Sporting year in review part 2: Legends honoured as new ones emerge in second half of 2022

As we embark on 2023, we take a look back at the latter half of last year and was dominated local sports headlines.

July

Emma Cosh became the first Geraldton-born player to be part of a Super Netball premiership as the West Coast Fever broke a 25-year wait as they claimed their first-ever national netball title in what captain Courtney Bruce described as a “fairytale”. While some doubts lingered over Cosh’s her future at the club she was soon offered a one-year extension.

Chapman Valley had a boost from AFL stars as ex-Eagles Matt Priddis and Lewis Jetta donned the boots for the Royals in a win over Railways for the third annual Big Freeze event which raised $30,000 for motor neurone disease research in a great show of community support.

The GNFL colts side finished strong at the country championships after staring down the barrel of missing out on finals they smashed the Northern Suns and overcame Great Southern to qualify for the final against the undefeated Peel and though they went down four players Jack Cocking, Shaun Brennan, Riley Zimmerman and Taj Satie were named all-stars with Cocking the leading goal kicker.

Back home there was trouble as a mass brawl between Mullewa and Brigades colts sides led to more than 30 weeks of suspensions for players and coaches as the WA football commission stepped in to investigate spawning a review into the league which is still ongoing.

Josh Kennedy added another milestone to his illustrious career by booting his 700th career goal against Richmond in round seven while local surfer Cruz McDonald claimed the under 12’s State Junior Surfing Title at Flat Rocks beach.

Alex Ducas struck gold with the Boomers as they defended their Asia Cup Crown with a tight win over New Zealand in Indonesia while the Buccs raised more than $12,000 for Canteen in memory of club legend Jeremy “Jezza” Morgan.

August

Kennedy made headlines again in August with the announcement of his much-anticipated retirement bringing an end to one of the best careers in football as he showed he still had plenty of magic, kicking eight goals in his final game against Adelaide to almost single-handedly drag the Eagles over the line in one of the best farewell performances you will ever see.

ActiveWest Stadium turned from a basketball arena to an octagon colosseum as Fists of Fury III got underway with mayor Shane “Stone Cold” Van Styn claiming the Mid West have weight championships with a unanimous points win over Scotty “GBH” Greives.

Aztecs completed a perfect netball season as they did the year before while the GNFL finals got underway with Railways taking out the minor premiership ahead of reigning premiers Brigades, Rovers and Northampton.

The Blues would see one of their stalwarts Kyle “Steamer” Watts become the first Railways player to pass 250 games as he called time on an outstanding career in the GNFL at the end of their season.

It was make or break time for La Fiamma as back-to-back games against top three opponents would decide their promotion fate.

The Buccs sealed their chance in the big dance as they downed the Joondalup Wolves 107-81 in their preliminary final in front of a raucous home crowd to set up a grand final against the Rockingham Flames.

September

September is always the month for finals as the Buccs suffered a heartbreaking loss to the Flames in the decider having led the way through the first three quarters they were overrun at the last to go down by 11 points to sour what was otherwise a magnificent season at Bendat Basketball Stadium.

Rovers defied history to become the first team to win the GNFL premiership from outside the top two since 1996 in an enthralling final against Brigades by 12 points as Chris Scott backed up his JJ Clune medal win with a best-on-ground performance to help the Demons claim their 11th premiership.

While in the women’s final Chapman Valley broke their curse to win their first flag dominating the Rams after they had fallen short in their previous three attempts with Tayah Palmer, joint women’s footballer of the year, sharing best-on-ground honours with Georgia Keyser.

The Rovers dominated the hockey finals as both men’s and women’s sides achieved glory in contrasting fashions.

The women won an incredible seventh premiership in a row over Murchison 3-1 while the men ended a 25-year drought in an overtime 3-2 win by coming back from behind on two occasions as the hockey season certainly saved the best until last.

Aztecs won their grand final over Kazuals 66-55 to complete a second successive perfect season.

The entire town of Northampton joined together to celebrate Patrick Cripps’ Brownlow win, becoming the first player from the town to take out the AFL’s highest individual honour and further cementing the small town’s legacy as an AFL powerhouse.

October

While the men didn’t send a side earlier in the year the GNFL women impressed by taking third place at the country week championships.

They fought back after hanging tough in the first half against Great Southern the GNFL side dominated the second half to take third place with Tayah Palmer, Jessica Guidice-Narin and Jasmine Johansen making the all-star squad.

Chix Chatter came out on top in the Ladies Day Sprint as the Geraldton Turf Club opened the racing season while the Geraldton Tennis Club celebrated 150 years in operation being the oldest tennis club in the state.

The Geraldton Cricket season got back underway with defending champions Towns getting off to a winning start over Bluff Point while local motocross start Addison Orr and Angus Fay enjoyed strong performances at the Australian Junior Motocross Championships.

November

The race that stops the nation saw victory for Gold Trip and WA jockey Mark Zahra who made his debut at the Geraldton Turf Club in 1998 take out the Melbourne Cup as Gordon Spowort claimed a hat-trick of wins with Edmond, The Singing Tiger and Sans LeSou at the local track action.

While the second running of the Batavia Sprint last year saw Peter Knuckey lead False Statement to the win in a storming run over Corn Cob.

Local water polo star Mick Rock celebrated 350 games as the B52s made a dominant start to the Geraldton Water Polo season while local cricket stars Clint Yeates and Shayne Bidwell passed the 10,000 run milestone and become just the third and fourth players respectively to reach the mark.

We celebrated 50 years of the Mid Wests Sports Awards with the addition of two new hall of famers in Harry Taylor and Fergus Kavanagh as Eliza Hebiton was named senior sports star of the year after the equestrian star had a dominant year while Nevaeh Hill took out the junior category for athletics, with both setting sights for the Brisbane Olympics.

Callum Williamson took out another race dominating the Bonza Bradford Memorial and win the trophy for the first time as Meg Spalding was selected in the WA under 19’s cricket team, the only country player to make the cut.

The Geraldton Boxing fraternity was rocked by the sudden passing of Paul Barrett from the Geraldton Boxing Centre at the age of 51.

The popular promoter raised plenty of funds for charity through his Fists of Fury series and was also coach to the Mayor, while they fought one last fight in his honour the decision was made to close the gym shortly afterwards.

December

There was disappointment for local draft hopeful Jed Hagan when he wasn’t picked up for an AFL list despite being widely tipped to go in the second to third round.

Local athletes excelled at the All Schools Track and Field Championships in Adelaide with Christi Bestry and Nevaeh Hill came away with bronze medals while Ella Batten took silver at the State Track and Field Heptathlon.

If anyone needed reminding of the strength of women’s cricket in the region the WA Country XI was announced with five players from the region selected in the side with Janelle Phillips named captain.

Peter Daly enjoyed a successful Walkaway Cup as he took first and second place with Armed and Ready the surprising winner over hot favourite Honorific.

The year ended in tragedy for the local basketball fraternity as Olympians player and Buccs signee Justyce Potaka-Kumeroa died in a car crash on Christmas Eve, with tributes from the entire association as well as football clubs where he was a prominent colts player.