The five biggest sporting surprises of 2016

December 8, 2016 12:16 am.by Dominic Ciconte

Leicester City win EPL
IF there’s one thing we’re sure of at BettingSite.com.au, it’s that people will talk about the year that was 2016 for a very long time.

What an incredible 12 months it has been – and there’s still a few weeks left for one or two more surprises.

We mourned the loss of musical legends like Prince, David Bowie and Leonard Cohen. We watched on with disbelief as an orange-skinned reality TV host became president of the once-mighty USA. We said goodbye to the greatest there ever was and ever will be, Muhammad Ali.

We watched as Rio hosted the Olympic Games and held our breath as our athletes came home, free of the zika virus.

Britain shocked the world when it left the European Union and ‘Brexit’ triggered a stock market collapse.

Children, teenagers and sheepish adults around the world frantically and maniacally chased elusive Pokemon on their phones while walking through parks and sporting ovals.

But, forget it all for now – because some of the greatest, life-changing moments of the year happened on the sporting field.

Looking back at 2016, we’ll remember it most for the joy it brought long-suffering fans. For the big wins against the odds.

It’ll forever be the year sceptics were turned into believers.

These are the five biggest sporting surprises of 2016:

5 – Lasqueti Spirit wins the 2016 Crown Oaks, paying $120/1

You have to be kidding.

This was the biggest shock of the 2016 Melbourne Cup Carnival.

It was just about the biggest shock in racing for the whole year.

Lasqueti Spirit lined up as a $120/1 shot in the Crown Oaks at Flemington on November 3.

The Lee Curtis-trained two-year-old had never won a race before in 10 starts. It had been purchased with the specific purpose to win the Golden Slipper, but was deemed too slow to be a sprinter.

Well, in the Crown Oaks, it was too fast for the rest of the stayers.

Jockey Brenton Avdulla adopted a big front-running tactic that shocked the field when at one stage, Lasqueti was 30 lengths ahead of the short-priced favourite Yankee Rose.

When Lasqueti Spirit continued to power down the final straight and it became obvious he was not going to be caught, Advulla let out one of the great jockey celebrations – for which he was later fined for.

The eventual margin was 3-3/4 lengths from Harlow Gold ($7) and Eleonora ($9) in third.

“I’m speechless,” said Avdulla, who stood in the saddle and took a bow as he crossed the line.

“We thought realistically we could run well without winning … I was riding a good clip here and if I could go on with it and get her flowing that would be my best chance.”

4 – Lebron James brings a championship home to Cleveland

When Lebron James left his home town to play for the Miami Heat in 2009, he became the biggest villain in Cleveland sporting history.

Seven years later, he was the messiah.

After a dominant playoff performance in which they crushed all contenders in the NBA’s Eastern Conference, Lebron and the Cleveland Cavaliers were up against the most successful regular season team in the history of the league.

The Golden State Warriors had won the 2014/15 NBA Championship in emphatic fashion, breaking their own decades-long curse as Steph Curry announced himself to the world as the league MVP. In 2015/16, the Warriors took their domination to a new level, going 73-9 over the 82 game season to break the long-standing record of Michael Jordan’s 72-win team in 1997/98.

With Lebron seemingly slowing down as he hit his early 30s and Golden State rolling, the series looked all but over as Golden State reached a 3-1 lead in the best of 7 series.

No other team in US sporting history had come back from 3-1 down to win a championship.

But Lebron had other ideas.

After leading the Cavaliers to two emotional wins to level the series, the man they call the King led the way in the incredible game 7 decider, finishing with a triple double (27 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists) as Cleveland clinched its first championship – in any sport – since 1964.

“Cleveland, this is for you!” James, an Akron, Ohio, native, shouted as he cried after the victory.

3 – Western Bulldogs win AFL premiership from 7th

Talk about one for the believers.

The Western Bulldogs hadn’t won an AFL Grand Final since 1954. They hadn’t even made a Grand Final since 1961.

The only thing that long-suffering fans had to cling to where a series of heart-breaking preliminary final losses.

Then 2016 happened.

The Bulldogs, never a real premiership contender, put together a fine season, winning 15 games in what many thought was another development year as the club’s younger brigade continued to show improvement and promise.

When the Bulldogs finished the season in seventh and faced an elimination final in Perth against the West Coast Eagles, almost no one gave them a chance to survive.

But the Dogs didn’t just survive, they thrived, beating the 2015 Grand Finalists emphatically by 47 points.

With their tails up, the Dogs encountered the Hawthorn Hawks in the Semi Final. The same team that had won the previous three premierships. Again, as the underdog, they won in scintillating fashion, over-running the tired Hawks at the MCG to win by 23 points.

Surely the Dogs couldn’t do it again in the preliminary final?

Up against the Greater Western Sydney Giants away from home, the Dogs faced their toughest test.

They were up to it.

In a see-sawing battle, the Dogs took every hit the AFL super-side packed with number one draft picks and salary concessions could throw at them, winning a thriller in the final seconds by six points.

For the first time in 55 years, the Dogs made it to the big dance. Up against the Sydney Swans, the overwhelming favourite who had finished first on the ladder.

In front of more than 100,000 people, the Bulldogs created history and brought the fairytale back into vogue.

No team had ever won the AFL Grand Final from 7th in the history of the competition. No team had won from outside the top 4 since the Crows in 1998.

Master coach Luke Beveridge succeeded in tugging on the heart strings of the football world, handing over his medal to injured Bulldogs captain Robert Murphy – a football icon who missed the match.

2 – Chicago Cubs overcome the curse of the billy goat

It was the longest drought in professional sports.

108 years.

That’s two world wars. Man landing on the moon. The invention of sliced bread.

It was a hell of a wait.

This was a win so unlikely, it was deemed a joke when in the 1989 film Back to the Future 2, the Cubs won the 2015 World Series.

Incredibly, the movie’s writers were just 12 months off in their prediction.

Chicago had been victim to the curse of the billy goat – a famous fable that originated from the club’s refusal to let a fan-favourite goat on the field in 1945 because of its smell, triggering the owner to state “those Cubs ain’t winning no more.”

After finishing the MLB’s 2016 regular season as the most dominant team in baseball, the Cubs were the punter’s favourite to break their hoodoo.

Still playing in the country’s oldest and most-beautiful stadium at Wrigley Field, things started off badly for Chicago in the World Series against the Cleveland Indians as the underdogs took a 3-1 lead with a big injury list and some brave performances on the mound.

Luckily for Chicago, 2016 was a year in which a 3-1 deficit in a championship series was not insurmountable.

Re-grouping with two big wins on their home turf to level the series, Chicago took to Cleveland in game 7 in one of the all-time great baseball games.

A see-sawing match saw the match go into extra innings, where Chicago clinched its first World Series crown, vanquishing the curse of the billy goat.

1 – Leicester City wins EPL title at $5000/1

You simply can’t go past the biggest David vs. Goliath story in modern sporting history for the number one spot in 2016.

Leicester City – a small town team, in a small English city, with a small playing budget and a small fan base – won the most unlikely English Premier League title in the history of professional football.

Up against billion-dollar powerhouses like Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool, the boys in blue rode an incredible wave of momentum throughout the season. Passing one hurdle after another, overcoming one giant after the next, on the way to finishing on top of the table after 38 matches with 81 points – more than three games clear of second-placed Arsenal.

The Foxes started the season as a $5000 outsider.

Whoever backed them – and a number of insane punters did – was privvy to the biggest payday of their lives.

Leicester City striker James Vardy went from virtual-unknown to the league’s most-deadly striker, captain Wes Morgan became the best leader in the country and 12 months after narrowly avoiding relegation, Foxes manager Claudio Ranieri became a tactical genius.

The only disappointment is the players having to celebrate their immortality at a viewing party at home, rather than on the field after a win.

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