January - Hobart finally lift a BBL title
Mitch Owen announced himself on the world stage with 108 runs from just 42 deliveries in the final of the 2024-25 Big Bash League as his Hobart Hurricanes trounced the Sydney Thunder, chasing 183 in little more than 14 overs as Owen slammed 11 sixes.
In doing so, Owen would surge past Cooper Connolly and David Warner to finish as the tournament's leading run scorer with 452 runs at an average of 45.20, whilst opening bowler Riley Meredith claimed 16 wickets and captain Nathan Ellis 13, both at averages in the very low 20s.
Hobart left the Melbourne Stars behind as the only remaining franchise yet to win the BBL title,
Perhaps inspired by their male counterparts, the Hurricanes' women would then go on to win their maiden Women's Big Bash League title in December, topping the league table from seven wins from nine completed matches before then demolishing Sophie Devine's Perth Scorchers in Hobart.
South African Lizelle Lee, balancing the twilight years of her playing career with a transition into umpiring, wound back the clock with a match-winning 77* from 44 balls.
February - Mailata makes Super Bowl history
It took nearly 60 years, and the blood, sweat and tears of several famous names before him such as Nathan Chapman, Ben Graham and the Rocca brothers, but in February we finally had an Aussie in the NFL's showcase event.
Philadelphia Eagles offensive tackle Jordan Mailata did his country proud at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans when helping his franchise win their second title, becoming the first Australian to sport a Super Bowl ring upon doing so.
It was the culmination of several years of hard work for the 2018 draftee, who had NRL prospects having played underage footy for both Canterbury and South Sydney prior to changing pathways.
Mailata, who said his "toughness" was the only thing that he was able to take from rugby league into American football, is now hungrier than ever for NFL success, saying in May that "the next one (Super Bowl ring) is more important".
March - Hawks end 24-year drought
Illawarra Hawks collected their second-ever NBL championship and first since 2001 with an epic Grand Final series against Matthew Dellavedova's Melbourne United.
They topped the regular season standings with 20 wins from 29 games, one ahead of the eventual runners-up.
Justin Tatum's side traded 101-94 wins with South East Melbourne Phoenix in the semifinals before putting on a clinic in the decider, stacking on 126 points at home to win game three by a massive 30 points.
A thrilling and twisting Grand Final series saw the first four games taken out by the visiting side of the night before the Hawks again came up clutch on their home court when it mattered most, overrunning United to win game five by ten points to claim the series 3-2.
It was a fairytale finish for the NBL's last remaining foundation club, having previously endured 46 years with only one title to their name.
April - Gout breaks ten seconds twice in one night
Gout Gout was almost a household name across the country prior to the Australian Athletics Championships in Perth in April, but this was the night he went globally viral.
At the age of 17, Gout became just the third Australian man (following Patrick Johnson in 2003 and Rohan Browning in 2021) to break the ten-second barrier, wind-assisted or otherwise.
He did so in both his heat and the final on a windy evening in Perth, but with both runs breaching the legal limit of 2.0m/s wind assistance, the dual times of 9.99s were not recorded as legal.
But it mattered for little, for this generational talent took another huge leap forward in a fledgling career that would again go global at September's World Championship.
May - Ange wins a trophy in his second season
Ange Postecoglou almost lived to regret his infamous September 2024 statement ("I don't usually win things, I always win things in my second year") when Tottenham plummeted down the table to record one of their worst Premier League seasons ever, and for that reason it seemed that his head was already on the chopping block by the time the club flew to San Mamés in Bilbao for their UEFA Europa League final against Manchester United.
Welshman Brennan Johnson scrambled together a match-winning goal in the 1-0 victory and ended their 17-year wait for a trophy with a remarkable Europa League campaign that flew in the face of their disastrous Premier League.
Postecoglou revealed later in the year that he already knew he was facing the sack "a fair way before the final" but opted not to "tarnish" the celebrations, including the unforgettable open-bus parade in which he declared "season three is always better than season two".
His dual nationality means Postecoglou went down in history as both the first Greek and the first European manager to win a major European competition.
There was an undeniable sense of pride back home as the former Socceroos manager absorbed the immense stress and pressure of his imminent unemployment to make history.
June - Socceroos book their World Cup place
Speaking of the Socceroos, it was midway through the year when Tony Popovic became the next boss to lead Australia to a FIFA World Cup when we finished second in Group C during the third round of qualifying, securing an automatic position at the 2026 tournament with five other Asian nations.
Aziz Behich's delightful 90th-minute winner in front of more than 57,000 people at Optus Stadium in Perth meant that the Socceroos went to Riyadh a few days later needing only to avoid a heavy defeat to Saudi Arabia to secure their qualification, and they did more than that with a come from behind 2-1 victory thanks to goals from Connor Metcalfe and Mitch Duke.
It'll be a sixth consecutive FIFA World Cup finals appearance for Australia following their miraculous qualification for Germany 2006.
July - Boland's hat-trick and Nasiah's heist
15,000 kilometres from where his statue ought to be built outside the MCG, whilst the majority of the country was sleeping, Scott Boland and Mitchell Starc ripped through the West Indies with the pink ball to rout them for just 27 - the second-lowest score in Test history.
Starc almost emulated Boland's famous 6 for 7 with innings figures of 6 for 9 and Boland finished with 3 for 2 from his two-over spell as the Windies lasted less than 15 overs chasing a target of 204.
The demolition would ultimately cost West Indies skipper Kraigg Brathwaite his captaincy and his place in the team, prompting a crisis meeting of West Indian greats such as Richards, Lloyd and Lara to work out how to repair the fractured side.
12 days later in Melbourne, there was a new contender for the greatest comeback in VFL/AFL history, and in the eyes of many this is the new clubhouse leader.
Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera is now the highest paid player in the league, set to earn more than $2m per year for the next two seasons following his contract extension later in the year, and one of the driving forces in his rapid rise up the rankings was the way in which he spearheaded St Kilda's Round 20 Marvel Stadium heist.
Saints fans looked set to endure a seventh consecutive loss and many of them could have been forgiven for heading home early when they were trailing the Demons 86 points to 40 at three-quarter time.
Somebody forgot to tell Nasiah that the result was done and dusted. He took an incredible running grab to level the scores with only eight seconds remaining in the match and then, following a 6-6-6 infringement from the Dees at the subsequent bounce, Wanganeen-Milera booted another goal after the siren to complete the biggest fourth-quarter comeback in the history of the league.
August - Miracle in Mudgee and Wallabies end Ellis Park hoodoo
In the quiet world of the 6pm Friday timeslot, out in the central west of New South Wales, a sellout crowd of 9,925 packed Glen Willow Stadium in Mudgee to be treated to the most incredible finish of the 2025 NRL season.
Back-to-back-to-back Premiers Penrith were on the charge up the ladder and came into this Mudgee contest having just seen a nine-game winning streak ended in golden point at the hands of Melbourne Storm, and they were to be hit with heartbreak for the second time in nine days.
Nathan Cleary went for a 45 metre match-winning field goal with 80 seconds left on the clock only for it to come up short, and with less than ten seconds to go Canberra's Jamal Fogarty missed a chance to ice the game from less than 30 metres out, pushing his own field goal attempt wide.
Cleary got himself into a better position with more time to line up from 35 metres out during golden point but his second shot for goal struck the top of the left post, was collected on the rebound by young Jed Stuart, and the rest was history.
Over in Johannesburg, Joe Schmidt's Wallabies must have surprised even themselves when they thrashed world champions South Africa 38-22 to end a 62-year drought at one of their graveyard grounds, Ellis Park.
It's tough enough winning in South Africa let alone when conceding a 22-0 deficit inside the first 20 minutes, yet somehow the Wallabies found a way to conquer the Springboks' world famous 'bomb squad' and score 38 unanswered points to silence a crowd of more than 60,000.
Schmidt admitted he was "blown away" by the determination shown by the players to not fall away after their "horrendous" start, hailing it as one of his proudest moments as a rugby coach.
It's a shame that the Wallabies couldn't go on with it and had to settle for a third-place finish in the Rugby Championship, but let that take nothing away from this momentous and thrilling performance.
September - Olyslagers wins gold in Tokyo
We won our 16th gold medal at the World Athletics Championships as part of Nicola Olyslagers' breakout season.
Olyslagers had gone through years of being 'oh so close', winning the women's high jump silver medals at both the 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympics as well as the bronze medal at the 2023 World Championships.
Following the glory of claiming the indoor World Championships crown earlier in the year, Olyslagers got through wet conditions and the ghosts of years gone by to become the 12th Australian individual to win gold at a Worlds.
The 29-year-old also claimed the Diamond League crown and the end-of-season Female Field Athlete of the Year award from World Athletics for her career-best season.
October - NBA heads down under, Walsh owns NRL finals
Reece Walsh produced what was widely hailed as the greatest individual performance in an NRL Grand Final with 176 metres, 14 tackle busts, three try assists as well as beating five defenders to score his own timely try to win the Premiership for the Brisbane Broncos.
That was a week after Walsh, who had lost seven consecutive career matches to the Penrith Panthers, led their remarkable comeback from 14-0 down in the preliminary final the week before, a game that included a brave but successful decision to hand the final conversion attempt of the game over to Adam Reynolds after missing an attempt of his own earlier.
Walsh was an undisputed Clive Churchill Medallist and earned his maiden international call-up just days later, showing England what he's capable of during Australia's 3-0 Ashes clean sweep later in the year.
There was an historic week in Melbourne at the start of the month when the New Orleans Pelicans became the first NBA franchise to play an exhibition match in Australia.
Rod Laver Arena was sold out three times in three days as Aussie hoops fans, some of whom would have waited decades to see an NBA team on Australian soil, were treated to a thrilling game involving Melbourne United, who bravely pushed the Pelicans all the way to the end.
Zion Williamson was the star of the week and some of his finest skills were on display when the Pelicans thrashed South East Melbourne Phoenix 48 hours later, either side of an entertaining fan night on the Saturday.
The event was hailed as a huge success and, having received a big tick of approval from then-Pelicans coach Willie Green and popular player Jordan Poole, has almost guaranteed that more NBA teams will be visiting Australia in successive pre-seasons.
November - Melham's historic double
Jamie Melham (formerly Kah) has had some huge ups and downs throughout her professional careeer, becoming the first jockey to ride 100 winners in a metropolitan season during the height of the Covid pandemic before quickly crashing back down to earth when it was discovered that she breached lockdown restrictions by attending a party with some fellow racing industry participants.
Her ban of five months was reduced to two after a successful appeal, and less than 18 months later was in an induced coma for several days following a severe fall at Flemington in March 2023 that caused severe bone fractures and brain injuries.
Melham needed several months of rehabilitation and recovery to return to the track and had not rediscovered the heights of the 2020/21 season, at least until becoming the first female jockey to complete a Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double aboard the Tony and Calvin McEvoy-trained Australian gelding Half Yours.
It was all the more special a victory not just given her remarkable comeback from racing, but Melham's Melbourne Cup victory took place ten years after Michelle Payne shattered the glass ceiling when she became the first woman to ride a Melbourne Cup winner on Darren Weir's 100/1 winner Prince of Penzance.
December - 'Travball' shatters English dreams
In the now infamous words of former player and current broadcaster Stuart Broad, the best English side since 2010/11 came to Australia to face the worst Aussie team since 2010/11 in what he and many of his fellow pundits had considered to be England's best chance of reclaiming the Ashes down under.
England had not won a single match in Australia since Andrew Strauss' class of 2011, let alone a series, and the revolutionary style of aggressive cricket that had seen Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes win ten of their first 11 games in charge of the Test team appeared set to present the Aussies with a challenge they had rarely faced on home soil in recent years.
Australia went into the series looking a bit vulnerable: they were without a reliable opening partnership. There were several out-of-form players such as Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne. Pat Cummins was to miss at least the first two matches with injury, and Josh Hazlewood soon followed.
Travis Head was shoehorned into the top of the order alongside debutant Jake Weatherald for the second innings of the first game in Perth, after Marnus Labuschagne accompanied Weatherald for the first, and he quickly put pay to England's Ashes hopes, setting the tone for the remainder of the first three matches with a devastating 69-ball century.
In a two-day Perth Test which saw neither team score more than 172 across the first three innings of the game, Australia romped to a chase of 205 with eight wickets in hand thanks to 'Travball'.