My sporting stocks for the year ahead: Who to buy, hold and sell

LIV. Sell, for whatever you can get. Worthless schlock-stock. All the money has gone into seducing the players to signing up, but the worth of the comp itself is not much north of zero. Honestly, has there ever been a bigger fizzer? Billions of dollars spent to sport-wash Saudi blood away, and apart from a flurry of interest when it arrives in Adelaide, you really wouldn’t know it is on. As a generator of ratings oomph, you’d get more out of a AA battery from a torch left on overnight.

Greg Norman. Sell. As above. As CEO of LIV, charged with selling the whole idea to the mob he has not only completely failed, but actively pissed off just about everybody along the way.

Kangaroos. Sell. Great team. The best. But the strongest form of rugby league, in intensity – Origin III! – and interest – Origin III! – really is the Origin series and all the rest of representative football is a pale afterthought. And they can punish Kalyn Ponga all they like for going “Mmmmeh, I really couldn’t be bothered,” but that response was emblematic of the overall view.

Penrith. Hold. Now with four-on-the-floor, the obvious question is whether they can start to move into St George territory and Jive-with-Five. The system will be against them. The NRL itself will be wanting someone else to win. And they will be starting next year without such stars as Jarome Luai. But with Ivan Cleary still at coach, Nathan Cleary still at half – and a production line of stars still surging through their juniors program, you’d be crazy to sell.

Wallabies. Hold. Yes, they had a pretty ordinary year. But against last year’s performance at the World Cup, they were brilliant! The fact that they were even competitive against the All Blacks was a sign that Eddie Jones reign in pain falling mainly on the slain was truly over, and Joe Schmidt’s rebuild with a mix of Eddie’s discards and newer talent was achieving its first modest results. We will know more after this Spring tour. But with the Lions coming next year, you know that heavy resources will be flowing into that team to bring them to a peak.

Jessica Fox. Buy. Has to be 2024 breakout star, yes? Now has more Olympic gold medals than you could poke a stick at, and she now occupies the space that Sam Kerr briefly held last year – the nation’s favourite sportsperson. Fox will hold the spot for much longer, however, and her fame and likeability is so transcendent it no longer needs to live off actual sporting results to keep going.

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Sam Konstas. Buy. Yes, early days. But the 19-year-old batsman’s dual centuries to begin the Sheffield Shield season for NSW has caused a huge buzz. Long has cricket laboured, but it just might have produced what it most needs right now – a New Face!

Sevens rugby. Long-term buy. True, the final results for Australia at the Olympics were disappointing, as both men’s and women’s teams fell at the final hurdle, but it changed not the revelation to much of the world on just what a spectacular sport it is. And the fact that it relies much more on evasion than collision, gives it benefits beyond just the spectacular nature of that. It will continue to grow in popularity, particularly in North America, where it has exploded, and I think will be the form of football most worth backing for the future, globally.