The Territory’s 50 greatest ever sports stars revealed: Numbers 30 to 21

THE Territory has produced some of Australia’s greatest ever sports people. Here we count down the NT’s top 50 stars of all time. Today we reveal numbers 30 to 21

NT boxer James Swan (left) on the Australian bus on way to the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada with Richard Rowles and Armin Diehl.

TERRITORY sport, with all of its passion and excitement built up over more than a century, has produced the very best of the best.

Sportsmen and women who can combine skill with commitment, focus and a deep seated passion and desire to succeed.

This is the best 50 Territory sportspeople in my time and well before I started as a sportswriter with the Northern Territory News almost a quarter of a century ago.

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When editor Matt Williams suggested — with my right arm twisted up my back — that I compile a Top 50 article on all the greats of Territory sport the task seemed relatively simple … until it came time to do it.

Some may disagree, others will agree and those in between will agree to disagree with my selections. But that is the path you take when you are picking the best in any sport, let alone combining them all and coming up with a top 50 of all time.

THE NT’S GREATEST SPORTS STARS: 50 — 41

THE NT’S GREATEST SPORTS STARS: 40 — 31

30. Craig Leach

Rugby union

Craig Leach sending the Palmerston Crocs into attack.

Leach played the role of fly half to perfection in an NT rugby union playing career that took him to the elite level in club and representative rugby. A 300-plus game player with NTRU club Palmerston, who captained the Northern Territory against Scotland in the prime of his career, Leach was one of the very best.

29. David Bates

Horse racing

Former jockey and trainer David Bates with Enchanted Boy. Picture: Helen Orr

A 19-time winner of the jockey’s premiership at Fannie Bay Racecourse, Bates was the essence of a horseman, both in riding and training them for short or long distance races. A three-time Darwin Cup winner, one as a trainer-jockey when he rode Lanson to victory almost bareback when the saddle slipped, Bates also has four Palmerston Sprints and two Alice Springs Cups to his name.

28. Teri Cubillo

Softball

Redbacks' Carmel Croydon swings while Tracy Village catcher Teri Cubillo waits at the NT Softball championships.

An extraordinary player with the Rebels and Tracy Village, Cubillo’s skill and workrate work at shortstop and later as a catcher made her one of Territory softball’s most recognisable figures through three decades of Territory sport.

27. Don Bonson Sr

Australian rules football

Don Bonson with Essendon's captain Terry Daniher and his beloved Bombers in Darwin.

Bonson Sr was a big contributor to the sport of Australian football through the 1930s when he won two league best and fairest awards while plying his trade with the Darwin Buffaloes and was their secretary-treasurer from 1933-35. A league and Buffaloes life member, he was the patriarch of the skilful Bonson sporting family.

26. Stephen Holt

Hockey

Former Olympic hockey star Stephen Holt became the Territory Stingers coach.

They called him “Shaggy’’ because of his laconic approach to life and sport, but once he stepped on to a hockey field Stephen Holt was all business. A clever, smart thinking defender, he won a bronze medal for Australia at Sydney 2000 and Commonwealth Games gold with the Kookaburras in 1998.

25. Michael Athanasiou/Dennis Dunn

Australian rules football

Michael Athanasiou playing centre half-back in 1987.

Dennis Dunn playing for St Mary's the ball before Darwin's David Atkinson can punch it out of his reach during an NTFL match at the Gardens Oval in 1994.

If two names dominated discussions at lunchtime and smoko through the 1980s and ‘90s, it was AFLNT Hall of Famers and St Mary’s champions Michael Athanasiou and Dennis Dunn. Athanasiou won 12 premiership medals at St Mary’s and represented the Territory in two football codes. Dunn booted 817 goals in 204 games, kicked 100 goals in a season twice and won 10 flags with St Mary’s.

24. James Swan

Boxing

James Swan for Australia (right) fighting Jo Jo Tipace from New Zealand) during Olympic test event at Darling Harbour in Sydney in 1999. Picture: Peter Ward

“Swanny’’ won bronze medals in the bantamweight division at the 1994 and ‘98 Commonwealth Games and fought for Australia at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics. Short in stature but capable of hitting hard with both hands, Swan was inducted into the NT’s Hall of Champions in 2014.

23. Maisie Austin

Basketball

Maisie Austin, when president of the Darwin Basketball Association, circa 1986.

The first woman to elected president of the Darwin Basketball Association and NT Basketball Association, Austin’s involvement in Territory sport as a player, referee and administrator knows no bounds. She was also the first Territory woman to be nationally accredited as a Level 2 basketball coach and was chairman of the inaugural Arafura Games in 1991.

22. Mark Motlop

Australian rules football

Mark Motlop as coach of Nightcliff in 2009.

The patriarch of the extraordinary Motlop sporting dynasty since the death of his father Chico, Mark Motlop was a league and club best and fairest winner with Nightcliff and later played at Wanderers and Southern Districts where he was the first NTFL player to reach 300 games. Continued to give back to the game he loves with coaching stints at Districts _ where he won the club’s first premiership _ Wanderers and Darwin.

21. Ken Vowles

Cricket

Ken Vowles playing in a grand final for Palmerston against PINT. Picture: Michael Marschall

Vowles inspired a generation of Territory kids to play cricket with his big hitting batting and clever medium pace bowling. An Australian Cricket Academy scholarship holder from 1989-90, he toured internationally with the Australian under-19s and held the record for the fastest century at the Melbourne Cricket Ground until West Indies great Vivian Richards claimed the title.