Almanac Sport: A big year for Australian international sports

 

 

With the Christmas/New Year break now very much in the rear view mirror, it’s appropriate to look at what lies ahead for sport in 2025.

You may think while there is no Olympic or Commonwealth Games scheduled, it is a ‘quiet’ year for sports fans.

 

Think again.

 

This Footy Almanac fan discusses – in no particular order – that 2025 is a big year for a number of teams and individuals competing on the world stage in Australia’s name.

 

 

THE SOCCEROOS

By the end of 2025, we will all know whether the Socceroos have maintained their perfect record of qualifying for the biggest sporting event on the planet since moving to the Asian confederation in 2006…or maybe not.

Tony Popovic’s men may still be preparing for the last chance qualification tournament in North America in early 2026 come this year’s Christmas break.

Or maybe – god-forbid – Australia misses the World Cup Finals for the first time since Uruguay buried Frank Farina’s side in Montevideo in 2001.

The must win games against Indonesia and China in March start the 2025 journey for the Socceroos in the tightest of the Third Round Asian groups.

Harry Souttar’s recent ruptured achilles tendon is a bitter blow for Popovic in trying to get a stable side on the park.

But given the parlous state of the A-Leagues right now, Australian football desperately needs the Socceroos to find a way to the 2026 Finals.

Almost as much as the ‘Golden Generation’ did that famous night at Telstra (now Accor) Stadium – or Stadium Australia – in November 2005.

 

 

THE WALLABIES

2025 will see the Wallabies – and the code they represent – under the greatest spotlight in 10 years. Or maybe even 12 years.

Certainly, not since their run to the Rugby World Cup Final in 2015 – or the last British and Irish Lions Tour to Australia two years earlier – has there been as much hope around them.

Or as much pressure.

Yes, there may have been hope when Hamish McClennan lured Eddie Jones back to the coach’s job.

But there was always a suspicion that hope was based on a mountain of quicksand – which turned out to be the case.

Under Joe Schmidt, however, the ‘green shoots’ that sprung up on the recent Grand Slam tour seem to be more solid. More stable.

And it’s not just about the impact Joseph Sua’ali’I has made since his big bucks defection from rugby league.

The Schmidt way of getting the basics right first, then getting the results you deserve from that attention to detail appear to have the Wallabies back on the right path since that World Cup Final appearance 10 years ago.

The Lions will put that new found confidence to the test.

Especially when it will feel like the Wallabies are playing away Test matches with 40,000 supporters wearing red jumpers in the stands – the first of two waves of loud supporter groups from the ‘Old Dart’ hitting Australian Stadiums this year.

The Wallabies – like their Socceroo brothers – are playing for their code as well as themselves in this series.

Rugby – having fallen behind the other codes since the heady days of John O’Neill’s stewardship – need the Wallabies to somehow win at least one of the three Lions Tests to give the code some mainstream traction again.

They may also need to do so to keep their coach on deck for their Southern Hemisphere Championship commitments later in the year – let alone a home World Cup in two years’ time.

Like all smart operators, Schmidt has kept his options open and his cards close to his chest for life after the Lions Tour.

Maybe even the Wallabies’ own coach needs to be convinced.

 

 

AUSTRALIA’S NATIONAL CRICKET TEAMS

Just when you are taking long exhale from the remarkable Border-Gavaskar Trophy series which just finished, Australia’s national cricket teams have another massive year in front of them in 2025.

Both Pat Cummins’ men and Alyssa Healy’s women have two of the biggest prizes in their respective games in front of them this year, including clashes for the Ashes against the old enemy England.

After the upcoming Sri Lankan Test series, the Men defend their World Test Championship mace at Lords in June against the improving young South Africans under Tenda Bevuma’s leadership.

While they deserve to start favourites, Cummins’ side should not take the Proteas lightly.

They have won their last seven Tests on the bounce and in Kagiso Rabada, they have a spearhead that can give the ageing Aussie top order as much grief as Jasprit Bumrah did this summer at home.

Then the most anticipated Ashes series will follow at year’s end.

The Poms have worked themselves into a near frenzy with their talk and chatter since the last controversy filled series in England 18 months ago.

They will be solidly backed by their boisterous Barmy Army – the second wave of UK sports masses to hit our shores this year – make no mistake.

Brendon McCullum’s Bazball philopsphy, younger pace attack of Atkinson/Carse/Wood, and batters such as Harry Brook will be judged by their own on whether they can win their first Ashes series in Australia in 15 years at the back end of 2025.

With a fair chunk of the Cummins team looking to perhaps go out of the game on an Ashes high, next summer’s Tests promise to be just as crazy as this summer’s series against India was.

The acknowledged World Champion women have their two biggest events ahead of them in 2025 as well.

The home Ashes series – which is now underway as you read this –  gives the home side more than something to think about given that they could only draw the last contest under the multi-format concept in England in 2023.

The historic day-night pink ball Test at the MCG – the first Women’s Test at the ‘G since 1949 – shapes up as a fitting climax…or a dead rubber Test if the series is decided by then.

The batting production of both sides may decide the outcome. The power of Nat Sciver-Brunt almost single-handedly won the Ashes in 2023.

It will be a different challenge away from home against an all rounder filled Aussie lineup – led by the inform Annabel Sutherland and the (dare we say it) ageing Ellyse Perry.

Then Healy’s team defend their ODI World Cup title in India in September/October.

Australia will start short priced favourites to go back-to-back – but on the lower slower decks they will face, they could fall short as they did in similar conditions in Dubai against South Africa in last year’s T20 World Cup Semi-Final.

Their all round depth – shown by the luxury of possibly batting class all rounder Tahlia McGrath at number seven at the start of the Ashes series – should counter this.

Australian supporters that have been behind our champion women for so long will be hoping so.

 

 

ALEX DE MINAUR

As you read this the Australian Open Tennis Championships – the first Grand Slam tournament and first major global sports event for the year – will be underway.

As this fan alluded to in Christmas week when going down memory lane for the 50^th anniversary of the classic 1975 Newcombe v Connors Final, Australian tennis fans have been waiting an eternity for a local to be there at the pointy end of their home Grand Slam.

Many fine players have come and gone. Alex De Minaur is the latest under the national tennis microscope.

It has been a slow build over the last few years for the Sydneysider – but 2024 was perhaps start of something big for ‘the Demon’. Really big.

De Minaur will be looking at Melbourne Park to make it to the last eight at four straight Grand Slam tournaments. Something no Aussie male has achieved in over 20 years.

Botic Van Der Zandschulp will be a tricky first round opponent, but if De Minaur gets through, he should be OK and complete a path through to that Quarter Final.

De Minaur’s challenge for 2025 will be encapsulated in that match if he gets there.

De Minaur will have to get past world number one and defending champ Jannik Sinner to be the first home grown semi finalist since mentor and idol Lleyton Hewitt’s memorable run to the final 20 years ago.

Di Minaur has not beaten Sinner in eight career meetings.

And there’s the rub.

Can the Demon take the next step and challenge the likes of Sinner, Zverev, Alcarax, Medvedev and the ageless Djokovic in the game’s elite?

Or does his endless running game at the baseline only go so far? Not quite good enough at the pointiest end of the sport, shown by not winning a match – and only winning one set – at the season ending ATP World Tour Finals at the back end of 2024?

For a nation starved of recent greatness in the men’s game and not wanting to live off the deeds of past greats any more, the anticipation is palpable.

There are others going OK on the ATP Tour – eight Australians inside the ATP Top 100 as the Australian Open starts. Three inside the Top 30 who earned seedings this year at Melbourne Park (Alexei Popyrin and Jordan Thompson the other pair behind De Minaur).

But – as always – tennis needs a local headline act. A main man. Not a sideshow act that the flawed talent of Nick Krygios has drifted into – off and on – in the last decade.

The Australian Open could tell us how the Demon goes in 2025.

Australian Tennis’ main man – or a nearly man?

 

 

THE FOX FAMILY’S HOMECOMING

Speaking of headline acts, Jessica and Noemie Fox were close to *THE* headline act of the 2024 Olympics for Australia.

Their combined three gold medals – which was more than what 56 nations finished with on the medal tally in Paris – made them the pride of the nation.

As 2025 sees the World Championships in a host of Olympic sports in a typical non Olympic year, the Fox sisters’ sport is no different.

However, this world championship is a homecoming. Literally in their own backyard.

The ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships will be at the Penrith water rapids strip that hosted the 2000 Olympics competition in October.

It is all set up for Jess and Noemie to add another crown to their careers.

This time in the very facility where they cut their teeth, where they have sat in a kayak/canoe since they were toddlers, and which they know like the back of their hands.

It is all set up for the pair. Mum Myriam will again be coach. Their dad Richard – who we all remember as the cool, calm and collected commentator in the comms box in Paris – is the boss of the Organising Committee for the Penrith World titles.

Even the titles finish on October 6th – NRL Grand Final day, when the sisters’ own favourites the Penrith Panthers could be going for a five-peat.

All set up for more lashings of publicity for them and their sport.

But it isn’t that simple. While Jess goes in as a defending champion and used to the pressure, Noemie will be out of the shadow of big sister as the hunted for the first time in her career.

And being expected to win in their own backyard will carry its’ own expectation – against the same high class opposition which they both had to redline at to win in Paris.  It will be as intriguing to watch as it was then.

 

 

WILL THE WIZ KIDS STAND UP?

Speaking of intriguing, the performance of two of Australia’s brightest junior sports stars as they take their first steps in major senior sport is potentially a feature of 2025.

The breathtaking performances of Guot Guot (as spelt out to us by his father; instead of Gout Gout) at the Australian Schoolboy Athletics Championships just before Christmas have left us all excited.

And daring to perhaps believe that Australia will have an athlete to be amongst the action in the blue riband events of world sport – the men’s sprints – all the way to a home Olympics in Brisbane in 2032.

His 20.04 in the 200m during the titles has already qualified him to compete in the Senior World Championships in Tokyo in September.

He has already got a lucrative Adidas sponsorship in his back pocket.

But is it asking too much of a kid who turned 17 just before New Year?

How he is handled by his coach Di Sheppard – as well as his family and other support network – will be just as important as how he goes when he takes his first tentative steps into the sport’s big time during the year.

This would more than likely be at those Tokyo World Titles – if his coach and support network go that way.

They know as much as anyone (you would hope) that the critics will be quick to knock him down if he does not “perform to expectations”.

Guot Gout may be held back and not even be in Tokyo as a result.

Watch this space.

It is a similar story line for 16 year old tennis prodigy Emerson Jones – starting immediately at the Australian Open that has just started as you read this.

The Number 1 ranked Junior in the world in 2024 – and coming from a family deeply invested in the game with older brother Hayden hitting the Men’s tour in 2025 – Australian fans have the expectations up almost sky high for the future.

A future that could be starting now. Especially for young Emmy.  You can almost touch the hopes that the next Ash Barty is upon us.

However – just like Guot Guot – how this expectation is (hopefully) handled by her family and support network should dictate how 2025 goes for both of them.

Perhaps the level of performance in her Oz Open First Round horror draw against former Wimbledon champ Elena Rybakina – where realistically she should be bundled out – will tell us all where Jones is at, for this year and perhaps beyond that. While Hayden is now ineligible for the Juniors having turned 18, Emerson can still play for one more year in 2025.

Again watch this space.

 

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A ‘quiet’ 2025 ahead? Hardly. We haven’t even mentioned the AFL and NRL here. There are many others on this site that will preview those competitions, and soon.

So strap yourselves in folks.  Just like the times we now live in, this year promises to be – like a roller coaster without brakes – one hell of a ride.

 

 

 

 

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