The Herald on Sunday have come up with 12 sporting turkeys of the year.
The Herald on Sunday have come up with 12 sporting turkeys of the year.
There have been a few candidates but the judges have conferred and the Herald on Sunday have come up with our sporting turkeys of the year.
12. Sam Burgess
No fault of the very capable rugby league forward but his switch to rugby union and fast-tracking into the England side at second five-eighths was a cumbersome snub on so many fronts. It was a selection gaffe from coach Stuart Lancaster, not appreciated by other squad members and recognised for its shallowness by a few right-thinking members of the fourth estate and fan base. Burgess was competent because he is a fine sportsman. But it was a serious misjudgment to pick him ahead of specialists who understood the nuances of rugby rather than playing by numbers. Then Burgess shot through. Enough said. Another sad chapter in the red rose malarkey.
11. Kirwan and the Blues board
Sir John Kirwan of the Blues. Photo / Getty Images
There's no doubt John Kirwan loved the Blues and more than anything, wanted them to succeed. It became clear he was not the right person to orchestrate that dream as the Blues battled to just three wins this year. The board reached that conclusion before they got themselves in a pickle when JK and his supporters arrived with a rescue package.
The impasse continued for some time before JK announced in June he was stepping down. It ended an era marked by 10th, 10th and 14th-place finishes, 16 wins from 48 matches, the strange signing of Benji Marshall, an inability to attract players and staff, board ructions and a new CEO.
10. Craig Joubert and World Rugby
Craig Joubert, the referee, sprints off the pitch after the final whistle as Scotland are defeated during the 2015 Rugby World Cup Quarter Final. Photo / Getty Images
Joubert enraged Scotland with his final-minute decision to penalise them for offside which Bernard Foley converted into a Wallabies win in their Rugby World Cup quarter-final. The referee's swift exit further inflamed the tension around the decision before World Rugby added to the mess when they issued a statement saying Joubert should have awarded a scrum instead of a penalty and chief executive Brett Gosper joked the ref might have sprinted off because he needed the bathroom.
9. Jason Pierre Paul
And that also goes for professional sportspeople who have a contract offer of $60 million on the table.
The Giants defensive end sustained a serious hand injury in a fireworks accident during Independent Day celebrations which resulted in his right index finger being amputated and the loss of half of his right thumb. Amazingly, he's returned to action to play three games so far for the Giants and is set to make $8.7 million this year.
8. Shaun Ainscough
You probably don't remember the name but you'll remember the video. The Batley rugby league centre cost his side dearly with an appalling mistake against English second-tier side Featherstone Rovers.
A remarkable comeback saw Featherstone run in four tries in six minutes to steal victory but the match-winning four-pointer was the big talking point. With the fulltime siren sounding and Batley clinging to a four-point lead, Ainscough attempted to kick the ball over the sideline to end the game.
But it failed to go out and bounced up and into the arms of Featherstone winger Will Sharp, who kept his feet and wits to clamber over the line to make it 26-26 before Paul Sykes' sideline conversion gave Featherstone the victory.
7. Rory McIlroy
The scene probably went something like this:
Mate texts world No 1 McIlroy: "Hey, Rors, keen for a game of footy?" McIlroy: "Nah, mate, got The Open coming up. Gotta take it easy." Mate: "Mate, you used to be cool." McIlroy: "I'm still cool. Where we playing?" McIlroy went on to rupture a ligament in his left ankle while playing a game with his friends and missed a month of golf, including The Open.
6. Glenn Maxwell
The Australian cricketer made a choking gesture to the crowd at Eden Park as the Black Caps looked like they were throwing away a golden opportunity to beat their transtasman rivals in their World Cup pool game. Up stepped Kane Williamson and hit a match-winning six.
5. New Zealand Football
The year couldn't really have gone much worse for New Zealand Football.
Their administration's inability to understand Fifa's eligibility rules shattered 23 Olympic dreams, they wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees failing to defend their case and got suckered out of a few easy dollars from Fifa.
And now they are getting blamed by Football Federation Australia and the Wellington Phoenix for not doing more to support the game in New Zealand.
The All Whites were also largely invisible to the Kiwi public, with just three games played in 2015, all overseas, in South Korea, Myanmar and Oman. But they did at least win the last, ending a 13-game winless run stretching over two years, so every cloud. . .
4. Sepp Blatter
FIFA president Sepp Blatter. Photo / AP
At the start of 2015, Fifa president Sepp Blatter was one of the most powerful men in the sports world. Today, he is a laughing stock.
Fifa's ethics committee this week banned him for eight years and his name has become synonymous with corruption.
The 79-year old is currently engulfed in a deepening corruption scandal as Fifa face criminal probes in Switzerland and the United States.
3. Pete Carroll
It's probably hard to put the Seattle Seahawks coach on the list after leading his side to a second-straight Super Bowl but he can and should be blamed for the team's defeat to the New England Patriots.
Trailing by four with 27 seconds on the clock, the Seahawks had the ball on the one yard line. Logic said give the ball to Marshawn Lynch, who is pretty much unstoppable from that distance.
Since it was second down, if he was stopped, they could give Lynch another two shots. Instead, Carroll told quarterback Russell Wilson to throw the ball and it was intercepted by Malcolm Butler to seal the win for the Pats.
It was Carroll's call. The blame is with him.
2. Northland rugby
Played 10, lost 10; 143 points for, 420 against; 1 bonus point. More like Turkeys than Taniwha.
Our winner of the golden turkey is Aussie tennis player Nick Kyrgios. It's been an interesting year for the new bad boy of tennis. At Wimbledon, he was accused of not trying in his loss to Richard Gasquet. The crowd booed, which takes some doing at Wimbledon.
Then a few months later while playing Stan Wawrinka at the Rogers Cup, he had a poor attempt at a sledge. "Kokkinakis banged your girlfriend, sorry to tell you that mate," he quipped as the two players changed ends, in reference to fellow Aussie player Thanasi Kokkinakis who was involved with Wawrinka's ex Donna Vekic.
Kyrgios was fined US$10,000 by the ATP and stated he had apologised to Wawrinka. It even got to the point where Shane Warne, a turkey of the year hall of famer, penned an open letter to Kyrgios saying, 'you're testing our patience, mate'.
On top of all that, he has the worst haircut in sport.
Ex-Cycling NZ CEO Andrew Matheson was questioned in the coronial inquest into Olivia Podmore and disputed the statements of several other witnesses close to the Rio Olympian.
