Sports editor ROB SHAW takes a look back on the Tasmanian sporting highlights of 2014.
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![Ricky Ponting acknowledges the crowd at his Testimonial Match at Aurora Stadium. Ricky Ponting acknowledges the crowd at his Testimonial Match at Aurora Stadium.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/storypad-3BGqnABECPrQWPQdDVKLwqz/e1eab214-bf76-46df-b562-e7ef5fcb528d.jpg/r0_0_1600_900_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
PONTING TESTIMONIAL
THE TIME: Thursday, January 30
THE PLACE: Aurora Stadium, Launceston
THE FEAT: A crowd of 17,771 watch the Ricky Ponting tribute match
IT may only have been a testimonial, but the 17,771 crowd which turned out to pay tribute to Ricky Ponting's glittering career not only represented the largest for any cricket match in Tasmania but witnessed the full potential for Aurora Stadium as a venue for the sport.
Just a ball's throw away from Invermay Park where his career began a quarter of a century earlier, Australia's all-time leading run-scorer led out a galaxy of stars from his favourite sports of cricket and football.
Wearing the colours of his beloved Mowbray, the 39-year-old Ponting teamed up with Matthew Hayden, Brett Lee, Ian Healy, Dean Jones and Richmond great Matthew Richardson.
Captained by Adam Gilchrist, the opposition featured Michael Hussey, Justin Langer, Damien Fleming, Merv Hughes and Hawthorn's Jarryd Roughead, who provided one of many highlights by hitting a full-pace Lee offering for six.
Ponting retired on 83, aided by a very clumsy drop from Langer, and his team won by four wickets but the most meaningful figure of a night of fun was the $200,000 raised for the former Test skipper's foundation for sick Tasmanian children.
"We thought we'd get a pretty good turnout but for nearly 18,000 people to come along for a T20 game in Launceston is pretty remarkable," said Ponting, who would be made a life member of Cricket Tasmania later in the year.
![Launceston's Alex Doolan made his Test debut against South Africa. Launceston's Alex Doolan made his Test debut against South Africa.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/8339ec35-0d36-4e04-ae52-464900e34e88.jpg/r0_0_559_422_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
TEST DEBUT
THE TIME: Wednesday, February 12
THE PLACE: Centurion, Pretoria, South Africa
THE FEAT: Alex Doolan makes his Test debut
THE website Cricinfo neatly summed up Alex Doolan's Test debut with the description: "A resounding Test victory over South Africa, a compelling innings of 89 at No.3 and a pair of scarcely believable snaffles at short-leg made for something close to the perfect debut."
Add to that the fact that the Launceston 28-year-old was facing perhaps the world's best pace attack of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander on their own turf and that Australia went on to clinch the series and it's difficult to see how it could have gone any better.
Having been handed his Baggy Green by Andrew Symonds, Doolan was into the fray early following the dismissal of David Warner in the fifth over.
He stuck around for 85 minutes, seeing off the new ball with a patient 27 from 51 balls.
However, it was to be his second dig that drew attention, and helped secure victory.
Ricky Ponting's anointed successor saw off a fired-up Steyn, guided his team to lunch and then, in the words from Cricinfo "progressed beyond a cameo to the outskirts of a century".
Doolan used up more than four hours and 154 deliveries compiling his 89 and while gutted to miss three figures ("You only get one chance to make a debut hundred and I blew that opportunity"), had justified his selection.
![Amy Cure celebrates winning the Women's Points race during day four of the 2014 UCI Track Cycling World Championships. Amy Cure celebrates winning the Women's Points race during day four of the 2014 UCI Track Cycling World Championships.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/e251b465-107e-4c47-b66e-95d78c65fa04.jpg/r0_0_559_371_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
WORLD TITLE
THE TIME: Saturday, March 1
THE PLACE: Alcides Nieto Patino velodrome, Santiago de Cali, Colombia
THE FEAT: Amy Cure wins senior track world title
AMY Cure used all the experience gleaned from four junior track world titles to claim her maiden senior crown at the tender age of 21.
In a mature and masterful performance on Colombia's open-to-the-elements velodrome, Cure took a lap early in the points race and held off her fast finishing rivals to win gold by three points from German Stephanie Pohl.
The West Pine talent also claimed bronze medals in both world championship pursuit races, plus a silver and bronze at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
In a year when Richie Porte again played a key role in the Tour de France, Lauren Perry, Macey Stewart and Campbell Flakemore all claimed under-age world titles and Stewart achieved the rare feat of doing so on both road and track, Cure's Colombian coup was undoubtedly the standout achievement for Tasmanian cycling.
![Daniel Geale punches Gennady Golovkin during the WBA/IBO middleweight championship bout at Madison Square Garden. Daniel Geale punches Gennady Golovkin during the WBA/IBO middleweight championship bout at Madison Square Garden.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/d7c3fc4c-9c2e-42df-8202-742df3910915.jpg/r0_0_559_376_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
BOXING FEAT
THE TIME: Saturday, July 26
THE PLACE: Madison Square Garden, New York City
THE FEAT: Daniel Geale faces the biggest fight of his career
WHEN a young Daniel Geale began boxing at Lilydale PCYC, this was the day he was dreaming of.
A world title fight at the sport's undisputed mecca, Madison Square Garden in New York, the venue for such epics as Rocky Marciano v Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali v Joe Frazier.
Tasmania's former IBF middleweight world champion was after the WBA and IBO belts held by unbeaten Kazahk Gennady Golovkin.
It didn't go as planned for the 33-year-old Sydney-based Geale, losing for just the third time in 36 pro fights.
Golovkin, who holds the highest knockout ratio in middleweight championship history, became the first man to stop Geale inside 12 rounds.
He won by technical knockout in round three, after Geale had fallen foul of obstacles unexpected in a fight of such magnitude, from tripping on a stray camera cable to the first round running a minute too long.
Geale bounced back in December, defeating his former Commonwealth Games teammate Jarrod Fletcher in Sydney, and enters 2015 knowing he will almost certainly have to face Golovkin again to reclaim his mantle as world champion.
"Fighting the best fighter in the world shows you where you are at and even though it only went a few rounds I learnt a lot from it," he said.
![Sprinting star Jack Hale. Sprinting star Jack Hale.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/05ea248a-780d-48e4-b25f-1afe95adadd0.jpg/r0_0_559_369_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
SPRINT RECORDS
THE TIME: Wednesday, September 24
THE PLACE: Domain Athletics Centre, Hobart
THE FEAT: Jack Hale sets numerous sprinting records
WHEN Athletics Tasmania executive officer Brian Roe announced that a 16-year-old St Virgil's student had run a 10.44-second 100 metres at a SATIS meet in Hobart, many of his 1223 Twitter followers suspected it had to be a typo. It wasn't.
Jack Hale had announced himself with a time which not only broke an Australian under-18 record but the Tasmanian record for all ages. It was just half a second off Patrick Johnson's open Australian record of 9.93.
Just a couple of weeks later Hale went even faster, clocking 10.42 at the state athletic carnival in Penguin, confirming him as the fastest 16-year-old in the world this year.
In Launceston in November, he ran the 200m in 21.36, breaking Jesse Usoalli's under-17, 18, 19 and 20 Tasmanian records and insists that his best event remains the long jump.
Arguably, Hamish Peacock's Commonwealth Games javelin bronze medal on a rain-soaked August night at Hampden Park, Glasgow, represented a bigger prize for Tasmanian athletics, but Hale's dramatic emergence is equally encouraging for the future.
![Devonport's Grant Birchall became a three-time premiership player. Devonport's Grant Birchall became a three-time premiership player.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/storypad-3BGqnABECPrQWPQdDVKLwqz/237742e7-8488-42d1-b89c-7b6de5f57750.jpg/r0_0_1600_900_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
AFL PREMIER
THE TIME: Saturday, September 27
THE PLACE: Melbourne Cricket Ground
THE FEAT: Grant Birchall wins his third AFL premiership with Hawthorn
TASMANIA again played a pivotal role in the competition that denies it entry.
Another bumper crop of newcomers to the AFL was headed by Kade Kolodjashnij becoming a Rising Star nominee and as 2014 draws to a close 33 Tasmanians are on AFL club playing lists.
That would be enough for the state to field a team of its own. Just a thought.
Hawthorn defended its flag on the back of four more wins at Aurora Stadium, no side getting within seven goals of Alastair Clarkson's men as they clocked up an 18th win in 19 games at their Tasmanian fortress.
And while the likes of Jack Riewoldt and Nathan Grima again shone at either end of the ground, the state's standout performer was again the Hawks running defender with the unerring left boot.
The unflappable demeanour of Grant Birchall again proved priceless at the MCG on the last Saturday in September, the Devonport dasher among the best on ground as the Hawks embraced underdog status to beat minor premier Sydney.
![Hockey star Eddie Ockenden being presented with his Athlete of the Year award being presented by premier Will Hodgman. Hockey star Eddie Ockenden being presented with his Athlete of the Year award being presented by premier Will Hodgman.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/ad0dcffe-ac5d-4480-ace3-40b7c76298c6.jpg/r0_0_559_371_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
HOCKEY TITLE
THE TIME: Saturday, October 11
THE PLACE: South Australian State Hockey Centre, Adelaide
THE FEAT: Tasmania wins its first national hockey title
IT has been a momentous year for both Australian and Tasmanian hockey.
Hobart's Eddie Ockenden and Launceston's Tim Deavin helped Australia defend its World Cup in imperious style, thrashing host nation the Netherlands 6-1 in the final.
Ockenden also helped the Kookaburras retain their Commonwealth Games crown in Glasgow and Sultan Azlan Shah title in Malaysia — the latter alongside Launceston's Nick Budgeon.
However, arguably the greatest single achievement for the state came when the World Cup-winning duo teamed up to lead the Tassie Tigers to their first Australian Hockey League title in Adelaide.
Two goals down to Western Australia inside the first six minutes of the grand final, the Tigers hit two goals in three minutes to force a dramatic shoot-out in which Ockenden not only converted the goal which kept his team alive but then struck the one that delivered victory.
Having scored in three of the four major tournament finals he graced during the year, the 27-year-old midfielder was named player of the AHL for the third time and capped it all with Tasmania's athlete of the year award in November.
![The Cleaner in action. The Cleaner in action.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/a00a25ee-4844-473d-a896-d3df40076a4b.jpg/r0_0_559_314_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
COX PLATE RUN
THE TIME: Saturday, October 25
THE PLACE: Moonee Valley Racecourse, Melbourne
THE FEAT: The Cleaner becomes first Tasmanian-trained horse to run in $3 million Cox Plate
THE Cleaner didn't win the Cox Plate - he ran ninth - but he generated more publicity for Tasmania in the lead-up to the race than any other horse in history (including our last Melbourne Cup winner, Piping Lane).
Along with his knockabout Longford trainer Mick Burles, The Cleaner became the "pin-up boy" of the Melbourne spring carnival and was labelled a "cult hero" by the interstate media.
Although he didn't achieve his ultimate goal, The Cleaner won four races during his Melbourne campaign, ran third in the $1 million group 1 Emirates Stakes and earned more than $500,000 in prizemoney.
His achievements capped arguably the most successful year ever for Tasmanian racing, following on from Beautide's win in the country's biggest harness race, the Inter-Dominion final in Sydney and Buckle Up Wes's triumph in the biggest greyhound race, the Australian Cup, in Melbourne.
![James Faulkner and George Bailey. James Faulkner and George Bailey.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/storypad-3BGqnABECPrQWPQdDVKLwqz/b1b064eb-5e4b-44ae-811b-2827e960d4b2.jpg/r0_0_1600_900_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
ONE-DAY HEROES
THE TIME: Wednesday, November 5
THE PLACE: ICC headquarters, Dubai, UAE
THE FEAT: George Bailey and James Faulkner named in ICC ODI team of the year
GEORGE Bailey and James Faulkner were both born in Launceston, attended Grammar, played with distinction for Tasmania and spent part of 2014 in the Test frame.
But it was in cricket's limited overs formats that the pair truly shone this year.
Bailey captained the Twenty20 team and, as vice-captain to the injury-prone Michael Clarke, frequently led the One Day International outfit, with his big-hitting all-rounder state teammate a key player in both formats.
Faulkner staked a claim to Michael Bevan's finisher role, frequently producing well-constructed knocks which helped his side achieve successful run chases.
The most memorable of these came with the highest successful run-chase at the Gabba in January when his 69 not out off 47 balls in a 66-run 10th-wicket stand with Clint McKay inflicted more misery on the hapless Poms. Faulkner's fireworks and Bailey's brilliance saw them as the only Australians named in the ICC's ODI team of year as slected by such distinguished judges as Anil Kumble, Jonathan Agnew, Russel Arnold and Stephen Fleming.
![Team Sky's Chris Froome racing in the Stan Siejka Launceston Cycling Classic. Team Sky's Chris Froome racing in the Stan Siejka Launceston Cycling Classic.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/90dca1d4-d157-4763-8adc-7bb47ef2e9c3.jpg/r0_0_559_373_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
CLASSIC CYCLING
THE TIME: Sunday, December 7
THE PLACE: Launceston CBD
THE FEAT: Tour de France winner Chris Froome competes in Stan Siejka Launceston Cycling Classic
AS SBS commentator Matt Keenan told his live TV audience: "Sydney and Melbourne are struggling to get bike races on but Launceston gets the winner of the Tour de France."
When Richie Porte persuaded the world's top cyclist to come and race his home-town criterium, it swiftly drew comparisons to the likes of Serena Williams, Don Bradman, Jack Nicklaus and Harry Kewell competing in the state.
For more than a decade, the Stan Siejka Classic has been among Tasmania's best annual sporting spectacles. In terms of value for money, the free event is unsurpassed.
However, securing the services of the 2013 Tour de France winner, along with the live TV coverage and broadcast into Europe which followed it, took the event and Tasmania's global exposure to unprecedented levels.
Sadly, the state's weather conformed to mainland stereotypes and rained on the parade of cycling champions, but that didn't stop an impressive crowd turning out to watch.
Narrowly missing the umpteenth crash of the night eventually prompted Froome and Porte to wisely pull the pin from a race eventually won for the second time by Neil van der Ploeg.
Froome stayed in the state for another fortnight, happily tweeting his assorted adventures to his 400,000 followers.