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It’s awards season, and because we’re all about giving fans their say here at The Roar, it’s time for you to decide who the winners are in The Roar’s Sports Awards 2016.
Last Friday, you were able to cast a vote in the first of six different categories: Sports Personality of the Year. Today, it’s time to decide who the 2016 Team of the Year is.
We’ve narrowed the options down to a shortlist of six of Australia’s finest sports teams, all of whom had a 2016 to remember. It’s up to you, however, to decide which one really stood out from the pack.
Missed out on the previous awards? There’s still time to vote:
» Sports Personality of the Year
And the nominees are…
Swimming
Rio might have been a disappointment for some of our swimmers, but the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay was never in doubt. In the final event of the first day in the pool at Rio, the pre-race favourites Emma McKeon, Brittany Elmslie and Cate and Bronte Campbell teamed up to blitz the rest of the field.
They cruised to the gold medal, defending the title won in London 2012 and setting a new world record while they were at it.
Rugby Sevens
Rugby sevens is booming in Australia, and it’s largely due to the exploits of the ‘Pearls’. Having claimed the World Sevens Series title, they followed up that success by winning the first gold medal for rugby sevens in Olympic history, cementing themselves as the best side in the world in the process.
Rugby League
Prior to 2016, the Sharks had made just the single grand final since the 1970s and had never won a season-decider. Come the end of the 2016 season and they’d broken their title drought thanks to a pulsating two-point win in the grand final against the Storm, coming after they’d won a record 15 games in a row earlier in the year.
Netball
They say winning one title is hard, but winning a second the next season is even harder. That had proved to be the case in the ANZ Championship, with no team ever managing to claim back-to-back trans-Tasman netball titles.
That was, at least, until the Queensland Firebirds pulled it off this year, winning a double extra-time thriller in the grand final against the NSW Swifts by just two goals.
Cricket
For so long the whipping boys of the Big Bash, the Sydney Thunder turned their maiden finals appearance into a first-ever Big Bash title on the back of some exhilarating performances from the likes of Usman Khawaja and Andre Russell.
Adding to the club’s success was the Thunder’s women’s side, who edged out their cross-town rivals the Sixers in a final-over thriller to win the first ever WBBL title.
AFL
The Bulldogs continued the year of the fairytale in 2016 by breaking a title drought which stretched back to 1954. Having been written off in just about every week of the AFL finals, from their opening-week trip to Perth right up to the grand final against the minor premier Sydney Swans, the Bulldogs pulled off the unlikeliest of premiership wins despite missing a large chunk of their side because of injury.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.