Six athletes inducted into the Hunter Region Sporting Hall of Fame
There’s an indigenous trailblazer, a dual-code superstar and multiple world champions. Meet the latest inductees into the Hunter Sporting Hall of Fame.
The Newcastle News
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An indigenous footballing trailblazer, a dual-code pioneer and multiple world champions are among the six new athletes inducted into the Hunter Region Sporting Hall of Fame.
Motorsport legend Troy Bayliss, hockey star Simon Orchard, judoka Jessica Malone, sport aerobics world champion Siennah Pirona, footballer Bridgette Starr and dual rugby league and union international Rebecca Young are the six new entrants to the hall of fame, joining the likes of Hunter sporting legends Mark Richards, Cheryl Salisbury and Danny Buderus on the 400-stong list.
To qualify for the hall of fame, which is co-ordinated by the Hunter Academy of Sport, athletes must have either represented Australia or participated at official national or international events.
In addition, they must have either been born in or participated in their sport in the broader Hunter Region, before having gained honours elsewhere.
Meet the newest inductees to the hall of fame.
Troy Bayliss (Motorsport)
Perhaps the most instantly recognisable name of the list, Bayliss is a three-time Superbike world champion, who was at the top of the sport for a decade.
Racking up an incredible 52 wins in the Superbike division over the course of his career, Bayliss sits third in the list of all-time event winners.
Born in the town of Warialda in northwestern NSW, Bayliss grew up riding motorbikes through local bushland and started racing after the family moved to Taree around the age of 10.
After progressing through motocross and dirt track racing, Bayliss worked his way through the 250GP and 600 classes before getting his first crack at the Superbikes as an injury substitute at Phillip Island in the 1997 season.
He joined the Superbikes tour proper in 2000, and won his first world title the next year before moving onto the Moto GP division.
After three years in the Moto GP he returned to Superbikes in 2006, taking out the world championship in his return year, before winning it again in 2008.
Simon Orchard (Hockey)
A two-time world cup winner, two-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist and two-time Olympian, Orchard enjoyed a glittering decade-long career with the Australian men’s hockey team.
Born in Muswellbrook, Orchard moved to Maitland as a child where he started playing hockey for local club the Maitland Rams.
After progressing through the junior ranks the midfielder made his international debut for the Kookaburras in 2008.
The following year he was part of the Australia side that claimed the Champions Trophy tournament in Melbourne, before playing a starring role for the team as it won gold at both the 2010 World Cup and Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.
He became an Olympian in 2012 as Australia claimed bronze in London, before winning more gold at the 2012 Champions Trophy event and once again doing the double by being part of the Kookaburras’ side that took out the World Cup and Commonwealth Games in 2014.
Orchard became a two-time Olympian in 2016 in what was his last year in the Kookaburras’ set-up, having made 209 appearances in the green and gold.
And while his international career may have finished, the 37-year-old has remained in the game, going back to where it all started by taking on a player-coach role for his beloved Maitland Rams in the Hunter Coast Premier Hockey League this year.
Jessica Malone (Judo)
The former Lambton High School student first burst onto the scene back in 2004 when the then 17-year-old was one of Australia’s youngest athletes selected for the Athens Olympics.
Malone competed in the women’s heavyweight judo division, going down to eventual gold medal-winner Maki Tsukada.
Far from a flash in the pan, Malone won five national titles, claimed gold at the 2004 Oceania Championships in New Caledonia and earned dozens of medals over the course of her career.
After competing at the elite level, she continued to give back to the sport, training the next generation of judoka at PCYC venues across the Hunter.
Siennah Pirona (Sport aerobics)
One of the Hunter’s unsung sporting heroes of the past decade, Pirona is a four-time world champion in sport aerobics – all at the age of just 22.
Unlike the path of most sports stars, Pirona’s journey to the top started when she was just 11 years old.
After taking out state titles and coming second at the national championships, the Jewells Primary School student travelled to Dordrecht in the Netherlands for her first world championships in 2012, where she took out gold in the cadet division.
Her career has gone from strength to strength since then, claiming four world titles, two second-place finishes and a third over what has been a remarkable career.
Bridgette Starr (Football)
With the Matildas having taken the country by storm over the past month, it seems apt that one of the Hunter’s female footballing pioneers is honoured in the latest hall of fame intake.
At just 18 years old, Starr created history in 1994 when she became the first indigenous woman to represent Australia in football in a game against Japan
Over the next eight years the defender became a Matildas regular, donning the green and gold 55 times, including at the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup in the US and the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
Domestically, Starr was part of Northern NSW team that took out the senior national championships in 1997 and won the women’s national league, then known as the Ansett Australia Summer Series, with the NSW Sapphires in 1999.
Rebecca Young (Rugby union/rugby league)
A dual rugby league-rugby union international, the born-and-bred Novocastrian has been a key figure in the development of both codes over the past two decades.
In addition to simply representing Australia, Young played for Wallaroos and Jillaroos at world cups and represented NSW and the Indigenous All Stars in a lengthy representative career.
After playing primarily as an inside centre for local side Merewether Carlton in the local rugby union competition, Young caught the eye of selectors and was picked for the Wallaroos for the 2006 Women’s Rugby Union World Cup in Canada, where she made her debut against South Africa.
Meanwhile, as someone who had long played rugby league in Indigenous Knockout tournaments, Young started playing in the Sydney competition in 2011 before helping to set up the North Newcastle team in 2012, alongside her husband and former Newcastle Knight Michael Young.
A front rower in league, Young made her debut for the Jillaroos in 2011, and took part in two successful world cup campaigns in 2013 and 2017.
A proud Worimi woman, Young also represented the Indigenous All Stars on nine occasions, including in her final representative appearance in 2020.
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