Moments of 2024 Part IV: Sporting excellence studded with sadness

BRISBANE WINS THE AFL GRAND FINAL Brisbane’s AFL premiership had everything. A 63-year-old coach who never played at the highest level as Chris Fagan won his first flag. There was key forward Joe Daniher who kicked the last goal of the match knowing he was going to retire in the following days. Norm Smith medallist Will Ashcroft followed in his dad Marcus’ footsteps by winning a premiership as a Lion, just three months after returning from a knee reconstruction. Brisbane lost the 2023 grand final by only four points, started this year with a 2-5 record and produced repeated finals comebacks to win the flag in an incredible display. BOMBARA MURDERS Things like this simply didn’t happen in Floreat. When shots rang out in the leafy western suburb on May 24 residents were scared. When details emerged about what happened on Berkeley Crescent they were appalled. Mark Bombara, a businessman from Mosman Park, had gunned down Jennifer Petelczyc, 59, and her youngest daughter Gretl, 18, while searching for his wife and daughter. That daughter, Ariel, became a lightning rod for the anti-domestic violence movement. CHRIS ELLISON STEPS DOWN The Mineral Resources boss and number one shareholder received a severe bollocking for having his hand in the cookie jar. Ellison will lose his job as managing director — although not for some time yet — and has vowed to pay up to $18.4 million for dodging tax on co-owned offshore companies and allegedly profiting on equipment sold to the listed mining and services group. A probe by the MinRes board also found Ellison misused company resources for his own benefit, including getting employees to work on his luxury yacht docked in Fremantle. The corporate watchdog has confirmed it is looking into the tax evasion allegations. The billionaire businessman been somewhat humbled by the scandal. Ellison told shareholders he “can’t stress enough” how much he “hates” what he’s done at the company’s annual general meeting, when lamenting that “a dark cloud in my life” had been created. Some are not happy he has been given more than a year to step down, while others support him staying on. JULIAN ASSANGE IS RELEASED FROM PRISON The WikLeakers founder received a rockstar reception when he touched down in Australia a free man, ending an extraordinary legal saga that spanned 14 years. Crowds erupted in cheers as Assange — accompanied by US Ambassador Kevin Rudd, UK High Commissioner Stephen Smith and his legal team — stepped off the plane and kissed his wife, Stella. Assange pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information, with a sentence of “time already served” following the five years spent in the UK’s Belmarsh prison. His imprisonment came after spending nearly seven years holed up at London’s Ecuadorian embassy. The US government had sought to extradite Assange from the UK since 2012 over the publication of top secret US documents through WikiLeaks. Assange has divided public opinion over whether he is a hero of press freedom or a criminal who endangered lives. Regardless of what people think, Mr Albanese said it was clear his case had dragged on for too long. DRAKE AND KENDRICK LAMAR FEUD Rappers Drake and Kendrick Lamar added fuel to the fire of their long-standing feud with the release of diss-tracks accusing one another of a litany of crimes, both cultural and literal. It’s not unusual for rappers to have beef and bait each other in songs (remember Tupac and Biggie), but the back-and-forth elevated tension to a whole new level. Notably, when Pulitzer Prize winner Lamar released track Not Like Us on May 4, it became an instant hit, earning not one, not two, but five Grammy nominations (GQ described it as “a vitriolic slab of character assassination that went on to become one of the year’s most inescapable pop hits”). Drake ultimately took legal action against Universal Music Group — the distributor for both he and Lamar’s labels — accusing it artificially inflating the success of Lamar’s track while suppressing his own music numbers. UMG called it “offensive and untrue”. LIBS AND NATS Eight years into an at-time uneasy alliance, the Liberals and Nationals spent parts of 2024 in open warfare. Revelations in The West of leaked emails from retiring Nationals MP Martin Aldridge slamming Liberal leader Libby Mettam for prioritising media over Parliament exposed open wounds for the alliance. Negotiations over the alliance, and the Nationals’ status as the official opposition became bogged down and Shane Love refused to budge from the role. A stoush over the Liberals’ position over Labor’s gun laws in November boiled over when, after a trainwreck press conference, Mettam was summoned to Love’s office for a please explain. TAYLOR SWIFT BRINGS THE ERAS TOUR TO AUSTRALIA Countless West Australians made the pilgrimage east to be part of the biggest tour the world has ever seen, Taylor Swift’s billion-dollar-grossing Eras Tour. The three-and-a-half hour concert was a mid-career showcase of Swift’s greatest hits through her various album “eras”. And while the pop superstar delivered faultless performances across seven shows in Melbourne and Sydney, Eras was more than just a pop concert, it was an experience — of togetherness, of joy and celebration and the perfect antidote to the isolating COVID years. As hyperbolic as it may sound, the whole shebang was truly life-affirming. BONDI JUNCTION STABBING RAMPAGE In April, the nation was left in mourning after Joel Cauchi went on a terrifying stabbing rampage inside Bondi Junction shopping centre, killing six people and injuring a dozen more, including a nine-month-old baby. Pandemonium erupted as hundreds of shoppers raced to escape Cauchi, 40, as he lunged at and stabbed innocent shoppers with a 30cm hunting knife. Heavily armed tactical operations police responded to the horrific incident and scoured all levels of the centre to ensure no other offenders were involved. Cauchi was shot at and killed by NSW Police Insp. Amy Scott who later received a Commissioner’s Valour Award for “displaying exceptional bravery”. The six people lost their lives were identified as Yixuan Cheng 27, Dawn Singleton, 25, Faraz Ahmed Tahir, 30, Ashlee Good, 38, Jade Young, 47, and Pikria Darchia, 55. NSW Premier Chris Minns later announced $18 million in funding to establish an independent coronial inquiry into the massacre. WAGES POLICY Emboldened by a new uncapped State wages policy, unions flooded the State Government with a wave of industrial negotiations. At times bumpy for Labor, the biggest public sector union – the CPSU – called a for a trial of a four day workweek for some government employees, while teachers took their first strike action in a decade – walking off the job for half a day in April. The Government was also damaged by a wave of massive pay rises for senior fat cats, as high as 15 per cent. But by year’s end, Labor had signed most of its outstanding pay claims, including with the Police Union. While flagging eagerness to sign a deal before the election, the Nurses Union are yet to agree to an offer. BRYCE COTTON SCORES 59 POINTS FOR PERTH WILDCATS TO SHATTER RECORDS Perth Wildcats star Bryce Cotton has done some extraordinary things during his NBL career but nobody thought he would score 59 points in a game. Cotton set it up the performance with 20 points in the first quarter against New Zealand and just kept scoring. He set a new record for the most points by a Wildcat in one match and then followed up with games of 40, 49 and 44 points. No NBL player had managed four 40-plus point games since 1991. The four-time NBL MVP’s December to remember will be spoken about for decades.