What’s the Buzz: The biggest sports stories of the decade
World champions, incredible athletes but also sadness and scandal — as the decade comes to a close, Phil “Buzz” Rothfield looks back at the biggest stories of the 2010s.
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This is my last column for the decade after 10 extraordinary years of sporting stories. Much sadness and scandal, but special moments, too.
The biggest stories since 2010 are:
1 PHILLIP HUGHES
No one will ever forget the day the 25-year-old cricketer was felled at the SCG in November 2014 from a ball that crashed into his neck with fatal consequences. Such a tragedy.
2 SANDPAPERGATE
Who will forget the television still of Cameron Bancroft and the small piece of sandpaper. But the defining image was Steve Smith’s tears at his Sydney airport press conference.
3 WINX/BLACK CAVIAR
We got to see two absolute champions in one decade. Winx won 33 consecutive races, including 25 Group 1s. Black Caviar became arguably the greatest sprinter we’ve ever seen, undefeated in 25 races, 15 of them Group 1s.
4 ESSENDON/SHARKS PEPTIDES
The biggest sporting scandals in the footy codes as both clubs dealt with peptide controversies via sports scientist Stephen Dank.
5 JEFF HORN/MANNY PACQUIAO
One of the greatest sporting events your columnist has been to. Sunday, July 2, 2017, with 55,000 at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane to watch the incredibly courageous Horn beat the Filipino legend.
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6 CAMERON SMITH
To play 400 games in the NRL is a feat that has never been achieved. He was also the best player in the game for much of the decade with Storm, Queensland and Australia.
7 SAM KERR/ASH BARTY
The decade that our girls became the best on the planet. Kerr was recognised as the world’s best female player, Barty won the French Open and became World No.1.
8 ISRAEL FOLAU
Needs no explanation. The least said the better.
9 MICK FANNING SHARK ATTACK
In 2015, surfing star Mick Fanning survived a shark attack during the J-Bay Open World Surf League final in South Africa. Dramatic vision showed a shark thrashing in the water near Fanning and it went viral around the world.
10 CADEL EVANS, ADAM SCOTT
The decade Australians won two of the greatest sporting events on the planet — the Tour de France cycling in 2011 and the US Masters golf in 2013.
Originally published as What’s the Buzz: The biggest sports stories of the decade