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Whateley's 10 most significant sporting moments in 2025
Gerard Whateley • December 24th, 2025 11:29 am
On the eve of Christmas and the New Year, SEN's Gerard Whateley has compiled his 10 most significant sporting moments in 2025.
Whateley's list has No. 1 as the most significant, and he counted down his other nine choices.
Check out his list below.
1 - Rory McIlroy wins the Masters and completes the career Grand Slam
McIllory first gave voice to his ambition to join golf’s immortals as a child prodigy in 1998.
And his rise was rapid through his early years as a pro… accruing the US Open, PGA and the Open Championship by 2014.
It began a torturous wait for the Masters… a destiny finally fulfilled this year.
For emotion, tension and anguish, there was nothing to compare.
The collective yearning that Rory had his moment was felt from the greens of Augusta to loungerooms throughout Australia.
He seemed to win it and lose it three times over before finally prevailing in a play-off.
McIlroy had the year of his life winning the Players Championship, Irish Open and leading Europe to the Ryder… and all his dreams came true at the Masters.
2 - Travball kills Bazball
There has never been a buildup to a summer quite so intense as this Ashes series.
A clash of styles and philosophies.
Untimely interruption and selection uncertainty for Australia
The referendum of Bazball for England.
The referendum of Bazball for England.
And for all of that… the Ashes were retained as rapidly as ever.
Extraordinary events jammed into rapid-fire action.
Events set irrevocably in train in a two-day test in Perth.
In all the predictions – and surely nothing was left unsaid – this could never have been countenanced.
19 wickets on the opening day.
England seemingly having the Test at its mercy at lunch on Day 2… only to have lost by the end of it… unfathomable really.
It required something unworldly.
And that came in the form of Travis Head… who played an innings instantly cast into folklore.
He emerged as an opener and departed as the destructor in the moment Travball killed Bazball.
3 - The nobbling of Oscar Piastri
Cock up or conspiracy… McLaren had plenty of both.
The list of mistakes was unflattering for the winner of the constructors’ championship.
Disastrous late-season strategies… disqualification for mechanical error.
In all their plotting and scheming, they almost handed the title to Max Verstappen.
And on this side of the world, it looked rotten.
Somehow, Oscar Piastri always managed to be the one who suffered.
What a coincidence.
McLaren claimed at the climax only the uneducated could see blatant favouritism.
But sometimes when it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck… it’s a duck.
Bernie Ecclestone had no trouble seeing it and calling it what it was.
McLaren wanted its British driver Lando Norris as world champion… and that’s what was orchestrated.
Piastri’s car went from consistently faster than his teammate to consistently slower.
In one race, Piatsri was ordered to give his place back to Norris to cover for a team error.
In another, Piastri wasn’t given back his place after a Norris error on the track.
It was high farce… and blatant bastardry.
Piastri gave enough clues as to what was happening… it was the wink and nod in a hostage video.
The Australian was brilliant at times throughout the season, winning seven races and at one stage enjoying a 34-point lead.
He brought mainstream interest to Formula 1 in this country and forged his name into the company of Sir Jack Brabham and Alan Jones.
We must trust that his time will come.
But the suspicion toward McLaren will never ease.
A campaign of such promise… nobbled.
4 - Ange delivers Spurs at trophy… and then gets sacked… twice
If only Spurs had understood… in Ange we trust.
This is the story that will never make sense.
Ange Postecoglou delivered Tottenham Hotspur its first trophy in 17 years and the club’s first European title in 41 years.
The miracle in Bilbao, it was dubbed.
More than 200,000 fans filled the streets to celebrate a rare moment of triumph for a largely miserable club.
Ange sacrificed the end of the EPL season to zero in on the Europa League trophy, and he delivered the silverware.
It’s the finest triumph by an Australian coach on the international stage and enshrines Ange as the greatest coach this country has produced.
And then in the greatest self-defeating act in living memory, owner Daniel Levy sacked him… before he too met his end.
The story of a club that finally won and still acted like losers.
For Ange’s part, he fatefully filled a vacancy at Nottingham Forest in the fresh season… and before the merchandise arrived from England, he’d been sacked again… having spent 39 days in the job.
It was a wretched fate suffered by a good man and a great coach.
But none of it erases the ultimate moment of triumph, which will stand as a defining achievement in an exceptional career.
5 - The Broncos' victory in the NRL
Take your pick, really on the order of the Lions and the Broncos in Brisbane’s premiership haul.
I think broadly speaking, the NRL had a far better season than the AFL.
From Vegas, through Origin, the growth of the women’s game and a thrilling finals series, rugby league held claims to superiority all the way through to the TV ratings win for its Grand Final.
The Broncos had an outrageous run through the Finals series.
Canberra twice celebrated victory in the Qualifying Final, only for Brisbane to somehow emerge as winners.
In the Preliminary Final, the Broncos came from 14-0 down at halftime against the four-time champions Penrith to prevail 16-14.
And then they shared in a high octane, highlight laden Grand Final with the Melbourne Storm.
Again coming from behind to win.
Along the way fullback Reece Walsh became the sport’s biggest star and arguably the biggest name across the domestic football codes.
6 - Brisbane Lions' back-to-back AFL premierships
Only the great teams win consecutive titles, and Chris Fagan and his Lions proved themselves every inch that.
Having endured the toughest draw the competition has ever inflicted on a team, and played more games across two seasons than any before – the Lions surged decisively and gloriously to complete a quest the equal of any and better than most.
In the 2025 campaign, they faced injury, a six-week run to September with no margin for error, had to go the long way round the mountain after a Qualifying Final loss and overcome a wobble in the Prelim when they looked almost done at half time.
But just as was the case the year before… the Lions played their best game of the season on the day that mattered most.
Lachie Neale was cast in Grand Final folklore, defying science to return from a calf injury, play as the last of the subs and kick the goal for which this game will always be remembered.
The MCG shook to the sounds of Country Roads and Hey Jude while Chris Fagan confirmed his place as not only master coach and motivator but footy’s most loved figure.
In any era, this qualifies as greatness… and it stands to be admired and revered.
7 - Jamie Melham completes the Cups double
In a Melbourne Cup of rich possibilities, the greatest story prevailed
Jamie Melham fulfilled a destiny Michelle Payne set in train a decade ago
Melham has been the best thing Melbourne racing has had going for it for a good few years now.
Jamie Melham fulfilled a destiny Michelle Payne set in train a decade ago
Melham has been the best thing Melbourne racing has had going for it for a good few years now.
As Jamie Kah, she became the first jockey to win 100 metropolitan races in a season in Victoria and emerged as racing’s next great jockey.
But a horrific fall in 2023 at Flemington threatened more than just her career.
Either side of that, Jamie built an impressive portfolio of Group 1 winners
And then this Spring completed the fabled Cups double aboard Half Yours.
And then this Spring completed the fabled Cups double aboard Half Yours.
In the Caulfield Cup, the gelding was sent out a short-priced favourite.
Regarded as a weights certainty, Melham rode him sweetly and successfully.
But all her skill and dare was on display in the Melbourne Cup as she executed a perfect plan and forged openings that weren’t there.
As she weaved a path, she brushed husband Ben aside – which must be a unique moment in spousal rivalries – and strode into history.
It was a magnificent Melbourne Cup with so many great stories… Jamie Melham’s triumph at the pinnacle.
8 - Jordan Mailata becomes the first Australian to play in a Super Bowl-winning team
Australia’s involvement in America’s showpiece game began with Ben Graham.
Fellow punters Mitch Wishnowsky and Arryn Siposs then played in Super Bowls… and Jordan Mailata had been there once before… but victory had been elusive for all.
Fellow punters Mitch Wishnowsky and Arryn Siposs then played in Super Bowls… and Jordan Mailata had been there once before… but victory had been elusive for all.
It was fitting that Mailata was the first to crack the threshold, as he stands as the most significant Australian yet to play in the NFL.
He is no Down Under novelty in the States… but rather a centre piece of a fearsome offensive line in Philadelphia, highly paid and immensely popular with teammates and fans alike.
Ahead of the Super Bowl in New Orleans, the rugby league convert was rated in the most important handful of players for the game.
It all married up perfectly… the NFL announced its MCG game and the Eagles stunningly trounced the Kansas City Chiefs, ending their quest for the three-peat.
Mailata’s moment had shades of Craig Johnston’s FA Cup victory in the mid-80s with Liverpool on a stunning night in the Big Easy.
9 - South Africa wins the World Test Championship
Forever labelled chokers when it comes to ICC world titles… finding all manner of misfortune in various 50-over and T20 World Cups… South Africa finally had its moment in the World Test Championship Final at Lord’s.
The Proteas had been ridiculed in some quarters in the lead up to the game, having qualified by beating the lesser nations in an uneven qualification period, and were derided as huge underdogs against the defending champions Australia.
But Temba Bavuma’s team is made of the right stuff.
They came from 74 runs behind at the halfway mark and made a good thing of victory as a huge South African crowd gathered for the final day of the run chase.
Aiden Markram ensured there would be no more modern missteps with a nerveless century.
The feel-good factor could barely have been higher as the rainbow nation claimed the mace.
And to emphasise the point, South Africa went to India in November and created more history … sweeping the home team 2-0, improving Bavuma’s record as Test captain to 11 wins and a draw.
10 - Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone wins the 400m World Championship
McLaughlin-Levrone has redefined what’s possible in athletics over hurdles, breaking the 400-metre world record six times, most dazzlingly at the Paris Olympics, to complete back-to-back Olympic crowns.
At the World Championships in Tokyo, she stepped into the 400-metre flat amid much fascination about what she might do.
She not only won the title, beating the reigning Olympic champion… she ran the fastest 400m in 40 years and the second quickest of all time as she broke 48 seconds.
She has the highly questionable world record of East German Marita Koch in her sights… one of the last remaining markers from the Eastern Bloc doping days.
While Mondo Duplantis continues to raise the pole vault world record for fun… McLaughlin-Levrone might soon have both the 400 hurdles and flat records in her keeping.
At a fantastic World Championships, Sydney McLaughlin Levrone proved the star turn.
