Sports Performer Awards

Mission almost impossible: picking a winner

Dani Samuels discus throwing

FEW things are harder than comparing great athletes from different sports. Tiger or Roger? Tyson or Jordan? What sustains the endless pub talk is the impossibility of ever getting a result: of ever being right or wrong.

Tonight that will not be the case. Australia's greatest sports performer of this year will be announced at Sydney's Star City Casino. In a roomful of winners, one of 12 finalists will win again. Who should claim the $50,000 prize depends on how you frame the debate. Gary Ablett had an outstanding season, dominating a league that captivates half the nation. AFL is not a global sport but in standing out against its 700 or so players did Ablett prove himself more deserving than an Olympic athlete who competes against the world but less than 50 elite rivals?

It is a task akin to comparing not just apples and oranges but pulling apart an entire fruit salad. Will the popular vote favour those such as Jarryd Hayne, Ablett and Mitchell Johnson who hail from more mainstream sports?

History would not suggest so. Last year, Olympic diver Matthew Mitcham got the gong for his superlative performance in Beijing Mitcham's performance was special but it was also his story, his courage in declaring his sexuality and the dignity with which he weathered the attention that followed that helped him stand out.

Story is important. Steve Hooker is the best pole vaulter in the world because he won nine straight meets, because he has become the most dominant in his event since the great Sergey Bubka - and Bubka was the greatest ever. But it is the way he won that makes his story compelling.

Ablett can be judged the greatest AFL footballer of the year because he won every award there is to win - including a Brownlow Medal and premiership cup. But it was the denial of those glories in previous years and his refusal to stop pursuing them that really caught the public imagination.

Spare a thought, though, for Adelaide's Robert Shirley - the man who comprehensively shut down Ablett at Skilled Stadium in August. Less than three months later the Adelaide stopper was delisted.

For 2007 winner Cadel Evans, the tale is one of redemption. After two consecutive second-placed finishes, much was expected of the Victorian in this year's Tour de France. What followed was part national letdown, part personal collapse.

A lesser man would have retreated to nurse his wounds; Evans instead powered home through the Swiss mountains to claim the road racing world championship - a title that had long eluded him.

Triathlete Emma Moffatt had almost quit her sport after a disappointing Olympics but conquered her injury problems to claim a world title. For Mark Webber, too, this has been a year to treasure simply being out on the track. Beginning the year with a horrific cycling injury, Webber battled back through painful rehabilitation to post easily his most impressive season of results.

Athletics chiefs should be thrilled to have two representatives on the final shortlist. They are both members of the same team and yet how do you compare Hooker and Dani Samuels's great wins in Berlin?

Samuels performance was extraordinary for an event in which women generally peak - both technically and in strength - much later than her 21 years. The Sydneysider became the youngest world champion in her event. A domination lasting a decade or more beckons.

Johnson might suffer some backlash after his torrid Ashes tour as personal issues manifested themselves through wayward bowling. That is unfortunate. Before England, in South Africa, he had unleashed some of the most frightening pace bowling by an Australian since the days of Lillee and Thompson.

Jess Schipper won her world championship gold in world-record time but did it at a meet where space-age swimsuits made a mockery of the record books. That doesn't mean it was easy. Vic Darchinyan claimed the same honour through rather more forceful means.

Craig Alexander suffered through hours of agony to claim a second successive Hawaii Ironman title.

For a personal journey few can match Hayne, a man who began the year as a talented ratbag and finished it atop the game he plays. Hayne's year featured individual brilliance but did not contribute in the end to team success. Does it really matter?