Top 5 of Australian Sport, 2009

MVdave, i wasn't saying that Qualifying for the WC isn't hard. It certainly is, but the path to the WC just got alot easier for OZ. As illustrated by the cakewalk over the Asian Countries to get there. I mean what is a better chance? Coming 1st or second in a pool of Asian teams? Or winning a one off match against a previous World Cup winner? Winning the 3N isn't about winning a game of rugby, its about winning multiple games of rugby against the games biggest teams. That means beating the All Blacks and the Springboks multiple times in one year. You know how many times the Wallabies have beaten the ABs more then once in a year? Only 6 times in over a hundred years of competition. And thats every year, not every four. 19 World Cups - Australia have made 3. Over One hundred years of rugby history Australia have only beaten the ABs twice in one year 6 times.

Australia has won the tri-nations twice and they aren't the only contenders in world rugby. Furthermore, they have to win in SA, Australia and NZ at all sorts of altitudes climates etc etc. I wouldn't say it is that hard when you have to play rubbish sides the whole time to get through. Even Japan is outside the top 40. The only reason we haven't qualified more is because we were incorrectly placed in one of the toughest groups and constantly underperformed. We ought to do it every time now. When you rattle off the world soccer powerhouses you would rarely hear Iraq or Iran let alone China.

1 Eastwood St Andrews win in the Over 35/5 sorry that was 2008 ... Ok the grand final in 2009 in the over 35/4 we got promoted. 2. The Old Boys in the World Masters October this year ... fark I am playing in a div 1 level OMG... 3 games a day. 3. Goal of the year ... Midfielder from the outside of his foot with a clip over a charging keeper ... nice is the word that describes it. 4HMMMMMMMMmm maybe you want others.. 1. WCQ without doubt. 2. Casey Stoner 3. AU charge to the final in the ACL. 4. The Man winning another world title. 5. Forget his name ... but the Aussie that I think won a US title or the play off this year.

Oz has qualified for the WC 3 times...ever...how many times they won the matches vs NZ and SA in Ruggers? Plenty more times l suspect. It is a much harder process to qualify for the WC over an 18 month period playing 18 games including away matches in all areas of Asia at varying altitudes, temperatures, venues, playing surfaces etc etc. IMO. More praise to the coaches and players for doing it with 2 games to spare, not because it was easy...just ask China, Iran, Iraq etc if it was easy.

Soccer world cup qualification will surely be number one given that the Ashes, Tri-nations and Bledisloe are lost and an Australian fails to win Wimbledon, Le Tour and the Open in my opinion. A soccer world cup semi-final appearance next year would have to be the moment of the decade though. Art Sapphire, you must be mad including Melbourne Victory's win. I don't know where to begin with that one. You might have more of a case if the league itself had grown in popularity and public attention but it hardly broke new ground from the year before and the year before that.

Well said Katzilla. Granted the odd big country misses out on soccer world cup qualification but lots of teams with no chance of winning also get through. That being said it still has the most countries with a chance of winning than other WCs and played with varying degrees of seriousness the world over. Qualification is great but I won't start getting excited until semi-finals or maybe quarter finals time. I am glad that Australia has qualified but nothing will compare to last time. We are no in a much easier group and now that the hex has been broken I suspect that the public reaction will remain as subdued as was the case with the recent qualification. I expect we will get 2022 though. The tri-nations is no soccer world cup but remains incredibly hard to win. I dont agree with those who write off sports based on population sizes. On that basis Australia has no place at the soccer world cup either. Its not the size of the population that counts but the quality of the athletes they produce. I think you'll find the quality of the athletes provided but SA and NZ in their rugby sides is world class.

What does population have to do with the price of fish? Jamaica have how many people? But have the two fastest men on the planet. When your talking rugby, NZ and SA are the Brazil and Germany of Rugby. Regardless of Populations in this one sport, these two countries are relative giants. That was the point i was alluding to. Its so hard to win the 3N that Australia hasn't won it for 8 years and to do so would be quite an achievement. More so then qualifying for the Soccer World Cup, which this time round turned out to be quite a cakewalk. I see your Portugal point but their path to the finals will always be a little tougher then Australias. Granted Europe gets extra places, almost every team is good. If OZ had the same path to the finals and made it then sure, get the fireworks budget out. Im not trying to play down the relative importance or difficulty of Football world cup qualification, im a kiwi, i still remember when we made it way back when. But for Australia to win a tournament against the two top countries in the world, regardless of sport is an achievement.

Katzilla, Portugal was a semi finalists in the last world cup, top 4 in the world, they also have the best or 2nd best player (depending on opinion) in the world, very likely to miss next year world cup. This has happened in the last 5 world cups where one semi finalist has missed out on making the the following world cup finalists. But you're not playing Brazil or Germany every year, you are playing New Zealand (pop 3 million) & Sth Africa (50 million, but still very much a white man sport, only 10% of the Pop)

Robbos, Neither is Australia in the scheme of things. Australias last decent win in anything notable was Ogilvys Major. I mean look at that list? 2 internal events, a Podium finish, a semi final and qualification for a tournament (granted it is THE tournament) Rugby at least, unlike two of the events listed is an international game, and the two countries you named are the no.1 and no.2 ranked teams in the world. Australia have qualified for two football world cups in the last 10 years. But only won one TriNations win against the two best teams in the world. Not to knock the Soccer cause i think its great, but imagine having to play a 3 team tournament against Brazil and Germany every year. Thats how hard it is to win the 3N. And thats why it would be a huge achievement should the Wallabies pull it off this year. (I have a cool hundy on em)

Matt, Love my Rugby, but!!!! New Zealand & Sth Africa, not exactly worldbeaters in the world of sport.

Surely winning the tri-nations rugby is bigger than merely qualifying for a world cup. Sure its a good thing to qualify but nobody we had to play to do it was that special or one of the previous 7 world cup winners.

Bit of a dud year I think. The world cup qualification has aroused little interest and as for the Victory.....yawn. Another boring year for other sports it seems as well.

I'd said the women winning the first Sevens World Cup

I am eternally hopefull the Wallabies can be added to the top 5 if they win the Bledisloe back, if they bring home the lot TN's and Bledisloe I'll rank them 2nd behind the Soceroos. Well thats my BHAD.

Tom - as you can see i kept my list strictly team based. I was complelety biased with some of my selections, but they were my sporting highlights of the year so far. I find it hard to get passionate supporting indidviduals that is why they did not make the list.

OK, MV DAVE,the Socceroos have done Australia extremely proud. I grant you that it is a great australian performance. I would however like to see them play a more attacking brand because what they have shown so far will not get them out of the group stage.

Tom that's a good call on the Schwatter - it has been an unbelievable season for him. Of course, very hard to compare in terms of significance (an individual playing at the highest level versus a team doing very well in the domestic comp).

Actually before a code war starts (and I don't really care for cricket, by the way) can I also suggest Mark Schwarzer keeping ten clean sheets for Fulham in the Premier League in the 08-09 season, playing every minute of the season and conceding only 34 goals could also be in there ahead of the Victory.

Tom fair enough. As MVDave says in between our posts - 3 titles in the one year is a fair ol' haul. And, well, yes, I'm biased too! (which reminds me, I too have had my membership renewals sitting here in front of me for the best part of a month - I'm going to do something about it this arvo!!)

Pip, come on, you should know better than to misrepresent someone like that. I never said they underachieved, I said it shouldn't be in the top five achievements. And Art, I didn't expect anything of them in particular. I just think winning the A-league title isn't as significant as, say, Phil Hughes being the leading run scorer in his maiden test series. League and cup doubles are likely to happen every couple of years in the A-league but its very rare that an Aussie batsman goes on his first tour overseas and tops the runs tally.