A tournament bracket to find out who really won the year in NZ sport. Photos / Photosport
OPINION:
Sport, at its core, is really all about winning.
It’s one of the few things in life where winning is not only the ultimate goal but also celebrated - and there were many winners in one of the busiest sporting years in recent memory.
We’ve had seemingly countless World Cups, a Winter Olympics, a Commonwealth Games and a lot of winners.
To truly separate the winners from the winners, it’s only appropriate that they competed against each other in one final tournament to find out who really won the year.
Before we get into this extremely important single-elimination bracket, here are some rules:
1. Ahead of the knockout rounds, 32 of the best winners this year will be divided into two conferences and seeded from one to 16 based on an intricate, scientific algorithm (my opinion).
2. Despite Lionel Messi’s best efforts to sneak his way into the tournament, he doesn’t qualify as this bracket will mainly focus on New Zealand sport.
3. As Lydia Ko would say, good vibes only.
Aside from the obvious, the Black Ferns also reminded everyone that rugby can actually be fun to watch. Who knew that rugby could be fast, attacking and entertaining? The current All Blacks could never.
Accomplishments: Won the 2022 Rugby World Cup and the hearts and minds of the Kiwi public.
Ko might just be New Zealand’s greatest active athlete. After struggling for a few years to recapture her form of old, she not only had perhaps the best season of her career this year, but also got engaged and seems to be as happy as ever.
Accomplishments: Three tournament wins, including the biggest winner’s cheque in women’s golf history ($3.13m) at the Tour Championship; LPGA Tour player of the year; Vare Trophy (for the lowest scoring average of the year); returned to No 1 in the world rankings for the first time since 2017.
Not to be confused with fellow bracket competitor Protests, Porteous is one of only two Kiwi Winter Olympic gold medallists this year (and ever). Along with fellow snow sports star Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, he is one of the coolest zoomer athletes in the country.
Accomplishments: Gold in the men’s freeski halfpipe at the Beijing Winter Olympics; gold in the men’s superpipe at the Winter X Games.
Women’s sport made big strides in 2022, from two successful home World Cups to a Kiwi public that seems to be getting behind women’s sport more than ever. The women’s football Euros also broke records and was a great tournament. It all seems to be pointing up from here.
Accomplishments: Women’s sport continues to prove the doubters wrong about its popularity, financial viability and entertainment value.
The Black Ferns’ inspirational co-captain led the team to a World Cup triumph with mana, composure and some incredible offloads that SBW would be proud of.
Accomplishments: World Rugby women’s player of the year; World Rugby women’s 15s dream team of the year; New Zealand Rugby supreme player of the year.
Sportswashing went from underdogs in last year’s bracket to one of the favourites after its strongest season yet. From the Saudi-funded LIV Golf to the World Cup in Qatar, the sporting world simply could not say no to dirty money in 2022. Even the All Blacks were accused of greenwashing - sportswashing’s less popular cousin - after they signed a multi-million-dollar sponsorship deal with multinational chemical giant Ineos, which made its debut on New Zealand rugby kits this year.
Accomplishments: Improving the reputation of dodgy corporations and nation states with poor human rights records, in exchange for that sweet, sweet cash.
SVG produced the most dominant Supercars season ever, beating fellow Kiwi Scott McLaughlin’s record of 18 wins on his way to a whopping 21 victories in 34 races. He also wins the award for interview no-show of the year (sorry Ian Foster) after leaving an Australian TV breakfast show mid-interview to vomit after partying too hard celebrating a win the night before.
Accomplishments: Won his third Supercars Championship; won the Bathurst 1000.
Both athletes and fans found their voice in 2022 in the form of protests.
Accomplishments: From Wellington Phoenix fans standing up against the Australian Professional Leagues for selling off the hosting rights for the A-League grand final exclusively to Sydney, to athletes taking action against dodgy sponsors, protests - like in the outside world - have given a voice to the marginalised to speak out and take action against the powerful.
Andrews was one of the stories of the Commonwealth Games as she backed up her silver at the Tokyo Olympics with three gold medals in Birmingham - and even won silver in an event she wasn’t meant to compete in.
Accomplishments: Won gold at the Commonwealth Games in the team sprint, sprint and Keirin, and silver in the team pursuit.
After I forgot to include him in last year’s bracket - to the chagrin of several Herald readers - Coll decided to show me up by making squash history in March, becoming the first Kiwi male to be ranked No 1 in the world. Apologies Mr Coll, you very much deserve this No 10 seed.
Accomplishments: Defended his British Open major title; won gold at the Commonwealth Games in the men’s singles and mixed doubles.
Sport’s biggest and most crooked governing body dominated headlines towards the end of the year thanks to its World Cup in Qatar - which turned out to be an awesome tournament (on the field). Plus, Fifa even made it to New Zealand this year with a big glitzy event for the Women’s World Cup draw ahead of next year’s tournament.
Accomplishments: One of the best World Cup tournaments, albeit no thanks to Fifa. The World Cup was great because football is great. You don’t have to hand it to Qatar or Fifa, although Fifa continues to keep winning and filling its pockets.
Home crowds were back in 2022. The Breakers, Warriors and Phoenix - all stuck in Australia for two years due to Covid - finally came home and played in front of sports-hungry Kiwis. Unfortunately for the Warriors, it didn’t help.
Accomplishments: Some absolute bangers at stadiums and arenas across Aotearoa. How good is live sport.
Manu continued his rise as one of the best rugby league players in the world in 2022 with another strong NRL season for the Roosters. But he was perhaps the most impressive for the Kiwis, leading an underperforming side to the World Cup semifinal.
Accomplishments: Golden Boot winner for best international player; Kiwis player of the year at the New Zealand Rugby League awards; MVP in three out of six Kiwis tests.
Where would the All Blacks be without Ardie Savea? He is the only New Zealand player who would automatically start for every team in the world and was by far the best in the All Blacks jersey this year.
Accomplishments: Played a huge part in saving Ian Foster’s job; All Blacks player of the year at the New Zealand Rugby awards; brutally snubbed by World Rugby in the player of the year nominations.
This year we had the biggest chess cheating scandal of all time, the biggest competitive fishing cheating scandal of all time and perhaps the most undeserving New Zealand Commonwealth Games medallist of all time when Kiwi wrestler Suraj Singh - who suffered heavy defeats in his two matches in Birmingham - was given a belated bronze after his opponent was caught doping.
Accomplishments: Plenty of fodder for social media content on Twitter and TikTok. Many other cheaters probably got away with it.
Auckland’s City Kickboxing, led by charismatic fight guru Eugene Bareman, continues to make its name as one of the best MMA gyms in the world and now boasts one champion, one former champion and three top-15 ranked fighters in the UFC. The gym, which also trains boxers like Junior Fa, is a huge part of New Zealand’s current golden era of fighting.
Accomplishments: Gym of the year at the World MMA awards; Bareman was brutally snubbed by the Halbergs (RIP) in the coach of the year nominations.
Billionaires have a deserved No 1 seed and definitely didn’t earn it by promising future funding for Bracket HQ in exchange for good PR. Billionaires should 100 per cent exist and have not accumulated their obscene wealth purely through exploitation under a broken system, but by working harder than everyone else.
Accomplishments: Billionaires continue to bend the sporting industry to their will, from Australian netball’s sponsorship controversy to the All Blacks’ criminal financial master. This year also saw the arrival of two sporting billionaires in Tiger Woods and LeBron James, who both became the first active athletes to reach the 10-figure net worth mark.
Like Porteous, Sadowski-Synnott has a very Gen Z first name and had a great year on the snow. While Nico claimed the honour of being New Zealand’s youngest Winter Olympics medallist in 2018, Zoi became the first Kiwi to win gold in 2022 - and did so in thrilling fashion with her final jump.
Accomplishments: Gold in the women’s snowboard slopestyle and silver in the big air at the Beijing Winter Olympics; gold in the slopestyle and big air at the Winter X Games.
It was the year of the World Cup. There were so many World Cups across several codes - sometimes multiple at the same time - and they were all pretty great to watch.
Accomplishments: We’ve had the women’s Cricket World Cup and women’s Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, and a bunch of others including the men’s and women’s Rugby League World Cup, the men’s T20 World Cup, the women’s Hockey World Cup and of course THE World Cup, the Fifa World Cup.
Gate was New Zealand’s biggest winner from the Commonwealth Games, becoming the first Kiwi to claim quadruple gold at one Games - made even more impressive because he beat some of the best in the world to do so, which isn’t always the case at the off-brand Olympics.
Accomplishments: Commonwealth Games gold in the men’s 4000m individual pursuit, points race, team pursuit and road race.
Tui was a key member of the Black Ferns’ World Cup winning side, scoring five tries in the tournament. But she’s also a winner for being a genuine sporting superstar. She is pure charisma, a character we haven’t seen in New Zealand sport for a long time - if ever.
Accomplishments: World Rugby women’s 15s breakthrough player of the year; World Rugby women’s 15s dream team of the year; wrote a book; went viral several times.
Nothing encapsulates New Zealand sport’s broken, bureaucratic and incompetent systems like the review. And oh boy, do sporting administrators love this shit. Had a bad season? Time for a review. Historical issues with athlete mental health? Re, and I can’t stress this enough, view. Thinking of sacking your coach? You guessed it.
Accomplishments: I guess it made things slightly better even though they shouldn’t have been allowed to happen in the first place under good governance. Some New Zealand sporting organisations that had reviews this year: New Zealand Rugby (of course), Cycling NZ, NZ Football, High Performance Sport NZ, and even the governing body of the governing bodies, Sport NZ.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man (hmm this saying is a bit sexist). But you know who isn’t sexist? Wayne Smith. Ok, well, he did compare the Black Ferns to little girls in one awkward awards speech, but hey, not all boomers can be perfectly woke. Smith is a rugby genius and was the perfect man (hmm) to coach the Black Ferns to glory amid testing times for the team.
Accomplishments: World Rugby coach of the year; New Zealand Rugby coach of the year.
Fox had the best season of his career, going from a world ranking of 213 at the start of the year to a career high of 24 (he ended the year ranked 29th).
Accomplishments: Two tournament victories; second on the DP World Tour order of merit.
Alker went from golfing journeyman to the best of the oldies, winning the Champions Tour order of merit title and a whopping $7.44 million this year.
Accomplishments: Five tournament victories; won the Champions Tour’s Charles Schwab Cup.
TikTok is now one of the main ways young fans consume sport, with the social media app filled with bite-sized highlights and innovative content creators. 2022 felt like the year TikTok truly became a social media mainstay, and sport TikTok was no different.
Accomplishments: Creating a new community for fans to create, debate and consume sports content, while destroying our collective attention spans even more.
Alongside captain Ben Stokes, McCullum is leading England’s test cricket revolution. And “Bazball” is a contender for 2022 sports word of the year.
Accomplishments: Since McCullum took over as coach, England have won nine out of 10 tests, including series sweeps against the Black Caps and Pakistan.
After a few fraught years due to a lack of innovation and the arrival of a competitor, Sky Sport has basically won back most of the big broadcasting rights, launched an improved streaming app and returned to being a reliable host for sports TV in New Zealand.
Accomplishments: Used its sheer scale, market power and experience in sports broadcasting to basically force Spark Sport out of the business, thus becoming a virtual monopoly once again. Won back the rights to big codes like the Premier League and Formula 1.
After announcing himself to the world as a rising swimming star at the Tokyo Olympics, Clareburt turned that potential into gold at the Commonwealth Games. At just 23, he is already making a claim as New Zealand’s greatest swimmer.
Accomplishments: Commonwealth Games gold in the men’s 400m individual medley and 200m butterfly, bronze in the 200m individual medley.
Sports betting is on the rise all over the world. While the issues around gambling are well documented, if you’re going to gamble, sports betting is at least a lot more fun than the similarly volatile world of cryptocurrency - which is essentially gambling.
Accomplishments: Sports betting companies are partnering with American universities to promote gambling to students - a huge win for gambling addiction. In New Zealand, the TAB could very well become a monopoly soon as it is lobbying to change the Gambling Act to ban Kiwis from betting with overseas bookmaking firms, which is bad for sports fans but great for the TAB.
The Kiwi IndyCar Scotts, Scott Dixon and Scott McLaughlin, both had strong years on the American grid. While Dixon wasn’t able to claim his seventh IndyCar championship, he broke Mario Andretti’s record for total IndyCar victories and reaffirmed his status as the competition’s Goat. McLaughlin impressed in his second IndyCar season, and is already being linked with a potential test drive in Formula 1.
Accomplishments: Dixon finished third in the standings with two race wins; McLaughlin finished fourth with three race wins; the name Scott became a lot less vanilla thanks to this duo.
Another good Scott. The man who should be All Blacks coach quietly had another strong year. After getting snubbed once, he is again in the running to become the next All Blacks coach after next year’s World Cup - with Ian Foster’s shaky year helping the Crusaders coach’s case.
Accomplishments: Coached the Crusaders to their sixth Super Rugby title in six years; NZ Rugby men’s coach of the year.
1. Black Ferns v 16. City Kickboxing
Unfortunately for City Kickboxing, its top fighter Israel Adesanya lost his UFC middleweight title this year. Easy win for the Ferns.
8. Protests v 9. Ellesse Andrews
Despite widespread protests and gestures from athletes and fans, sport remains plagued by society’s ills. Andrews cycles into the round of 16.
5. Ruahei Demant v 12. Home crowds
Demant was great at the World Cup, but made a few key errors and wasn’t at her best during the final, despite winning the player of the match award. The crowd, on the other hand, provided one of the best sporting atmospheres in New Zealand sport history.
4. Women’s sport v 13. Joseph Manu
Sorry Joey, but Manu magic has nothing on a historic year for women’s sport.
6. Sportswashing v 11. Fifa
What a match-up: sportswashing against one of sport’s biggest exponents of sportswashing. Controversy hits the tournament as Fifa makes a shock decision to withdraw from the match right before kickoff in mysterious circumstances. It comes after Gianni Infantino was seen meeting with the CEO of sportswashing. Bracket HQ is forced to give the win to sportswashing by default.
3. Nico Porteous v 14. Ardie Savea
Savea puts up a surprising fight in this first-round match-up and the match goes to a tiebreaker, which under rule 3.1 of the tournament laws is a TikTok dance off. The TMO gives Savea a stunning upset victory.
7. Shane van Gisbergen v 10. Paul Coll
While Coll had a great start to the year, he eventually lost his world No 1 spot to Egypt’s Ali Farag. SVG is comfortably the best Supercars driver in the world.
2. Lydia Ko v 15. Cheating
Ko probably has never cheated in her life. She doesn’t seem like the type. Better luck next time cheaters.
1. Billionaires v 16. Scott Robertson
Lol little ol’ Razor against all of sport’s billionaires? An absolute whitewash of a first-round match-up.
8. Ryan Fox v 9. Steven Alker
What are the odds of two golfers facing each other in the first round? It’s almost as if someone planned this to make a point. Alker’s story is great and all but he’s playing against old folks who can barely drive 250 yards. Fox is competing with the likes of Rory McIlroy. Also, how on earth has Alker made more money on the Champions Tour than Ko has in the LPGA this year?
In case anyone was wondering, Kiwi golfer power rankings: 1. Lydia Ko, 2. Ryan Fox, 3. Steven Alker.
5. Ruby Tui v 12. Sky Sport
Competition has been wiped out in the New Zealand sport broadcasting industry, which is never good for consumers. Tui, on the other hand, has plenty of competition and still keeps winning.
4. Aaron Gate v 13. Lewis Clareburt
This is close, but Gate simply had too strong and historic of a year and has to go through.
6. Reviews v 11. Brendon McCullum
Bazball is going well, for now. But what happens when the team starts to struggle? I’m pretty sure they love reviews in the UK too.
3. World Cups v 14. Sports betting
Even though I made a bit of money betting on the football World Cup, sports betting has no chance against the pure sporting drama of World Cups.
7. Wayne Smith v 10. TikTok
It’s Boomers v Zoomers, and in the digital age, I’m sorry but Wayne Smith has no chance. Common W for TikTok.
2. Zoi Sadowski-Synnott v 15. IndyCar Scotts
Sadowski-Synnott won New Zealand’s first Winter Olympic medal. The Scotts had two shots at winning an IndyCar championship and failed.
1. Black Ferns v 9. Ellesse Andrews
As a feminist organisation, Bracket HQ is generally against pitting women against women. Unfortunately this is how sports works and the Ferns are the better of the two women’s sports success stories.
12. Home crowds v 4. Women’s sport
The return of home crowds was great, but poor turnouts to Phoenix and Breakers games show there’s work to be done to bring back Kiwi fans to stadiums. The wāhine are too strong in the end.
6. Sportswashing v 14. Ardie Savea
Savea’s fairytale run comes to an end as even his player power is swallowed up by the power of dirty money.
7. Shane van Gisbergen v 2. Lydia Ko
SVG will need to step up to a tougher motorsport code to even have a chance against a world-beater like Ko.
1. Billionaires v 8. Ryan Fox
Fox revealed this year that he said no to what was probably a big money offer to join LIV Golf, choosing instead to pursue his dream of earning a PGA Tour card. In a huge upset, Fox and the true spirit of sport takes out the billionaires.
5. Ruby Tui v 4. Aaron Gate
Tui after winning the World Cup: leads the entire Eden Park crowd in a singalong.
Ruby Tui is box office and Eden Park is loving it 🍿 pic.twitter.com/9xpSHOgblk
— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) November 12, 2022
Gate after winning gold in Birmingham: “Pretty stoked.”
Enough said.
6. Reviews v 3. World Cups
Even the Black Ferns underwent an independent review into their culture and environment this year. A few good World Cups won’t hide the many issues persisting in New Zealand sport.
2. Zoi Sadowski-Synnott v 10. TikTok
Sadowski-Synnott doesn’t have an official TikTok account. She is, however, on Instagram. Big L for TikTok.
1. Black Ferns v 4. Women’s sport
The Black Ferns’ remarkable story and World Cup triumph is just a bit too good for Women’s sport, a raw talent that still has plenty of room to improve. Sport is still male-dominated and investment in women’s sport is significantly lacking. And the widespread support for the Black Ferns at stadiums seems to be a one-off, for now anyway, as opposed to a wider women’s sport trend in New Zealand.
6. Sportswashing v 2. Lydia Ko
LIV Golf has yet to enter into women’s golf. But even if it did, it’s hard to see someone like Ko - who values history and competition - signing on. Ko finally rids the tournament of one of the sporting world’s worst trends.
8. Ryan Fox v 5. Ruby Tui
It was a good run Mr Fox, but unfortunately the golf world ranking system is a bit dodgy and in reality, Fox is probably outside of the top 50 players in the world. Tui continues to not put a foot wrong.
6. Reviews v 2. Zoi Sadowski-Synnott
We’ve finally found a weakness in reviews - it has yet to infect snow sports. Sadowski-Synnott is flying way too high to be brought down by administrative incompetence.
1. Black Ferns v 2. Lydia Ko
A match-up of titans. This deserved to be the grand final. Ultimately, Lydia Ko didn’t capture the imagination of the New Zealand public quite like the Black Ferns. Rugby is the national sport after all.
5. Ruby Tui v 2. Zoi Sadowski-Synnott
Another tight contest. Both were in the top 5 most googled New Zealanders in 2022. Both are great at what they do, but Tui is still new to the XVs arena and Sadowski-Synnott is clearly better at her craft.
Black Ferns v Zoi Sadowski-Synnott
I’m sorry Zoi, it was a great run, but no amount of 1080s will beat one of the greatest Rugby World Cup finals in recent memory. It was the year of the Black Ferns - here’s another prestigious title to add to the collection.
Usyk won the fight by unanimous decision, with all three judges scoring it 116-112.
