Count 'em down: Australia's top ten sporting moments of 2017

It’s been quite the year for Australian sport.

We had a new boxing champion crowned against one of the sport’s all-time greats, fairytale runs in both major winter sporting codes, and our men’s football team qualified for the biggest sporting event on the planet.

If 2017 goes down in the annals of Australian sporting history for one reason, though, it will likely be the rise of our female athletes. The Matildas stamped their authority on the world game, Ellyse Perry was crowned the first ICC Women’s Player of the Year, and so many people attended the first ever AFLW game that they couldn’t all fit in the ground. That’s just to name a few highlights.

Condensing 12 months of incredible sporting action into ten dot points is never particularly easy and, as always, there will be moments left by the wayside which could quite easily have been included. Many will no doubt vociferously argue they should have.

Hell, given I’m doing this a week early, I may well miss something incredible which occurs in between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Alas, I’ll have to live with that.

So before we get to the fun part, some honourable mentions must be handed out. In no particular order, they are:

• Sydney’s miracle comeback against Essendon at the SCG. How the Swans pulled that one off escapes me.
• Johnathan Thurston’s game-winning conversion in Origin 2. A fitting finale from rep footy from one of the all-time greats.
• Sydney FC’s grand final win over the Melbourne Victory. The Sky Blues never deserved to end 2016-17 as anything but champions, but they were made to earn it the hard way in a gripping contest.
• The aforementioned opening-round AFLW lockout. Who said no one wants to watch women’s sport?
• Nathan Lyon and Steve O’Keefe running through India on various occasions in the sub-continent. A shame it didn’t end in a series win for Australia, though.

There are plenty more which could have been mentioned, but I’ll leave it at that.

Now, for the top ten.

10. The North Queensland Cowboys’ fairytale run to the grand final

All year, the NRL was marred with an inescapable sense of inevitability. When we asked our stable of scribes to predict the eventual premiers on the eve of the finals, every single one predicted it would be the Storm. It was no great revelation.

So it was refreshing to see an underdog story emerge throughout the finals. The Cowboys were only in the top eight thanks to the Dragons’ last-round capitulation. They were robbed of Johnathan Thurston and Matt Scott through injury. They had no right to beat the Sharks in arguably the best final of the year, let alone make it all the way to the season decider.

Jason Taumalolo was immense throughout September, but it is Michael Morgan who defined the Cowboys’ charge. North Queensland’s halfback was sublime throughout the campaign, proving he’s undoubtedly one of the competition’s stars.

The Cowboys might have been blown off the park by the Storm in the grand final, but it should take no gloss off their incredible post-season. In a year’s time, we could quite easily be talking about them as 2018’s grand final victors.

(Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

9. The best Bledisloe Cup game this century

It was the darkest of years for Australian rugby fans, but Bledisloe 2 was an undeniable highlight. That it came after one of the most embarrassing Wallabies performances in history only makes it all the more remarkable.

Fresh off their 54-34 loss in Game 1, a thoroughly flattering scoreline, Australian fans were hoping for a more competitive performance, but any sort of expectations were well and truly absent.

What followed was one of the finest games of rugby union you’re likely to see. Having run out to an early 20-0 lead, the Wallabies were reeled in by the All Blacks, who hit the front in the second half and looked certain to win the game after Ben Smith crossed in the corner with less than ten minutes to go.

Then Kurtley Beale scythed through the New Zealand defence to put the Wallabies up by one with four minutes remaining. For the briefest of moments, it seemed Australia had done the impossible, and kept their Bledisloe hopes alive with a win on opposition soil.

Of course, they hadn’t. A superb interchange of passes from Kieran Read and TJ Perenara put Beauden Barrett in the clear, and World Rugby’s player of the year crossed next to the posts to seal the All Blacks victory.

A loss for Australia, but an incredible game of rugby nonetheless.

8. The Socceroos qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup

It took four matches more than it should have, but there’s no doubting just how important the Socceroos qualifying for Russia 2018 was. With the A-League stagnating and the FFA in the midst of a governance debacle, taking part in the World Cup next year will provide football in Australia with a much-needed boost.

The final leg of the campaign might have been a procession for the men in gold, with Mile Jedinak scoring a set-piece hat-trick to guide them to a comfortable 3-1 win over Honduras, but the entire process was one hard slog, complete with plenty of justified criticism about Ange Postecoglou’s tactics.

The last months of his tenure might have been characterised by negativity in the press, but it will be fascinating to see what Postecoglou’s legacy looks like in ten years’ time. With an Asian Cup and World Cup qualification in his resume, it should be glowing.

The Asian Cup victory will stand out as the highlight of Postecoglou’s time in charge of the Socceroos, but sealing qualification to the biggest sporting event on the planet should rate a close second, even if the aftermath was characterised more by relief than euphoria.

(Photo by Cameron J Spencer/Getty Images)

7. Richmond win their long-awaited flag

For the second year in a row, the AFL had themselves some bonafide fairytale premiers, although there wasn’t quite the same romanticism about the Tigers’ win as there was for the Bulldogs in 2016.

Maybe it was because the grand final was a blowout. Maybe it was because so many of Richmond’s ills in the preceding decades have been self-inflicted. Who knows.

Not that any of that mattered to the Punt Road faithful – such a display of outright adulation has rarely been seen in Australian sport. That in itself was undeniably special.

I’m not going to try and do the Tigers’ victory justice in this article. Jay Croucher has written about Richmond’s success better than I ever could, so let him tell you that story. You’ll not regret it.

(AAP Image/Julian Smith)

6. Sally Pearson wins world championship gold

Australians love a comeback story, and this one just about takes the cake for 2017. When injury prevented her from appearing at the 2016 Rio Olympics, the likelihood of Sally Pearson racing again was questionable. Winning another world championship wasn’t on the radar.

But, after deciding to coach herself, Pearson defied all the expectations (or lack thereof) to claim gold in the 100m hurdles in the London world championships, beating out world record-holder Kendra Harrison and Beijing Olympics gold medallist Dawn Harper-Nelson.

In doing so, Pearson not only completed a quite remarkable comeback, but cemented herself as one of Australia’s greatest ever track athletes. Her tally of two world championships (and one second-placed result) as well as Olympic gold and silver is as good as anything produced by her modern compatriots.

Let’s hope she can repeat the performance on the Gold Coast next year at the Commonwealth Games.

5. Australia reclaim the Ashes

So emphatic have Australia been in this Ashes series that it’s perhaps dampened the achievement of reclaiming the famous urn.

Steve Smith’s men have never looked capable of not defeating England this summer, but 2017 hasn’t been easy for them; a tour to India ended in typical disappointment which stung even more thanks to how close the side came to snatching a rare series win on the subcontinent, they failed to impress during the Champions Trophy, and were beaten for the first time in Test cricket by Bangladesh.

Hardly a stellar year.

But winning the Ashes back has cast all the aforementioned failures aside. The team has completely dominated the Old Enemy, winning by ten wickets, 120 runs, and an innings and 41 runs in the three Tests to date. Comprehensive stuff.

Those victories have been achieved with what most armchair selectors would call a pretty puzzling side. The team for the third Test contained two members of every Australian cricket fan’s least favourite family, a rookie opening batsman, and a wicketkeeper whose last first-class century is more ancient than his coach’s. Yet they’ve all delivered.

Admittedly, having the best batsman and bowling attack in world cricket doesn’t exactly hurt. But still, who thought Marshes Shaun and Mitchell would help lead the Aussies to Ashes glory?

The performances have made certain critics make abrupt U-turns from their pre-series predictions (looking your way, Mr Botham), and have Australia in the box seat to claim their first Ashes series win away from home for the first time since 2001.

(Photo by Philip Brown/Getty Images)

4. The Matildas win the Tournament of Nations

Few Australian teams have been as dominant as the Matildas in 2017, and never was that more evident than in the Tournament of Nations.

In three games in the mid-year event, the Matildas notched their first-ever win against the USA, beat local rivals Japan, then capped it all off and sealed the tournament with a lazy 6-1 win over Brazil, even though they’d conceded inside the first two minutes.

The victory over Brazil exacted some degree of revenge for being knocked out of the Rio Olympics in a controversial penalty shootout a year earlier, and also marked the heaviest defeat inflicted on Brazil this century.

Then there was Sam Kerr. The backflipping striker was the standout performer of the tournament, scoring four goals, including a hat-trick against Japan, and also turned provider on two occasions against Brazil.

Kerr was inexplicably overlooked for FIFA Women’s Player of the Year after the tournament, bewildering football fans at home and abroad. I guess she’ll just have to be even more dominant in 2018.

(AP Photo/Gregory Bull).

3. Steve Smith’s century in Pune

Performing well in India has always proved difficult for Australian cricketers, and success on the subcontinent has always been a sign of true greatness for our finest batsmen.

Viewed through that lens, there was no finer batting performance this year by an Australian cricketer than Steve Smith’s superb century in the first Test against India in Pune.

On a minefield which drew numerous comparisons to certain extra-terrestrial surfaces, Smith was the standout willow-wielder, compiling a greater score than the entire Indian team could manage in either of their innings (Smith made 109, while India were bowled out for 105 and 107 in their two innings).

In the context of the match, the knock was immense, giving Australia an insurmountable lead going into the final innings of the Test. In the context of the series, Smith gave his side the perfect opportunity to steal a series win in India for the first time since 2004.

And in the context of Smith’s career, it may just be his finest-ever century.

(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

2. Jeff Horn defeats Manny Pacquiao

Jeff Horn went into his welterweight bout against Manny Pacquiao as the underdog of all underdogs. Given no chance against one of boxing’s modern greats, Horn entered the fight as the obvious outsider.

But, much to everyone’s surprise, the Aussie took the fight to the Filipino legend, starting strongly and somehow surviving a brutal ninth round which had referee Mark Nelson on the verge of ending the bout.

The decision to give Horn the fight was met with outrage from most commentators everyone in the world who wasn’t Australian, and a few Aussies as well. But that only added to the event in its aftermath, giving every local fan good reason to indulge in an ‘us-versus-them’ mentality.

At any rate, the WBO welterweight belt went Horn’s way, and a review of the scoring by five independent judges added credence to the result for the former schoolteacher.

More than that, it was an enjoyable fight to watch (something which certainly wasn’t the case in February for Mundine vs Green II). Outraged American commentators were just an added bonus.

(AAP Image/Dan Peled)

1. Ellyse Perry’s Ashes double century

I said up front that women’s sport is the defining characteristic of 2017, and there was no individual performance by an Australian female athlete better than Ellyse Perry’s sublime double century against England.

The innings was a superb bit of batting, full of textbook-perfect drives, cuts and flicks. It was so good that Perry actually brought up her 200 twice, the second occasion only arising after what was thought to be a six was revealed to have fallen short of the rope, leaving her one run short of the milestone.

That Perry scored a flawless double century, the highest ever score by an Australian woman in Test cricket, is in itself an incredible achievement.

But what was most impressive about the innings was that it was Perry’s first Test in more than two years.

With no women’s first-class competition for Perry to hone her long-form game in, the star all-rounder’s previous four-day game came in August 2015. She scored a grand total of 18 runs that match. Imagine what Perry – and every other female cricketer in the world, for that matter – would be capable of if given more exposure to the red (or in this case, pink) ball.

Let’s hope they get that chance in the years to come.