Sport: The mateship at the heart of Australia’s triumphant sporting year
Behind-the-scenes of a high performance 2022 for Australian sport lie deep personal bonds that have driven our athletes.
Socceroos coach Graham Arnold stands inside a circle of his players at the World Cup. Next to him is a bloke on crutches. Name’s Marty Boyle. He’s been ruled out of the tournament by injury. Rather than plonking him on the next plane home, Arnold has wrapped his arm around him and told him to stay. Put him front and centre instead of making him an outcast. I reckon that decision and the accompanying photo say rather a lot about the big thumping heart behind Australian sport’s extraordinarily successful year. The mateship.
From Ash Barty’s free-spirited Australian Open triumph (while keeping a hell of a secret) to Cam Smith’s bold and brilliant British Open triumph to 1500m runner Ollie Hoare’s soul-stirring Commonwealth Games victory to the mighty women’s cricketers winning another World Cup to Steph Gilmore’s near-impossible eighth world surfing title to the Socceroos’ captivating World Cup run – behind-the-scenes, some deep bonds have driven them all forward.
We’ll go through the highlights reel in a sec but for now, the image of Arnold and Boyle is worth a proper look. The least striking photograph of all – but the most telling.
Boyle is the best mate of the Socceroos’ Mathew Leckie, who scores the goal that sends Australia into the last 16. “They’d die for the team. Die for each other,” Arnold says. “With what Mathew Leckie’s doing for Martin Boyle back at the hotel – he’s wheeling him around in his wheelchair, they’re great mates. There’s the importance of ‘keep Martin Boyle here’. They’re best mates.”
Let’s dive into a top 10 of a year of success piled atop success, confetti thrown upon confetti, one trophy lifted after another. It was a triumphant year at home and abroad, a lively, grinning, rambunctious belter of a year. In order of appearance …
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1. Ash Barty wins the Australian Open
And then quits! I still can’t believe she kept it a secret. She knew all through the tournament she would pull the pin but no-one outside her super-tight inner circle had the foggiest. I watched her training sessions, interviewed her, witnessed all her matches and not once did I have an inkling. The one difference? Her victory roar after beating American Danielle Collins in the final. She’d normally crack a bit of a self-conscious grin and give us a thumbs-up polite wave. She planted her feet and clenched her fists and screamed from deep in her gut. We thought she was saying, “I won!”. She was telling herself, “it’s over”. She retired at the ripe old age of 25. The seed was sown when she won Wimbledon the previous year. At dinner with her entourage, she said, “Can I quit now?” Everyone laughed – then realised she was serious. Why did Barty walk away when she was the World No. 1? Because she wanted to. Because she wanted to have more of a normal life with her mate, husband Garry Kissick. Bold. Brave. Or as Collins said, “Bad-ass.”
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2. Australia wins the Women’s World Cup
The most wildly successful athletes in the country? Australia’s female cricketers. I could watch them all day and night. Alyssa Healy’s 170 from 138 balls in the World Cup final in New Zealand was the knock of the year in any form of the sport. You name it, this team has won it. Healy’s century in the final had Australia’s male players in raptures. “Bloody awesome,” said Glenn Maxwell. “What a superstar.” Healy was player of the match and tournament for the highest score in the history of cricket World Cups, male or female. They’re an effortlessly likeable bunch. “To be able to go all right means a whole heap,” Healy said. “I just think you’ve got to be brave. To be able to play your game when you know the opposition is coming after you. You’ve got to … back your skills and be yourself.” Come August, the team won the first women’s cricket Commonwealth Games Gold medal. They enjoy themselves, they have friendships that will last a lifetime, they’re nice people. “Those friendships are very close,” Healy says. “And a big reason for our success.” Megan Schutt held up her gold medal at Birmingham and said: “I love shiny things!”
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3. Nick Kyrgios reaches the Wimbledon final
The tournament begins with the usual expectations. A Barty-less Australian contingent will have a series of gallant defeats in week one. Week two will revolve around Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. Then Kyrgios strikes it lucky. Russian players have been banned and so the draw is open. Outsiders will gatecrash the semi-finals. Kyrgios is one of them. Then he receives a forfeit from the injured Nadal and, just like that, he’s into the Wimbledon final. He behaves moderately well and plays great tennis. He has Djokovic on toast before losing in four sets. We keep seeing him walking around Southfields with his mate – girlfriend Costeen Hatzi – and she’s exactly what he needs. A good influence. “Honestly I‘m so lucky,” Kyrgios says. “She’s managed to navigate through a lot of BS and continues to love me for me. I played some great tennis and feel like I belong.”
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4. Cam Smith wins the British Open
The morning after the Wimbledon final, we jump on a train for St Andrews, Scotland, for the 150th edition of golf’s most prestigious tournament. An unusual sight on the first morning — Barty is next to the putting green, watching Smith roll a few in, supporting her Brisbane mate. Smith leads after two rounds, falters in round three, peels off a final round so perfect that it had to be seen to be believed. I saw it and still can’t believe it. You’re doing well to get through the back nine at St Andrews in 36 shots. Smith did it in 30. My favourite story about Smith is how he honours the mate acting as his caddie, New Zealander Sam Pinfold. Smith uses a commemorative $1 ANZAC coin to mark his ball, just for Pinfold. He lifts the Claret Jug at the home of golf and says with an endearing sincerity, “This one’s for Oz”.
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5. Australia wins the medal tally at the Commonwealth Games
The dominance of Australia’s athletes and para athletes. The swimmers’ sheer excellence, led by the admirable and all-conquering Emma McKeon and Ariarne Titmus. The lawn bowls has the best characters. Aaron Wilson rips his shirt off after winning the singles and says: “Wish I had a better rig! But that’s life.” The greatest highlight is Ollie Hoare’s 1500m win at the track. “Stuff of legends,” says Bruce Macavaney in commentary. An Australian hasn’t won the event since Herb Elliott in 1958. “Herb, I’d love to meet you for a beer if you’re around,” Hoare says. But his deepest thoughts are for his late grandfather, Fred Hoare, a WWII sergeant and life member of Sutherland District Athletics Club. “He always had the same stopwatch,” Ollie says of his mate. “It was about 100 years old. He wouldn’t trust the time, he’d only go off his stopwatch. He’s the reason I love the sport. He’s up there having a glass of red wine, laughing his arse off. He’d be saying, ‘I knew you could do it, mate’.”
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6. Steph Gilmore wins her eighth world surfing title
Gilmore’s 34. A good soul. Fearing her world championship days are done. She’s nearly lost her place on the tour after a slow start to the season. Scraped into the winner-take-all shootout in California in fifth and last place. She has to win five consecutive heats in one day to become world champion. Unheard of. She does it. Celebrates wildly. “It seemed impossible,” she says. “But I just kept believing. As the day went on I was like, ‘Oh my goodness. This is actually happening’.”
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7. Australia wins both Rugby League World Cups – in one day
Australia’s men’s and women’s teams, the Kangaroos and Jillaroos, were heavily favoured to win – but they still had to go out there and do it. On one perfect November day at Manchester’s Old Trafford, under the famous sign for the Theatre of Dreams, the Kangaroos belted Samoa and the Jillaroos annihilated New Zealand.
Two World Cups in one day doesn’t happen, well, every day, and behind the scenes, Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga had embraced the Jillaroos from day one, turning two teams into one, fostering a mateship between the squads. Jillaroos coach Brad Donald said: “It was everything we’ve dreamt of. I’m ecstatic for the group. They’re the greatest bunch of ladies.”
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8. Minjee Lee wins the US Women’s Open
She’s Australia’s politest and most under-appreciated athlete. Global-scale golf majors are every bit as prestigious as tennis grand slams. Barty was a household name for winning just her first tennis major – Lee has two in golf but remains under the radar because she shies away from publicity and women’s golf doesn’t get the attention it deserves. “I’m still going to work really hard,” she says. “Winning the US Open is great but I still have a few things I want to tick off my list.” She’s mates with a bloke called Min Woo Lee, her little brother, and they’re pushing each other along. When he qualified for the US Masters, she was there for him. She came home for the Australian Open, taking her trophy on a fan-friendly tour of Melbourne. They visited Federation Square, Flinders Str, caught a tram. They did everything except catch dinner and a movie together. When she played the Open, I saw a dear old volunteer ask her for a photo. Lee said, “I’m sorry! I have to be on the tee! I’m so sorry!” She was running late for her round. She screwed up her face, looked apologetic, ran back to the volunteer and shouted: “Make it quick!”
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9. Socceroos
See above. Arnold. Boyle.
“Everyone said we were the worst Socceroo team ever to qualify for the World Cup and the worst Socceroo team ever,” Arnold said. “That’s gone now. We had some hard journeys but I believe this has been crucial – the family culture of brotherhood, mateship.”
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10. We should acknowledge the domestic codes
Penrith won the NRL. Newcastle won the NRLW. Geelong won the AFL. Melbourne won the AFLW. Melbourne Vixens won the Super Netball. Western United won the A-League. Melbourne Victory won the A-League Women. Sydney Kings won the NBL. Melbourne Boomers won the WNBL. Adelaide Strikers won the WBBL.
All good stuff, but international sport is where it’s at. Little old Australia versus the world. At the world wheelchair rugby championships, it was little old Australia versus USA in the final. The mateship in para sports is raw and real. Life-changing and in a few cases, lifesaving. They’re all in a chair for a reason. They lean on each other, need each other. The Steelers were shattered to finish fourth at the Tokyo Olympics but made amends by becoming world champions in Denmark. Watch the celebrations on YouTube. They’re as good and emotional as it gets. Leading the charge was the tournament’s most valuable player, Ryley Batt, and Australian coach Brad Dubberley. It was Dubberley who got Batt into the sport a couple of decades ago. “He’s more than a coach to me,” Batt says. “He’s a mate.”
