Sporting predictions for 2023. Photos / Photosport
OPINION:
Chris Rattue makes 15 sporting predictions for the new year.
Highlight of the year: Tyson Fury v Oleksandr Usyk
A world heavyweight title fight worthy of the name - and the signs look very good that it will take place in 2023, producing a genuine, undisputed champ for the first time in a couple of decades.
Ukrainian Usyk will have a lot of sentimental support. But Fury will win. The Brit knows how to put on a crazy show outside the ring, and this PR mastery is matched by his skill inside it.
Forlorn hope: the fight takes place at a packed Wembley Stadium, rather than Saudi Arabia.
Victor Wembanyama launches a groundbreaking NBA career
The complex NBA draft system has apparently met its match in the tall French kid who will become basketball’s next world superstar.
Adjustments were introduced designed to stop teams from performing poorly - known as tanking - in order to increase their chances of getting a top draft pick.
But Wembanyana is so exceptional that a number of teams have reportedly gone into “rebuild mode”, trading away good players in preparation for the June draft.
LeBron James has described the 2.2-metre Wembanyama as an “alien” force.
Wembanyama says: “My goal is to be like something you’ve never seen.”
Women’s Fifa World Cup will win and lose
There’s a big divide between the great and the average in women’s football and unfortunately, New Zealand is on the wrong side of it.
Co-hosting the tournament with Australia is an automatic highlight though.
The big question for New Zealand is this: how will the sport’s bosses use the surge of interest to further the game after the World Cup?
It’s not an easy question to answer, but football fails on a lot of levels in this country.
Chances are there will be a lot of excitement about the influence of the World Cup followed by an almost inevitable lack of significant progress.
As for this tournament, the ninth women’s World Cup, there’s a lot of hoopla around England, but there always is when it comes to football.
A showdown with the threepeat-seeking USA would make a brilliant final.
Fun fact: England have never made the final.
A gripping EPL title race - featuring Norway in lead roles
Arsenal have held their English Premier League lead far longer than expected as heavy favourites Manchester City keep faltering. This two-way battle for the title will go down to the wire.
Fun feature: Manchester City’s wonder striker Erling Haaland and Arsenal’s Martin Odegaard, the exquisite 24-year-old midfielder, give little Norway a starring role in this fascinating title race.
Beware Rassie Erasmus at Rugby’s World Cup
South Africa are operating on strategic levels unseen in rugby, giving so much power to a highly influential director who can transcend coaching variables.
A lot of early World Cup money is going on a resurgent France, the hosts, but reigning champs South Africa are piecing together a physically powerful squad with classy attacking capabilities.
Erasmus, the World Cup-winning coach in 2019, is a clever operator who will also stoop to anything for victory, as evidenced by his seemingly childish social media campaigns about match officials.
There’s a chance South Africa and France will meet in the quarter-finals. France’s main pool opponents, the All Blacks, will have a major say in that.
Early prediction: South Africa to retain the Cup, while the run of unwanted firsts will continue for the All Blacks, as they lose a World Cup pool game.
The new All Blacks coach will be…
Jamie Joseph, along with highly rated assistant Tony Brown. If Scott Robertson gets the gig, New Zealand Rugby should try to persuade Brown - who is loyal to Joseph - to come on board.
Robertson would also make a great new All Blacks coach. Whichever way, it will be a relief to finally break away from the claustrophobic “succession” planning which has played such a big part in the All Blacks and rugby’s downfall.
The Warriors earn more respect, and the Roosters rise to the top again
Call it a hunch, but the Auckland NRL club have finally found a coach in Andrew Webster to get them on track.
Whether that turns the Warriors into a top-four club - which should be the aim - is a different matter.
And the squad still has holes, the most significant being at fullback, where they can’t match the brilliant game-turners at other top clubs.
Another hunch: hard-nosed forward Mitch Barnett will become a Warriors cult figure.
Enough of the mad Warriors-related theories, and onto something far more certain.
The Roosters’ recruitment of Kiwi dynamo Brandon Smith will help them break the Panthers’ stranglehold on the title.
But the rise of powerhouse teenager Joseph Suaali’i is the factor that will really get the Roosters flying high.
Sky’s adverts keep annoying the heck out of us
I hear this complaint from so many people (and not just about the sports channels).
It can feel like you are watching an advertising channel in which a bit of sport breaks out now and then.
Many viewers believed they would be getting, and were initially promised, an advertisement-free experience. It has turned into something very different.
Sky bombards subscribers with adverts for itself - no wonder so many have taken a break rather than endure more ad breaks.
The Netball World Cup in South Africa gets swamped
What a crazy move by netball, going up against the women’s football World Cup in July and August.
It is even crazier given that netball’s big guns - New Zealand, Australia and England - will have such prominent roles at the football tournament.
Creepy Fifa boss Gianni Infantino quits
Wishful thinking, unfortunately.
There will be famous retirements
Tennis ace Rafael Nadal is a superstar most likely to quit in 2023, but you never know with obsessive people.
The women’s football World Cup will be the swansong for the USA’s Megan Rapinoe, a rarity who transcended football through a strident personality and activism.
But ancient quarterback Tom Brady will shun retirement and maybe move from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the San Francisco 49ers, the team he supported as a kid.
Biggest transfer speculation
Paris Saint-Germain’s World Cup superstar Kylian Mbappe will be a news magnet. He is signed for a couple more years but that won’t stop the speculation. Basketball great LeBron James will force his way out of the lame LA Lakers.
Cricket World Cup
The 50-over final in India won’t be nearly as dramatic as the last one. Not many things are. A replay between England and New Zealand would be a sight to behold though. Got a funny feeling this longshot will happen.
LIV up the ante
The Saudi-backed breakaway golf circuit will make plenty more big-name signings from the rival PGA Tour, giving them more bargaining chips when the inevitable peace agreement is worked out. But golf’s reunification won’t take place this year - there’s too much bad blood for a hasty resolution.
Surprise hit: Taika Waititi’s ‘Next Goal Wins’
A film - with a predicted September release date - about the efforts of the American Samoa team to qualify for the 2014 football World Cup.
It stars Michael Fassbender as the Dutch coach who spearheaded this attempt at a sporting miracle, in charge of a team that once lost 31-0 to Australia.
The cast includes the ubiquitous Elisabeth Moss, and a load of local names like David Fane, Rhys Darby and Oscar Kightley. Anything by the fabulous Waititi is eagerly anticipated.
Liam Lawson’s debut at Formula 1's Las Vegas Grand Prix has already been eventful.