The heroes and villains of 2020’s year in sport

Richmond’s Dustin Martin became the first player in VFL/AFL history to be named the Norm Smith medallist three times

2020: ordinary year — wouldn’t recommend it. If you had a warranty you’d be taking it back for a refund.

Fortunately, sport was here to save the day and delivered plenty of light in what proved to be a rather long, dark tunnel. We saw more bubbles than a teenager’s bathtub but we got there.

So who are AWAAT’s winners and losers? Our heroes and villains? Here we go …

Failed coup of the year

Remember when former Supercars chairman Peter Wiggs was going to save Australian rugby? Wiggs, a big-time financier from the fanciest postcode on Sydney’s north shore, was the man with a plan to take the flailing sport of rugby union and make it great again.

Until one Zoom meeting saw it all fall apart.

In 2003 rugby union was fresh off hosting a World Cup and was ready to challenge the big two footy codes for supremacy. By 2020, it had given up those lofty goals and was struggling to keep its head above water.

Raelene Castle was a dead CEO walking and Wiggs was ready to take over. His bestie Matt Carroll was chief executive of the Australian Olympic Committee but he’d already told AOC president John Coates that “his heart and passion” was actually with rugby and Wiggs was desperate to install his mate in the top job, while also arguing for the resurrection of former CEO John O’Neill to the board.

Peter Wiggs spent a brief time on the Rugby Australia board. Picture: Liam Kidston

Some of Rugby Australia’s directors weren’t quite ready to be pushed aside for such a big decision and a Zoom meeting on May 4 proved decisive.

RA director John Wilson was the main opponent to Wiggs’s decision to appoint Carroll.

Why would they “parachute” a hand-picked chief executive into the position when it had engaged global headhunters to search for the best candidate? “We’ll look like idiots,” Wilson said.

The board agreed and interim chairman Paul McLean told Wiggs his plan to install Carroll had been rejected. Wiggs’s response was swift.

“Hi Paul, This is a very disappointing email, what little regard I had for RA Board is now extinguished. I tried calling to discuss. I will resign tomorrow. Regards Peter.”

Rugby Australia now has a strong and positive chairman in Hamish McLennan and has just appointed Andy Marinos as its new chief executive. It has a new TV deal with Nine and Stan. Castle has mercifully gone to the opposition in New Zealand but rugby’s future is still clouded. Who can save us? It feels like Wallabies coach Dave Rennie is the man with the biggest job in sport for 2021. And as for Wiggs? We may never hear from him again.

Goose of the year

It was early March when the Utah Jazz’s 7’1” French centre Rudy Gobert finished a press conference that featured a few questions about this coronavirus thing by jokingly touching all the reporters’ microphones and tape recorders on his way out of the room.

What a laugh. Who cares? Then he became the first NBA player to test positive to COVID-19 and the jokes were all over.

The NBA became the next sports league to shut down and Gobert admitted in June he still hadn’t regained all of his senses.

“Taste has returned but the smell is still not 100 per cent,” he said. “I can smell the smells but not from afar. I spoke to specialists who told me it could take up to a year. I felt like ants in my toes and wondered what it could be. There were quite a few things like that.”

Gobert at least admitted the error of his early ways and has been a big contributor to charity.

Boss of the year

Peter V’landys. Boss of TWO sports that thrived through the pandemic. Racing never missed a beat, even if it missed crowds, and V’landys was key in his role as CEO of Racing NSW. But it was his work as Australian Rugby League Commission chairman that has many calling him St Peter.

We all sniggered a little when the bid to relaunch “rugba league” was dubbed “Project Apollo” and for some of his rivals (um, yeah, the AFL) that snigger became a guffaw when May 28 became PVL’s target date.

V’landys won’t forget it in a hurry.

“When we announced May 28, they were our greatest critics,” V’landys said of the AFL.

“They said, ‘you’re mad, irresponsible’. They called us everything under the sun and then … followed us two weeks later.

“We caught them on the hop, I’m a pretty average sort of bloke. I’m a migrant boy from Wollongong, and I hate people that think they’re superior to anyone else.

“And unfortunately these AFL types think they’re better than anyone else … and they’re Victorians, that doesn’t help either.”

AFL player of the year

This award was in the balance until just before halftime in the AFL grand final between Richmond and Geelong.

The Cats held a 21-point lead as the big break loomed until Dustin Martin grabbed the ball and sparked a resurgence with the first of his four massive goals for the Tigers.

Martin became the first player in VFL/AFL history to be named the Norm Smith medallist three times, surpassing two-time winners Andrew McLeod (Adelaide) and Hawthorn’s Gary Ayres and Luke Hodge. Fair player.

NRL player of the year

One premiership, one State of Origin series, one Wally Lewis Medal. Cameron Munster has had quite the year. If he can keep the Melbourne Storm and Queensland challenging, then he will be the most important player of the next decade.

Cameron Munster with the State of Origin shield. Picture: Getty Images

Best day of the year

When day three of the Adelaide Test against India began, it was the tourists who every punter had their money on.

Starting at 2.30pm local time, everything changed as Australia dismantled the powerhouse Indian batting line-up, including Virat Kohli, for 36 runs in only 92 deliveries and then knocked off the winning runs before the sun could set.

Pat Cummins finished with 4-21 but somehow found himself outdone by Josh Hazlewood’s 5-8.

Extraordinary.

BC’s tip of the week

Boxing Day: huge race day, especially if you’ve been able to return home from places far adrift. Brendan Cormick is sticking with a religious theme and says Barry The Baptist (No 2 in Race 9 at Caulfield) is worth a look but at $16 it might need some divine intervention.

mcloughlins@
theaustralian.com.au