Making some 2024 Southland sporting predictions
What's in store for the 2024 Southland sporting year?
Another sporting year is here and it’s a big one, from the Olympics to Southland’s three pro teams trying to rectify their poor 2023 seasons.
We take a stab at six Southland sporting predictions for the next 12 months.
Jack Taylor to make Highlanders’ No 2 jersey his own
The 20-year-old Southland hooker has already captured a bit of interest in New Zealand rugby circles, but we suggest by the end of the 2024 Super Rugby competition Jack Taylor will look at home on the Super Rugby stage.
Jack Taylor joins Henry Bell and Ricky Jackson as the hookers in the Highlanders squad and while we at The Tribune operate with a maroon eye patch on, even with that off we think come the end of the season Taylor will have made the No 2 jersey his own.
Tori Peeters to achieve a New Zealand first
No female New Zealand javelin thrower has ever reached a global (Olympics or world championships) javelin final. We are saying that will change come the Olympics Games in Paris this year.
There are fewer more determined sportspeople in New Zealand than Peeters and 2024 is a good time for that to be fully rewarded.
Peeters missed making the World Championships final by just 7cm in 2023 but 2024 looms as another opportunity.
46-year test cricket drought to be broken
You have to head back to 1978 to find the last former or current Southland Hawke Cup player to play test cricket for New Zealand.
It’s been a long stretch since top-order batsman Robert ‘Jumbo’ Anderson played his last test for New Zealand against England close to 46 years ago.
You have to go back ever further to Gren Alabaster’s last test in 1972 to find Southland’s last born-and-bred test cricketer.
It might take an injury or two and some good timing, but we say 2024 is the time for that to change.
New ball bowler Jacob Duffy - a former Southland Hawke Cup player and Southland Boys’ High School pupil - has played limited-overs cricket for New Zealand and he sits on the fringes for a possible test call-up. Test debut anyone?
More people will wake up to Cormac Buchanan’s talent
Most within the motorsport community probably get just what an immense talent teenager Cormac Buchanan is on the motorbike.
Although there’s a feeling many in the wider public haven’t quite grasped that the Southlander is doing things no other Kiwi youngster has done previously.
Prior to Buchanan no New Zealander had competed in the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup championship in Europe.
He now has three years in that series under his belt.
Buchanan has been re-signed to contest the 2024 FIM JuniorGP World Championship and we believe by the end of 2024 Buchanan will start to generate the wider sporting interest he deserves.
Stags to win four games in 2024 NPC
It’s been a hard slog over the past decade or so for Stags fans with victories scarce. But there’s a feeling there is change in the air as some promising players start to take charge.
Yes, we get it… circling four wins as a positive prediction in many people’s eyes is hardly ambitious. But we’ll point out that you have to head back to 2014 to find the last time the Stags won four games in a season. It’s the sort of step the Stags need to take.
Of course, it’s extra important one of those four wins is on ‘Stag Day’ against Otago. It’s time the Donald Stuart Memorial Shield returned home.
Southland flag to fly proudly in Tour de France
This might well be one of Southland sport’s greatest moments if we can see this unfold. Dare to dream.
Southland cyclist Corbin Strong has won a stage in the Tour of Britain and Tour of Luxembourg - How about adding a Tour de France stage victory in 2024?
There is no doubt that 23-year-old Strong is establishing himself as an accomplished rider on the road in Europe and everything points to that continuing.
And five shearers will break the world record for strong wool lambs over eight hours in the Hokonui Hills.
Presumably you are ignoring/discounting para-athletes. Wikipedia says "Holly Irene Robinson MNZM (born 10 December 1994) is a New Zealand para-athlete, primarily competing in the javelin throw. She represented New Zealand at the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Summer Paralympics, winning silver in 2016 and gold in 2020."