Australian sport’s class acts of 2011

 

Roar Guru

By apaway, 21 Jan 2012 apaway is a Roar Guru

Tagged:

 Ange Postecoglou, Billy Slater, Cadel Evans, Ellyse Perry, Sally Pearson

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While the sport comes thick and fast in January, with cricket, tennis and A-League just to name a few, 2011 was a year that produced some of the best Australian sporting class acts. So in no particular order, here are five of the best.

Cadel Evans
The Tour De France is just plain crazy. Can there be a more physically taxing endurance event than this 3600-kilometre race up and down mountains in all kinds of weather? That Cadel Evans won the Tour in 2011, becoming the first Australian to do so, would be enough to qualify him as a classy, if slightly mad, sporting hero. But there is more to Cadel than his pedal power.

A strong anti-drug advocate in a sport that has had more than its fair share of issues made Evans stand out from the crowd before his great triumph. He is also a great supporter of Tibet and its struggle against the Chinese regime keen to envelop it, as well as sponsoring a Tibetan child living in Nepal.

Ange Postecoglou
The “Ange” revolution at the Brisbane Roar has transformed the landscape of football in Australia. The Roar’s amazing 2011 grand final win against the Central Coast Mariners, and their subsequent record unbeaten streak, have been talking points inside and out of the football community.

Postecoglou, aside from being a brilliant coach, has been an incisive analyst of the game in general. More than one player has credited him for re-kindling their interest in football with his methods. In his myriad media interviews, I never heard him bad-mouth an opponent or his own players, and he was more than willing to discuss the merits of his coaching philosophy in a way that was never clichéd.

Billy Slater
There can be many reasons to dislike Billy Slater if you are not a Melbourne Storm or Queensland fan. He has caused a lot of pain to opponents with his brilliant, off-the-cuff attacking play, but has been culpable of a suspect tackling technique, and was of course unwittingly embroiled in the Storm salary cap drama. But it can take one act to alter perceptions and Slater produced that in an NRL game better rembered for something else entirely.

The Manly-Melbourne clash at Brookvale featured an extraordinary all-in brawl that took up most of the headlines for the following week. What should have received more attention than it did was Slater’s efforts to help badly injured opponent David Williams in an incident where Williams severely injured his neck.

In effecting a tackle, Slater realised something was amiss, and cradled Williams’ upper body until he received treatment and was stretchered from the field. In a game of such blood and thunder, it was one of the classiest acts I’ve seen.

Ellyse Perry
In an era where a crowded sporting calendar means athletes choose early and stick to their best option, dual international Ellyse Perry has been a breath of fresh air. The 21 year old has combined twin careers in cricket and football, and played in the World Cups of both.

In 2011, she scored one of the goals of the tournament for the Matildas in the World Cup in Germany. She has received praise from both her cricket and football coaches at club and national level for her dedication and ability at both sports. Just recently, she declared that she did not want to be considered for her W-League side Canberra United if they made the grand final of the national competition, due to already making herself unavailable for the semi-final because it clashed with a cricket international.

Her reasoning was it was unfair to expect that another player to make way for her in the grand final if Perry herself hadn’t played in the semi final. Selflessness and extreme talent certainly make Ellyse a class act.

Sally Pearson
One of the most enduring images of the 2008 Beijing Olympics was the reaction of the then 21-year-old Sally McLellan when she won the silver medal in the 100 metre hurdles. It was unbridled enthusiasm and spontaneous joy at having competed on the biggest stage of all and given her everything. It mattered little that she didn’t finish first, even if there may have been hardened cynics questioning why she was overjoyed at “losing.”

Fast-forward to 2011 and Sally Pearson almost never lost. An incredible streak on the IAAF circuit saw her win every race bar the last, when she crashed out after hitting one of the hurdles. She still competes with the wide-eyed wonder of someone who seems unable to believe her luck, when we all know it isn’t luck that has got Sally Pearson to where she is.

Here’s hoping that she celebrates a great result in London with the same genuine emotion of four years earlier.

No doubt there have been many other classy moments from Australian sportspeople in 2011, so feel free to share your contributions.

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