Buzz's greatest sporting moments Part 2: 75-51 of the incidents over the past 50 years that have shaped Australian sport

Working in sport for 50 years has given me a front row seat to some of the best moments in Australia’s proud history.

Cadel Evans’ Tour De France win. That’s the good stuff. As is Layne Beachley and Steph Gilmore dominating the world surfing scene.

Steven Bradbury defying the odds. Penrith’s history four-peat. All incredibly memorable.

Then there’s the stories that spark conversations for different reasons, like the Monkeygate scandal of 2008, or Boyd Cordner’s forced retirement from the NRL.

Here’s part two of my 100 biggest sporting moments of the past half-century.

CLICK FOR PART ONE: 100-76

He said straight after the race: “Melbourne Cups don’t mean a thing to me anymore. I’d give it back right now to have my brother back.”

Mack Horton was the 400m freestyle gold medallist from the 2016 Rio Olympics. However, that’s not what he’s most famous for.

A staunch anti-doping campaigner, Horton took aim at Chinese rival Sun Yang after beating him in the final.

“I don’t have time or respect for drug cheats,” he said.

“I used the words drug cheat because he tested positive. I just have a problem with athletes who have tested positive and are still competing.”

It ignited an international firestorm. China’s swimming team manager Xu Qi was reported to say: “It is proof of a lack of good manners and upbringing.

We strongly demand an apology from this swimmer.”

In a strange twist, an Englishman named Mark Horton had his social media account bombarded by angry Chinese citizens who thought he was the Aussie swimmer.

Two remarkable eras of Australian cricket ended at the SCG generations apart.

In the 1984 New Year Test against Pakistan, three titans of Australian cricket – Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh – hung up the baggy green.

They bowed out in style when Lillee claimed 4-65 and 4-88, Chappell scored an imperious 182 and Marsh took five second-innings catches.

Fast forward to 2007 and Justin Langer, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne played their final Tests against England as Australia completed a 5-0 series whitewash.

McGrath took a wicket with his final ball in Test cricket – a feat he would repeat in both one-day and T20 internationals.

Boyd Cordner was the captain of Australia, the NSW State of Origin team and the Sydney Roosters.

But his tough, fearless style came at a cost – premature retirement from repeated head knocks and concussions.

In 2020, Cordner suffered five concussions – four playing for the Roosters and a fifth in the State of Origin series opener.

When he quit mid-contract at an emotional press conference in 2021, his decision was widely applauded by medical experts and officials.

Modern sports science has turned the athletes into bigger, stronger and faster machines.

The force in collisions is far greater than it used to be.

The treatment of concussion was very simple back in the 70s and 80s – a trainer with a wet sponge, smelling salts and then play on.

Thankfully it is now taken far more seriously. NRL players are removed straight from the field after head collisions and stood down for 11 days in the more severe category cases.

It is no longer regarded as a badge of honour or a courageous act to stagger to your feet, stumble and play on.

Legends of the game, including Steve Folkes and Paul Green, were found to have CTE after their untimely deaths.

Others such as Wally Lewis, Steve Mortimer, George Piggins and Mario Fenech have struggled later in life.

There have been some tragic stories from the AFL. Richmond star Shane Tuck died by suicide at 38 in 2020 and was posthumously diagnosed with severe CTE.

St Kilda great Danny Frawley died in a single-car accident in 2019 after battling depression. A coroner later ruled his death a suicide and a post-mortem examination found he had stage two CTE caused by repeated head injuries during his playing career.

Aussie cricketer Will Pucovski retired from all cricket in April 2025, at 27, after repeated concussions. His symptoms were headaches, dizziness and fatigue.

Speed skater Steve Bradbury won Australia’s first ever winter Olympic gold as the last man standing in the 1000m race at Salt Lake City in 2002.

In the final, Bradbury was a long last as the other fourth competitors crashed on the final turn for the Aussie to come through and win.

“At the time it was a difficult thing to grasp a hold of because I didn’t know I wanted to be the guy who won because everyone else fell down,” Bradbury said.

“I didn’t know if I wanted to go out and accept the medal.”

Bradbury’s was the ultimate underdog victory and reward for perseverance.

Gary Ablett Sr had such on-field gifts he was known as God in the AFL world.

He was one of the greatest of all time but behind the celestial talents was a flawed man whose life became mired in controversies.

Ablett Sr was charged following the death of Alisha Horan, 20, from a drug overdose in his hotel room in 2000. Ablett pleaded guilty to four drugs charges, and was convicted and fined $1500.

Some 20 years on, Ablett said: “I can’t tell you how much that shattered me, how much it broke me as a person. It still grieves me to this day.”

Training legend Bart Cummings won a record 12 Melbourne Cups – the most extraordinary achievement that most likely will never be matched.

He became a national institution who once-a-year punters religiously followed on the first Tuesday in November.

His Melbourne Cup run began with Light Fingers in 1965 and finished with Viewed in 2006.

He was a genius renowned for never rushing a horse’s development or preparation and timing his horses to peak at precisely the right moment on Cup Day.

A story that almost led to an Australian v India cricket series being abandoned.

The Sydney Test against India in January 2008 became a powder keg that threatened relationships between the two most powerful nations in international cricket.

The flashpoint came when Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds claimed Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh called him a monkey.

The accusation sparked a major controversy. The Australian team supported Symonds and the Indian team backed Harbhajan.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) threatened to withdraw the Indian team from Australia unless Harbhajan was cleared of the racism charge.

Harbhajan’s three-match ban was downgraded to a fine on appeal and the charge downgraded to abusive language.

Now this is a big statement but what Penrith did in winning four straight NRL titles probably eclipses the St George Dragons’ 11-year reign.

Why? The Panthers won theirs in the salary cap era.

Season after season they lost many of their superstars to rival clubs – Stephen Crichton, Matt Burton, Villiame Kikau, Jarome Luai, James Fisher-Harris, Spencer Leniu and Api Koroisau among others. One by one they left for big money elsewhere.

Yet in 2021 they knocked off Souths, 2022 Parramatta, 2023 Broncos and in 2024 Melbourne.
Ok, St George won 11, a feat that will never be matched. It is impossible.

However, there was no salary cap. The Dragons had four Immortals – Reg Gasnier, Johnny Raper, Graeme Langlands and Norm Provan – and superstars across the park.

Their team was triple the value of many of their rivals.

The Test at the MCG in 1977 to celebrate Anglo-Australian Test matches was remarkable for many reasons – Rod Marsh’s historic unbeaten century, Derek Randall’s 174, the heroic performance from Dennis Lillee (6-26 and 5-139) and Australia winning by 45 runs, the same margin as the first Test in 1877.

But one image is the most memorable. Rick McCosker coming out to bat at No.9 with a broken jaw wrapped in bandages after the opener was struck by a nasty Bob Willis bouncer in the first innings.

In the days before helmets, McCosker scored 25 in one of the most courageous acts seen on a cricket field.

Fittingly on International Women’s Day, 86,174 turned out at the MCG to watch the Australian women’s cricket team win its fifth T20 World Cup title by downing India by 85 runs.

The rise and rise of women’s sport through the NRLW and AFLW competitions has been a massive story over the past decade but the Australian women’s cricket team was in many ways the trailblazer when it came to popularity and success.

The Australian team on stage dancing with Katy Perry as part of the celebrations remains a lasting image of a memorable night.

One of the most shattering moments in Australia’s sporting history.

The night the Poms stole the 2003 Rugby World Cup from us.

An epic final ended in heartbreaking fashion for Australia via the boot of England’s champion Jonny Wilkinson.

The Wallabies trailed 14-5 at halftime but fought and scratched their way back to 14-all to force the only extra-time World Cup final in rugby history.

Then, with 26 seconds of extra time remaining, England set up for one final push for victory and its superstar Wilkinson potted a drop goal for a 20-17 win in front of more than 80,000 at Stadium Australia.

The moment that sealed his legend wasn’t just the final point but the unprecedented, ecstatic scramble into the players’ box to hug his family and friends.

It is a moment etched in rugby league folklore forever.

Arguably the most important try in the game’s history.

Knights winger Darren Albert charged on to an Andrew Johns pass in the 1997 ARL grand final that not only delivered Newcastle a maiden premiership in the most dramatic circumstances with seconds remaining – but forced a Super League war compromise.

I watched this one sitting next to Matt White in the press seats. He was from the northern beaches cheering for Manly. I was an old Newcastle boy desperately wanting the Knights to win.

Johns went to dummy half and made a split-second decision to bolt down a narrow blind side.

He drew in a couple of Manly defenders and slipped an inside pass to the flying Albert, who raced through a gap and scored virtually untouched under the posts to break a 16-all deadlock.

The euphoria around one of the greatest grand final finishes of all time forced the warring Super League opponents back to the negotiating table.

Few people gave 17-year-old Jon Sieben a chance to beat German legend Michael Gross and world record-holder American Pablo Morales when he stood on the blocks at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles for the 200m butterfly.

Sieben was fourth on the final turn and came from nowhere in the final few strokes to win gold – swimming four seconds faster than he’d ever swum before.

To prove lightning can strike twice, another Lawrence protégé shocked the world at the Seoul Olympics in 1988.

Duncan Armstrong, ranked No.25 in the world at the time of the Olympics, was up against giants of swimming in Poland’s Artur Wojdat and American Matt Biondi in the 200m freestyle.

Like Sieben before him, Armstrong finished strongest to break the world record and deliver gold for his nation.

A 20-year-old woman made allegations she was gang-raped by four players at the team hotel at a Bulldogs pre-season training camp in Coffs Harbour.

While a two-month police investigation concluded with no charges laid due to insufficient evidence, the incident resulted in significant ramifications for the club and individuals.

The NRL fined the Bulldogs $500,000 for bringing the game into disrepute.

The club lost more than $1 million in sponsorship, such was the public outrage.

While players were never named, the club conducted its own internal investigation and issued breach notices to several.

They were fined up to 25 per cent of their contract payments for inappropriate conduct and violating club rules.

CEO Steve Mortimer resigned and the club’s longtime football manager Garry Hughes was sacked.

With Fremantle leading by a point, umpires didn’t hear the siren and allowed play to continue. In that time, St Kilda’s Steven Baker kicked a behind to level the scores.

There were heated scenes on the pitch as Dockers coach Chris Connolly entered the playing area to remonstrate with the umpires.

Four days later, the AFL Commission cancelled out Baker’s game-tying behind and awarded the match to Fremantle by a point, 94-93.

For only the second time in VFL-AFL history – and the first in 106 years – a result was overturned.

Dylan Alcott won 15 quad singles grand slam titles and four Olympic gold medals across two sports in a stellar career.

His crowning glory came in 2021 when Alcott became the only male to win the Golden Slam – the four majors and Olympic gold at the Tokyo Games.

“Sport genuinely saved my life,” Alcott has said. “The social aspect of meeting my community, my tribe, coupled with the confidence and other benefits I got was unbelievable.

“I am a four-time Paralympian, four-time gold medallist. If you’d told a young Dylan who hated himself, was getting bullied about his disability, that was going to happen, I just wouldn’t have believed you.”

Alan Jones scaled the mountain of motor racing when he won the Formula One world title in 1980, the first Australian to do so since the legendary Jack Brabham won the last of his three titles in 1966.

Jones helped put Australia back on the F1 map. Mark Webber, Daniel Ricciardo and Oscar Piastri have all since had success in the world’s biggest motor racing carnival.

Australia remained in the fast lane when our two-wheel warriors – Wayne Gardner (1987 world champion), Mick Doohan (five world titles) and Casey Stoner (2007 and 2011 champion) – won the world’s most prestigious motorbike racing class.

One of the most celebrated sporting events on the Australian calendar took a tragic turn in 1998 when a massive storm hit the fleet on day two of the race.

As the storm intensified, boats were smashed by 15m waves.

Six sailors died, 15 boats were sunk and more than 60 yachts retired as a giant rescue mission was launched and the race became a fight for survival.

The shocking loss of lives led to an overhaul of safety rules for the race and offshore sailing worldwide.

Those who braved the 1998 race spoke of waves being like cliffs and the storm was described as a “bomb”.

Lachlan Murdoch, who was on board Sayonara, said: “If you imagine any disaster movie you have seen before, you have to double it or treble it.”

Cadel Evans became the first Australian to win the Tour De France in 2011 when he broke European dominance in the world’s biggest cycling race.

Over three glorious weeks, Evans conquered the leg-breaking mountains and endured the 3430km journey to stand supreme on the Champs-Elysees in the famous yellow jersey.

From the Neale Daniher Big Freeze in the AFL to Beanies for Brain Cancer in the NRL and cricket’s Pink Test, sport has become a wonderful vehicle to support communities and great causes over the past decade or so.

These great charities have touched so many lives and amplify the power of sport.

Pat Rafter was the king of New York for two spectacular years when he won back-to-back US Open titles in 1997 and 1998.

The popular Rafter downed Britain’s Greg Rusedski 6-3 6-2 4-6 7-5 to win his first major and become the first Aussie to lift the title since John Newcombe in 1973.

As many dismissed Rafter as a one-hit wonder, he returned the following year and made his way to the final.

He faced compatriot Mark Philippoussis and produced a near faultless performance to win 6-3 3-6 6-2 6-0.

“I was sort of struggling with if people respected me for what I’d done or, again, if it was just a fluke,” Rafter said. “So now I can look at people and think, ‘I have done it again’.”

Layne Beachley and Steph Gilmore delivered an unprecedented period of Australian dominance in the surf.

Beachley, who found her competitive edge on Sydney’s northern beaches, won seven world titles between 1998 and 2006, and six straight.

Steph Gilmore took over from Beachley to win the first of her eight world titles in 2007. She won her record-breaking eighth title in 2022 as a 34-year-old to cement her position as the best ever.

CLICK FOR PART ONE: 100-76