- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Happy New Year Roarers, but I can’t let 2014 go by without saluting individual and team performances that gave me immense pleasure.
Nick Kyrgios tops my list with his powerhouse 7-6 5-7 7-6 6-3 victory over world number one Rafael Nadal in the fourth round at Wimbledon.The rookie made the packed centre court gasp with the audacity of his strokeplay, blasting 37 aces past the Spaniard to 11, and 70 winners to 44 in just under three hours. The highlight a between the legs winner from the baseline, Nadal blinked in disbelief.
2 – Steve Smith’s appointment as the third youngest and 45th Australian Test captain and watching him crack 133 at the Gabba and a career-high 192 at the MCG to become the first Australian skipper to score centuries in his first two Tests tossing the coin. And on the way regaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Long may the relaxed and very talented cricketer reign.
3 – Daniel Ricciardo finished third in the Formula One drivers’ championship, consistently beating his Red Bull teammate and four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel That was a fantastic result in his first full year, winning in Canada, Hungary, and Belgium. With Vettel off to Ferrari this year, the ever-smiling, easy-going Ricciardo will be Red Bull’s number one as he seeks to join Sir Jack Brabham and Alan Jones as Australia’s only F1 world champions.
4 – The Mick Maguire-inspired South Sydney winning the NRL for the first time in 43 years, igniting the Redfern faithful for weeks, thanks to the Burgess family, Greg Inglis, Adam Reynolds, and skipper John Sutton. Legend John Sattler’s huge smile was the icing on the cake.
5 – Michael Cheika did the same for the Waratahs by winning their first Super Rugby title in 19 years, even though it took a heart-stopping long-range last minute penalty goal by Bernard Foley to sneak over the crossbar for the 33-32 success against the Crusaders in front of a record 61,823 crowd at ANZ Stadium.
6 – Coach Laurie Daley made it as well with NSW, regaining the Origin series over Queensland 2-1 after losing for the last eight years. Skipper Paul Gallen was tireless leading from the front, Jarryd Hayne a revelation, and the reliable boot of Trent Hodkinson did the rest.
7 – And Tony Popovic made it a quartet of football coaches to mentor historic victories, when the Western Sydney Wanderers became the first Australian side to win the Asian Champions League. That success came so early in the club’s career it was a credit to Popovic, but sadly for the young club they have yet to win in the A-League since.
8 – Stephanie Gilmore captured her sixth world surfing championship, and is now within one of compatriot Layne Beachley’s world record seven. But Steph knows only too well there are two very talented young Aussies ready to stake their claims in 2015 – Sally Fitzgibbon and Tyler Wright.
9 – Emma McKeon made her international swimming debut at the Glasgow Comm Games with four golds and two bronze – a sensational start for the 19-year-old. The golds came in the 200 free, 4×100 free relay, 4×200 free relay, and the 4×100 medley relay. The bronze – the 100 free, and 100 fly, bring on Rio.
10 – Jamie Whincup won his sixth V8 Supercars title, proving to be the one to beat yet again. Anyone who can consistently beat Craig Lowndes must be a very worthy champion.
Special mentions:
Anthony Mundine has always been his own worst enemy with his motor mouth. But he won back a lot of lost fans when he ended the unbeaten run of Belarusian Sergey Rabchenko, 10 years Mundine’s junior.
The Australian cricketers started the year with a 281-run over England at the SCG to win the Ashes 5-0. Ryan Harris was man of the match, Mitchell Johnson man of the series, so nothing much has changed all year, except for the emergence of Steve Smith.
Greg Chalmers, 41 years young, fired in a flawless final Round 8 under 64 at the Australian PGA on the Gold Coast to earn a play-off with world number three and defending champion Adam Scott, and Wade Ormsby. Despite finding six fairway bunkers off the tee in the seven-hole play-off, Chalmers beat off Ormsby then Scott to take the title against all odds.
And Sally Pearson who had hamstring problems and copped a major spray from Australian track and field head coach Eric Hollingsworth, but like the true champion she is still won 100m hurdling gold at the Comm Games. Hollingsworth got the sack.
The disappointments:
The ARU’s rank amateur handling of the Kurtley Beale affair that cost the Wallaby ultility back $48,500 in two fines, but also cost Ewen McKenzie his job as Wallaby coach, and cost Di Patson’s her job within the Wallaby camp.
Todd Carney and Greg Bird bringing rugby league more unwanted headlines, their dampening effect on the code cost Carney his NRL career, and Bird the Titans’ captaincy.
The biggest shock of the year was the highly-favoured Sydney Swans not firing a shot in the AFL grand final, they didn’t turn up to play. Hawthorn didn’t ask any questions why, they just belted the Swans in every quarter to waltz away with their second successive flag.
John Grant and Dave Smith continue to administer rugby league behind closed doors, where are Ken Arthurson and John Quayle when we need them?
And it’s high time coach Ange Postecoglou got the Socceroos playing positive and winning football. Just two wins and two draws from 12 games is not the Postecoglou way.