Ranked: Travis Head, Curtis Mead, Kyle Chalmers headline South Australia’s best athletes of 2023

The people have spoken and they have up-ended the Advertiser’s top 100 South Australian athlete rankings. See who made the people’s choice list.

What a year 2023 was for South Australian sport.

Cricket superstar Travis Head led the way with his match-winning performance for Australia in cricket’s One-Day International World Cup final victory against India but there were many other standout performances.

Head was among those SA athletes and teams, including the all-conquering Adelaide Strikers women’s team that won back-to-back WBBL titles, who proved their talent on the local, national and international stage.

Travis Head of Australia pictured following the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup India 2023. Picture: Matthew Lewis-ICC/ICC via Getty Images

From the ODI Cricket World Cup to the AFL grand final and everything in between, The Advertiser sports reporter Andrew Capel took a stab at ranking the best of the best, counting down the top 100 South Australian athletes and teams of 2023.

The list, which covers a wide variety of sports and a combination of established and rising stars, is sure to create plenty of debate.

It was based on performance and inspiration, with only SA-born or raised athletes and Adelaide-based teams considered.

This ruled out stars such as Adelaide Crow Taylor Walker (born in Broken Hill), who made his first AFL All-Australian team at age 33 following a career-best 76-goal season.

Scroll down to see who made cut.

Now, the readers have had their chance to rank SA’s best.

And if you ask them it’s Australia’s Test wicketkeeper Alex Carey who rises up the ranks from 13 to number one.

Rounding out the readers’ choice top 10 were NBA star Joe Ingles (originally ranked 33), Crows skipper Jordan Dawson (20), Matilda Charlotte Grant (60), golfer Adam Scott (34), cricketer Megan Schutt (37), veteran Crow Rory Laird (50), rower Angus Dawson (84), Socceroo Craig Goodwin (9) and Sport SA’s Para Athlete of the Year Hugo Taheny (41).

Travis Head, who took out the top spot in the original rankings fell to number 66 according to the readers,

Rhea Ripley had the largest fall in the public re-ranking dropping from fourth in The Advertiser’s top 100 to number 99.

The SA export stamped herself as one of the greatest female wrestlers of all time after winning the prestigious WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship last year.

Click reader’s top 100 to see the full rankings and have your say.

Originally published as Ranked: Travis Head, Curtis Mead, Kyle Chalmers headline South Australia’s best athletes of 2023