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As Australians, we have revelled in many great sporting moments, such as the America’s Cup win in 1983 and our sporting heroes such as Don Bradman, Dawn Fraser, Rod Laver and Ian Thorpe.
But what is rarely written or discussed are the dark days in Australian sport.
I have come up with a ranked list of the five events in Australian sporting history we prefer not to talk about.
I am not talking about scandals such us drunk footballers, salary cap cheats, performance enhancing drugs or cricket players not doing their homework.
These are events where what happened on the field hurt our pride and left us shattered, angry or embarrassed.
5. 2003 Rugby World Cup loss
Australia defeated New Zealand in the semi-final to set up a mouth-watering World Cup final against England. In one of the great matches of all time, neither team could get break from the other.
England led by three in the final minutes before Elton Flatley kicked a penalty to even scores up.
Extra time was tit for tat. Both teams scored a further penalty but were unable to break the deadlock.
With just a handful of seconds left in extra play time, English hero Johnny Wilkinson kicked truly from 30 metres out to leave Australia heartbroken.
4. 1976 Montreal Olympics
There was much public disappointment over Australia’s performance in London 2012, but when compared to Montreal in 1976, London was a gold rush.
Montreal remains the only Olympics post-WWII that Australia has failed to win a gold medal – only one silver (men’s hockey) and five bronze medals were won.
There was great public disappointment over the result of the games, which prompted the Prime Minister at the time, Malcolm Fraser, to develop the AIS, widely credited for the gold rush experienced in the 2000s.
3. 1945 Aussie rules bloodbath
The 1945 VFL grand final between Carlton and South Melbourne was meant to celebrate a new peace in the world as WWII had recently concluded. But what transpired was sport at its absolute worst.
From the second quarter onwards, fights broke out across the field. Cowardly hits from behind were committed by both teams.
Umpires lost control of play as both teams focused on playing the man not the ball – the exact opposite of what sport is all about.
All up nine players were charged and seven found guilty. Some stories to emerge from the game were beyond comprehension.
During one melee in the final quarter, Fred Fitzgibbon (Carlton), who was already out suspended, ran from the stands to throw a punch at an opposition player. He was suspended for a further four games.
Ted Whitfield (South Melbourne) was charged with abusing a goal umpire, attempting to strike a field umpire and then covering his guernsey so the umpire could not take his number to report him. He was found guilty of all charges and sentenced to 21 games on the sideline.
The newspapers spent the following weeks dissecting the events of that day and some commentators claimed the tension of war over the past six years had spilled over onto the football field.
Photos emerged of some of the injuries suffered with black eyes and bruises covering the front pages of Melbourne newspapers.
Carlton won the game by five goals but 29th September 1945 eventually became known as ‘the bloodbath’ – one of the most brutal days recorded in Australian sporting history.
2. 1981 underarm ball
As Australians, we like to pride ourselves on playing hard but fair. But on February first, 1981, our national team, the team that is supposed to represent everything Australia stands for, decided that winning was more important than playing fair.
New Zealand needed a six off the final ball to tie the match. Australian captain Greg Chappell instructed his younger brother to bowl underarm to eliminate any chance of New Zealand stealing a tie.
Trevor Chappell obliged and the match resulted in an Australian win.
Though this was legal at the time, it is among the poorest acts of sportsmanship ever witnessed by an Australian team.
Prime Ministers on both sides of the Tasman criticized the incident but it was summed up best by commentator Richie Benaud who simply labelled it “disgraceul” in the post-game summary.
1. 1998 Sydney to Hobart
Everything listed on this list can be considered a bad moment in Australian sport. But the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race is the only one that can be considered tragic.
Sport is about overcoming adversity, about fighting hard for victory even when all seems lost. But in the 1998 Sydney to Hobart yacht race, six men lost their lives trying to do this. Many others came close to death.
The race started out as normal but a large storm developed off the coast at Eden. Reports later revealed the storm had the strength of a low grade tropical cyclone.
Less than half the starting boats finished the race that year. Six boats sunk.
As a seven-year-old at the time, I found the images and stories to come out of the Pacific Ocean beyond comprehension. How could such an amazing adventure go so wrong?
It was a question that was gradually answered as details of the race came to light. The storm was underestimated and communications between the weather bureau and race officials was poor.
Ten years after the event, the winner of the 1998 event, Larry Ellison, stated he did not win that race, he was just the first survivor.
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