The Territory’s 50 greatest ever sports stars revealed: 40 to 31

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 40 to 31

Boyd Scully was a boxer, trainer and administrator and the first indigenous person to receive life membership from Boxing Australia. Picture Daniel Hartley-Allen

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

40. Greg Chan

Clay target Shooting

Former Australian Olympic clay target shooting team coach Greg Chan.

“Channy’’ coached the Australian clay target shooting team for 10 years from the mid 1990s and it was his Territorian’s influence that brought out the best in Olympic gold medallists Michael Diamond, Russell Mark and Adam Vella. Chan travelled around the world for most of his 10 years in charge and told everyone he was a Territory boy and always will be.

39. Shane Bannan

Cycling

Shane Bannan was an Australian cycling coach at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.

Bannan began coaching cyclists in 1986 after a riding career that included representing the NT at world junior titles and winning the 50km points title at the nationals. He was selected for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics but contracted glandular fever and was forced to withdraw. Bannan coached at the Northern Territory Institute of Sport before moving into the national program in 1987, filling the dual roles of Cycling Australia national performance director and the Australian Institute of Sport’s head cycling coach.

38. David Ross

Rugby union/Australian rules football/rugby league

David Ross was the NT Young Citizen of the Year in 1985.

Ross did it all as a young gun in three different sporting codes. He was an All-Australian under-15 rugby league player, an Australian Affiliate (rugby union) representative in 1982, a junior Wallaby in 1984 and an All-Australian Teal Cup player in 1983.

37. William (Nungah) AhMat

Australian rules football/rugby league

William “Nungah” AhMat.

“Nungah” was a star midfielder with the powerful Darwin Buffaloes NTFL side through the 1960s and ‘70s and a superb centre with Brothers Rugby League Club. He represented the NT in both codes with his hardness and superb hand skills.

36. Clive Baxter

Speedway

Former Darwin Speedway ace Clive Baxter in 1987.

This man won a national Formula 500 title as a disabled athlete after a motocross accident left him wheelchair bound. A rider and driver of tremendous skill, he added the Northern Territory, Western Australian and South Australian F500 titles to his growing list of achievements. Still held in high regard three decades after his retirement, Baxter is the first — and only — disabled competitor to win a national speedway title.

35. Boyd Scully

Boxing

Boyd Scully was, and always will remain, an Australian boxing icon.

If there is a person across the Northern Territory with more passion for the sport of boxing than the late Boyd Scully, I would love to meet them. Boxing NT’s president for 12 years, an ambassador for Boxing Australia and a coach at the Oceania Games and national championships, the kid who learned his craft at the old police paddock in the Darwin suburb of Stuart Park will forever be an icon for boxing.

34. Rebecca Voukolous

Tenpin bowling

Australian representative tenpin bowler Rebecca Voukolous.

It is not what Voukolous has done in the complex world of tenpin bowling, it’s what she has not and that is very little. Voukolous has competed at national championship level since 1999 in a glittering career that includes ­Australian Masters title wins and representing her country at World Cup level.

33. Paul Shiers

Horse racing

Jockey Paul Shiers after winning a race at Fannie Bay on African Pulse.

The master of the apprentices, jockey Paul Shiers’ riding skills have elevated him to the top of a school of excellence in Northern Territory racing. Nine Darwin Guineas and four NT Derby winners are testimony to his ability to get the best out of his mounts.

32. Des Abbott

Hockey

Former Kookaburras hockey star Des Abbott pictured after his Olympic heroics when he returned to playing for his former club Nightcliff.

The first indigenous male to represent Australia at the Olympic Games in field hockey, Abbott terrorised international defences with his great pace and huge appetite for goals. A bronze medallist at the 2008 Olympics and a three-time Champions Trophy gold medallist with the Kookaburras, Abbott’s hockey bloodlines came from his uncle Joe Daby.

31. Phil de la Cruz

Rugby league

Rugby league player and coach Phil de la Cruz in 1987.

A legend in Darwin rugby league, de la Cruz was a star with Wallabies, Nightcliff, RSL and Northern Suburbs throughout the 1960s and ’70s. He captained the NT against the visiting French in 1964 with the strength of a buffalo and the skills of a gazelle.