Vote for the top Central Coast sporting moments of 2023
There were fairytales, dynasties and drought-breaking wins. 2023 was a huge year for sport on the Central Coast. Vote for your favourite moment of the year.
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It was another massive year for sport on the Central Coast in 2023.
From fairytales to dynasties and drought-breaking wins, there was plenty of successful sporting stories locally.
Meanwhile some of the Coast’s most talented athletes headed overseas to strut their stuff on the world stage.
After a massive year, we’ve taken a look at 10 of the biggest sporting stories of 2023.
Don’t forget to have your say by voting in our poll below about what you think was the Central Coast’s biggest sporting moment of 2023.
Mariners pull off the fairytale
It’s the stuff of fairytales.
The smallest club in the league, having not long ago unceremoniously picked up four wooden spoons over a five-year period and labelled the worst team in Australian sport by some in the media amid calls to relocate the licence, the Central Coast Mariners completed their remarkable resurgence by winning the 2022/23 A-League men’s grand final.
And it wasn’t just any old win. The Mariners dismantled Melbourne City – who had won the last three minor premierships and been long the benchmark of the competition – 6-1 in a glorious performance at Sydney’s CommBank Stadium.
It was the club’s second championship, and made the Mariners once again the toast of Australian football.
Toukley goes back to back
Locally, the Toukley Hawks have reinforced their own rise to the top of Central Coast rugby league after going back to back by winning the CCRL first grade grand final.
Coming off their first ever first grade premiership in 2022, the Hawks went one better this season by claiming their first A-grade minor premiership before putting in a defensive effort for the ages to hold off Erina 8-6 in a dramatic grand final at Woy Woy Oval.
Historic year for women’s rugby league
It was also a historic year for women’s rugby league on the Coast, with the CCRL running its inaugural women’s tackle competition.
An impressive seven teams joined the competition in its first season as women flocked to the game.
For the record, the Berkeley Vale Panthers created history by winning the minor and major premiership double.
Seventh heaven for Killarney District
In local football, Killarney District has extended its remarkable dynasty by taking out the minor and major premiership in the Central Coast MPL.
As if claiming the double wasn’t good enough in itself, the minor premiership was the club’s seventh in a row.
It was also the team’s seventh grand final appearance on the trot. And after going down to Terrigal United in the past two deciders, Killarney left no question as to who were the top dogs on the Coast, beating the O’lads 1-0 to cap off a fantastic season.
East Gosford break the shackles
It was a different story in the WPL, with East Gosford breaking a near half-century drought to claim its inaugural first grade women’s title.
Striker Tahlor Thackray was the hero for the Rams, scoring a hat-trick as the side knocked over minor premiers Terrigal in the grand final.
The victory caps off a remarkable rise for the club, which established its first women’s team in 1975 and in 2022 qualified for the finals for the first time, before going on to win the pre-season Association Cup and then finish second at the end of the regular season, four points behind minor premiers Terrigal.
It was an especially bitter result for Terrigal, who went into the game undefeated in 2023 after what was a brilliant season.
Coast kids claim Country crown
With local products like Umina Beach Bunnies junior Nicho Hynes among the stars of the NRL, it appears the future of Central Coast rugby league is also strong after the Central Coast Roosters took out the Andrew Johns Cup.
After qualifying for the finals of the tournament, which acts as the under-16 NSW country championships, the side peaked when it mattered most, knocking out the previously undefeated Macarthur Wests Tigers in the semis before downing local rivals the Newcastle-Maitland Region Knights 18-10 in the grand final to claim the crown.
Molly Picklum reaches the top
2023 was a breakout year for Shelly Beach surfer Molly Picklum, who notched up her first Championship Tour win as she went on to make the WSL top-five finals series.
After falling off the tour at the mid-season cut in 2022, Picklum returned as a different beast, winning the second event of the season at Sunset Beach in Hawaii, before picking up two second-place finishes at Bells Beach and Jeffreys Bay.
She finished fourth after the 10 regular season events, earning her spot at the WSL finals, where she finished fifth.
Duncan wins dream gold
The Central Coast had a new world champion to celebrate in August, with cyclist Nicole Duncan claiming gold in the women’s scratch race at the UCI Junior Track World Championships in Colombia under a strange set of circumstances.
Initially crossing the line in second behind Great Britain’s Carys Lloyd, the Brit was ruled out of the running for missing too many laps after one of two nasty crashes, which handed Duncan gold.
“It means the world,’’ said the 17-year-old.
“I’ve been dreaming of this since I was a little girl. I couldn’t be happier. To get a medal is one thing, to get gold is a completely different thing.
“I came here with the hope of getting a top 10 and to get a gold medal is absolutely unbelievable. To be here is an absolute dream.’’
Coastie women crowned Country Queens
It has been a golden summer for the Central Coast women’s representative cricket teams, with both the under-16s and under-19s teams taking out the country championships.
It all started in September when the team won a dramatic low-scoring final by just 10 runs to take out the under-19s tournament undefeated.
A fair chunk of the younger members of the squad then backed up for the under-16s carnival in December, once again going through undefeated as they dominated the championships to take a clean sweep of the women’s junior titles.
Littlehales’ clean sweep
Kariong paracanoeist Dylan Littlehales joined the Central Coast’s world champions list for 2023 after taking out the KL3 200m world title in Duisburg in Germany.
The win gave the 24-year-old a clean sweep of state, national and world titles in the division, and saw him named Central Coast Sportsperson of the Year.
Don’t forget to vote for your favourite sporting moment of 2023 below
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