An award I have invented on a moment’s notice, this year’s winner, by a comfortable margin…

THE CITY OF BRISBANE, aka BRISVEGAS.

February 4, 2023: The Brisbane Heat lost the Big Bash League final to the Perth Scorchers in Perth, after setting the Scorchers a record chase of 176 and having them 5/138 after the 17th over with Scorchers captain Ashton Turner disastrously run out by Nick Hobson, all of this occurring after the Heat came from 5th on the ladder and won 3 finals on the road to make the final against the most successful team in Big Bash history…

Only to get clubbed to death in the last 3 overs by some weird looking kid named Cooper Connolly, and former villain Nick Hobson turned hero by hitting the winning runs as 53,000 people went nuts.

Still, based on this season, the Heat have put it behind them… for now.

September 30-October 1: The Weekend From Hell

September 30: The Brisbane Lions lost the AFL Grand Final to Collingwood by 4 points, which all told was a fantastic contest in which either team would’ve been a worthy winner, as evidenced by the fact the Lions pinched the lead with 5:30 to play, a lead that lasted all of 30 seconds, before cutting it back to 4 points with 90 seconds to play…

But they never got the chance to have a crack at the winning goal thanks to a misinterpreted umpires whistle, as the Lions’ inability to win at the MCG, let alone win a premiership under Chris Fagan, continues to hang over their heads, as they not only lost a Grand Final to Collingwood, they became the first team in 120 years to lose to Collingwood by under a goal in a Grand Final.

Funnily enough, the team that lost that Grand Final 120 years ago was Brisbane’s spiritual predecessor, Fitzroy.

But if that wasn’t enough pain for Brisbaneites to endure…

Sunday October 1, NRL Grand Final Day: All 3 Queensland teams lose to their New South Wales counterparts in varying degrees.

The Brisbane Tigers got smoked 42-22 by South Sydney in the NRL State Championship:

The Gold Coast Titans Women also lost the NRLW Grand Final 24-12 against the Newcastle Knights, although this technically doesn’t count because I said the City of Brisbane was the unlucky one here, which means I have to get to what happened that evening..

The NRL Grand Final.

In the heavyweight bout between 1st and 2nd on the ladder, the Brisbane Broncos trailed the Penrith Panthers 8-6 at half time in a game befitting of the build-up, and it appeared the Broncos had just about shattered the Panthers with an amazing burst out of the sheds, as Ezra Mam scored a hat-trick in 10 minutes to achieve what only Johnny Graves, Ian Moir, Steve Renouf and Michael Robertson had done before in Grand Finals, as they led 24-8 with 20 minutes to play, a lead no team had ever given up in a First Grade decider…

Only for Nathan Cleary to grab the game by the balls and drag the Panthers into the history books, as they went on to score 3 converted tries in the last 20 minutes to win 26-24, Cleary himself scoring and converting the winning try with 3 minutes to play, completing the greatest comeback in an NRL Grand Final as The Riff became the first team since the Jack Gibson Parramatta Eels of 1981-83 to complete a hat-trick of First Grade Premierships.

The Broncs still without a Premiership for 17 years, having lost 2 epic Grand Finals by a combined total of 3 points in the years since.

December 2, 2023: The Brisbane Heat add another chapter to the 2023 heartbreak by losing the Women’s Big Bash Final to the Adelaide Strikers, after restricting the Strikers to a rather tame 125 and giving themselves every hope of winning, only to get choked up by the defending champions’ bowling attack and only make 122 in reply.

The last over proved particularly heart-breaking, as the Heat needed 13 off 6 balls, and Mikayla Hinkley came to the crease and launched Amanda-Jade Wellington for 6 over long-on to make it 5 off 2:

And the penultimate ball of the season looked half a chance of going for 6 as well…

But fell a mere 2 metres short of the rope, and the catch was held by Jemma Barsby, who had seen the previous six go just out of her reaches, and the Strikers got through the last ball to retain the title.

But, after 4 Grand Final defeats in a year, this tale of cruelty does have a happy ending, as the very next day the Brisbane Lions’ women’s team won the AFLW Grand Final, kicking 4 goals to none in the final quarter to storm over the top of North Melbourne.