A-League, AFL, australian sports team of the year, Geelong Cats, Kangaroos, Melbourne Victory, Melbourne Vixens, netball, NRL, Queensland State of Origin team, Socceroos, St Kilda Saints, State Of Origin

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Geelong players celebrate their win after the 2009 Toyota AFL Grand Final between the St Kilda Saints and the Geelong Cats at the MCG.

2009 saw some remarkable team performances from Australia’s best: teams such as the Socceroos, Geelong Cats, St. Kilda Saints, Melbourne Storm, Melbourne Victory, Queensland Origin and the Melbourne Vixens. But which deserves to be Australian sporting team of the year?

The nominees are:

Socceroos – Football
While fans debate the likely makeup of Pim Verbeek’s Socceroos heading into the 2010 World Cup, it’s important to reflect on what they achieved in 2009. They qualified for their second consecutive World Cup with a 0-0 draw away to Qatar on 5 June. The Socceroos only conceded one goal in the whole qualification period, and their victory away to Oman sets them up for Asian Cup qualification. They also held the Netherlands to a draw and defeated Ireland 3-0 in friendlies.

Geelong Cats – AFL
Geelong exacted revenge for their 2008 upset Grand Final defeat with their second premiership in three years. Geelong showed signs of faltering with injuring threatening to derail their season, but they came storming back into contention, easing past the Bulldogs and Collingwood to set up the much-anticipated clash with St. Kilda. Their two-goal victory in the Grand Final confirmed their place as one of the great teams. To cap of their season, Gary Ablett finally claimed a long overdue Brownlow medal.

Melbourne Victory – A-League
The Melbourne Victory confirmed their status as the benchmark team of the A-League in season 2008/09, both on and off the pitch. The Victory claimed the pre-season cup, the premiership and became the first A-League side to win two championships by defeating Adelaide United 1–0. Despite losing the likes of Danny Allsop and Michael Theoklitos, the Victory are once again at the forefront in the 2009/10 season.

St. Kilda Saints – AFL
Although premiership success may have eluded them by 12 points, their record run of 19 consecutive victories in a season shattered the club’s previous mark of 10 in a row and created AFL history. The minor premiers decimated many an opposition during that record run.

Melbourne Storm – NRL
Like Geelong, the Melbourne Storm exacted revenge for their 2008 disappointment with premiership success; defeating the Parramatta Eels 23-16. Led by Billy Slater, the Storm nullified the threat of Jarryd Hayne in the Grand Final, winning their second premiership from four consecutive Grand Final appearances. For many it confirmed their status as the greatest NRL side of the decade.

Queensland State of Origin – League
Queensland claimed their fourth straight State of Origin series, continuing their domination over the NSW Blues. Comprised of greats such as Israel Folau, Darren Lockyer and Billy Slater, the current Maroons squad was too strong for Craig Bellamy’s Blues, wrapping up the series in the second game.

Melbourne Vixens – ANZ Netball Championship
The Vixens claimed their first ANZ Championship in the second season of the trans-Tasman competition. The inspirational Sharelle McMahon led the way with the team only losing one game throughout the whole season. They defeated the Adelaide Thunderbirds 54-46 in the Grand Final.

Other possible candidates –

Parramatta Eels – NRL. Emerged from the pack for a late season run that took them to the Grand Final.
Australian Diamonds – Netball. Prepared for the upcoming Commonwealth Games by beating arch rivals, the Silver Ferns, in a Test series in New Zealand.
Australian Kangaroos – League. Claimed the Four Nations with an easy victory against England in the final.

Feel free to justify your selection, or add your own team of 2009 in the comments area below.

The winner will be announced on Tuesday December 8.

So, who deserves the title?

[poll id="60"]

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The Crowd Says (87) | Page 1 of Comments

Jay said | November 25th 2009 @ 8:46am | Report comment

What? the wallabies don’t get a mention. Outrageous!

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JiMMM said | November 25th 2009 @ 8:54am | Report comment

I know this comparison stuff is just fun to do, but could at least wait until December and the silly season proper before we start trying to compare teasm across codes

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- Marshall said | November 25th 2009 @ 9:03am | Report comment
  
  It’s December in five days dude.
  
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  - Crazy Dave said | November 25th 2009 @ 4:16pm | Report comment
    
    LOL!!!!
    
    Reply
Pippinu said | November 25th 2009 @ 8:57am | Report comment

Hmm – a tough one.

One small comment – in AFL circles, we never refer to the Geelong Cats, St Kilda Saints, etc – for the traditional teams, the two monikers are rarely mentoined side by side, although it does happen for pretty much all new teams post 1982 (when the marketeers took over).

I don’t think the Sainters should be there – all they managed to do in the end was match Essendon’s home and away record of 2000.

Interestingly, all of the Cats, Storm and Victory won their 2nd premiership in 3 seasons (and in the identical years).

So that makes it extra tough.

The Socceroos’ efforts have been undervalued by many – but it’s not every day you make your second consecutive WC (in fact, it’s a first for us) – so I would have to give my vote to the Socceroos.

If any of the Cats, Storm or Victory can follow up with a consecutive premiership (making it 3 in 4 years) – then they will clearly be in the box seat for next season!!

On a side note – does anyone know how the Australian korfball team went this year? (just interested)

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- JiMMM said | November 25th 2009 @ 10:05am | Report comment
  
  Now I’m intrigued, what on earth is korfball??
  
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  - M1tch said | November 25th 2009 @ 10:11am | Report comment
    
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korfball
    
    Reply
  - Pippinu said | November 25th 2009 @ 11:08am | Report comment
    
    Jimmmmmmm
    
    I’m glad you asked!!
    
    According to this site:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia-Oceania_Korfball_Championship
    
    Australia came 2nd in 2006 in the Asia-Oceania Korfball championships (embarassingly, we came 2nd to Taiwan, but did finish above India).
    
    There should have been another one in 2008 – but I have no details.
    
    My main agenda for coming onto the Roar is to publicise the sport of Korfball a bit more – which appears to get short shrift in the Australian sports media.
    
    I also have a thing for sjoelbak.
    http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sjoelen
    
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    - JiMMM said | November 25th 2009 @ 12:07pm | Report comment
      
      Noble aims good sir, but unfortunately as Korfball and Sjoelbak are not part of the Australian sporting psyche, we are going to have to cut thier funding off, until they can get some large participation numbers. ;P
      
      Reply
      - Pippinu said | November 25th 2009 @ 1:09pm | Report comment
        
        Geez – with a bit of funding – I coodabeen the sjoelbak champ’een o’ the world!! (enter piercing violin)
        
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    - macavity said | November 26th 2009 @ 5:59pm | Report comment
      
      I used to play Sjoelen all the time as a kid – Dutch grandparents.
      
      good fun.
      
      Reply
- BigAl said | November 25th 2009 @ 10:54am | Report comment
  
  Pip – good pick up on cultural subtleties within AFL.
  
  I mention subtle, but then again it’s bleedin’ obvious..
  – I mean how many Saints are there in the AFL apart from St Kilda ??
  
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- factos incorrectos said | December 7th 2009 @ 2:40pm | Report comment
  
  St Kilda lost 2 home and away games in 2009, they didn’t equal any record. Essendon lost 1 in 2000, as did Geelong in 2008. The Socceroos shouldn’t be rewarded for being average in the past.
  
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M1tch said | November 25th 2009 @ 9:04am | Report comment

Storm..dont rate the QLD origin team at all

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Art Sapphire said | November 25th 2009 @ 9:12am | Report comment

Team of the Year – The All Whites

Sportsman of the Year – Thierry Henry

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Brett McKay said | November 25th 2009 @ 9:12am | Report comment

Can we add the Victorian Bushrangers to the list?? Shield and FRC champs, and lost the Big Bash final to NSW in the last over….

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- M1tch said | November 25th 2009 @ 9:49am | Report comment
  
  Why not NSW..who won it
  
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- Brett McKay said | November 25th 2009 @ 12:24pm | Report comment
  
  well, because they won one of the three on offer, and were nowhere near the finals for the other two. The Vics had also won the previous three Big Bash series’…
  
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  - Chris said | November 25th 2009 @ 5:38pm | Report comment
    
    Victoria – Australian champions. New South Wales – World Champions.
    
    and don’t pretend that Victoria is better than NSW because they won the FRC and Sheild – because if NSW were actually allowed to play their full strength team they would win those in a canter.
    
    Reply
  - Brett McKay said | November 26th 2009 @ 8:18am | Report comment
    
    well it’s complete then, T20 has taken over the world….
    
    this whole “if NSW were actually allowed to play their full strength team” arguement is little tired now, you make it sound like being picked for Australia is a punishment. Either way, at different points last year Victoria lost D.Hussey, Siddle, White, McDonald, and McGain as well, so it’s not even that valid any more.
    
    As it turns out, Victoria fell in a heap in last years FRC and lost the final in Melbourne to Qld….
    
    Reply
    - AndyRoo said | November 26th 2009 @ 8:40am | Report comment
      
      Vic and QLD are the two states that would be effected most by any rules forcing them to pick young players.
      
      They love to keep their loyal stalwarts that have no chance of a test recall and this means they win domestic trophies while WA and NSW provide the bulk of the Australian team (despite slection bias in favor of Vics). The Vic players that called up for the national team are by and large very ordinary, the nSW players are potential stars.
      
      Perhaps untrue but that is my story and I am sticking to it until someone writes a really good Roar article to suggest otherwise.
      
      Reply
    - Michael C said | November 26th 2009 @ 8:59am | Report comment
      
      I loved the reports on Chan 9 this morning of the NSW FRC loss to WA yesterday, talking about the understrength NSW side missing it’s stars……
      
      ….and, horses for courses, they may be entering a One dayers without Katich and Clarke, but, they’ve got their short form specialist opener Warner (Aust rep), Hughes (Aust Rep), Jacques (Aust Rep), etc etc through Henriques, S.Smith and bowlers like S.Clark and Cockley and there’s far, far more Aust reps there than the WA side (S. Marsh, Voges and Ronchi)……so, which is the young inexperienced team?
      
      btw – QLD did hold onto Bichel and Kaspa for an eternity, but, they’ve certainly started reloading now, as illustrated by Noffke heading to WA. WA is actually the oddity, with so many recycled/resettled bowlers in Knowles, Magoffin, Noffke and Hogan……to name a few.
      
      Reply
      - AndyRoo said | November 26th 2009 @ 9:15am | Report comment
        
        In regards to QLD the first name that came to mind was Martin Love as an example of the “Bulls for Life scheme”.
        
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KB said | November 25th 2009 @ 9:54am | Report comment

It can only be one of the Australian National Teams… And the winner is … drum roll — bbbbrrrr — The Australian National Football Team (Sokkahroos, for those Melburnians who are not familiar with the Australian National Football Team) Any other club mention from Melburnian’s Jurassic Park would be an insult to most Australians who live north of the Murray… Special mention for our ANZAC compatriots the “All Whites” across the ditch … as most of them now live on the Gold Coast…

~~~~~~~
KB

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AndyRoo said | November 25th 2009 @ 10:05am | Report comment

It says the poor Kanagaroos have -1%

That’s harsh

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Alex said | November 25th 2009 @ 10:14am | Report comment

what about the woeful wallabies .. they´re doin great this year!!!
I vote for them as my top sporting team

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Gibbo said | November 25th 2009 @ 11:02am | Report comment

gotta be the Catters!! Timed their run to perfection, indicative of a brilliantly planned and executed season. Fully deserved their second premiership in three years, won by a hard slog in the wet and what should have been a B.O.G. performance by Harry Taylor.

They get the nod over the socceroos because they play their code (as the team song suggests) the way it should be played! Attacking, positive football, strong at the contests, fast through the middle. None of the dour, results first, Pim Verbeek methodology.

and yes i am biased.

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- Pippinu said | November 25th 2009 @ 11:10am | Report comment
  
  full marks for operatic club songs – a touch of the yaartz!!
  
  Reply