And so, another year is gone but certainly isn’t forgotten as your mate Joe Fortune is back with The Fortune Awards 2024. In what was a ripper of a year for many Aussies there are plenty in contention to claim one of the most prestigious awards going in Australia. But let’s not delay you anymore with small talk and kick off with our first trophy…
The Young Gun of the Year
India had held onto the Border-Gavaskar trophy for the best part of 10 years and having won the first test this summer looked on course to do it again, but they hadn’t reckoned on young Aussie debutant Sam Konstas putting it to them. The 19-year-old was on fire, smashing reverse ramps over the boundary against India’s best bowlers, including Bumrah and Siraj, who’d been causing trouble for the Aussie top order. The kid was looking like a proper weapon out there, and it got under Virat Kohli’s skin.
After Konstas had belted a few more runs, Kohli, not happy with how things were going, seemed to take matters into his own hands. As the players changed ends after the 10th over, Kohli picked up the ball and made a beeline for Konstas, and basically tried to rugby tackle the young NSW batter. Konstas wasn’t having a bar of it and spun around straight away, giving his hero Kohli a few sharp words. Whilst the umpires and Khawaja stepped in quickly to cool things off, Sam Konstas had already done enough to be a worthy winner of our first award!
The Flaming Gallah Award
This award is for someone or something which made the news for some very unexpected reasons. As most of you will be aware Bluey is an Aussie cartoon dog and has become essential viewing for most children over here. But in July last year 63,000 of the recently made Bluey coins, produced by the Australian Mint were stolen from a warehouse in Sydney, about two months before they were due to enter circulation.
Just as it appeared that the coins would never be found again, some 3 months later over 40,000 were tracked down about 10 kms away from the scene of the crime.
Bluey’s animation shows are now being shown in over 60 countries and with interest continuing to rise for the Brisbane-based cartoon, a full movie has now been commissioned by the Walt Disney Company in collaboration with the BBC. The film is slated to follow the life of the blue heeler pup, Bluey, and her younger sister, Bingo. It is set to hit cinemas in 2027, and promises to bring the charm and fun of Bluey’s world to fans both young and old. For all the drama, the headlines and with plenty to look forward to Bluey wins the Flaming Galah Award for 2024.
The True-Blue Award
You can look far and wide across this great nation of ours to find any number of worthy Aussie recipients for this award. but I reckon the winner is within our own camp! Jeez if you have been watching my mate J Webby over the last 12 months taking on many food challenges you’ll know that he has put in loads of ripper performances.
Now I don’t mind telling you that I’ve had a few pies, HSPs, pizzas, burgers and schnitties this year but compared to J Webby Can Eat I’ve not got close to his efforts having watched some of his videos online. So, a big shout out to him and all the Pro Eaters out there. Congrats on claiming the True-Blue Award and keep up the good work mate, look forward to seeing you winning more prizes and happy eating for 2025.
The Crikey Award
Look, we’ve had many surprises over the last 12 months, but nothing was quite as awesome as the performance from the mare Pride of Jenni at Royal Randwick in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes. The race is run in April each year over 2000 metres and includes the best horses from around the country. To see Pride of Jenni go over 20 lengths clear in a Group 1 race over this distance was something incredible, she won by over 6 lengths as her jockey Declan Bates relaxed knowing that the job was done. For that effort, The Crickey Award for 2024 goes to the horse for this stunning victory.
Boofhead of the Year
Yeah I know there’s any number of politicians that gather in Canberra that could be in line for this award, but none of them have managed to prove themselves more worthy of winning it than us the Aussie Public. Look just quietly we’ve won this because somehow despite Mariah Carey taking James Packer to the cleaners a few years ago, we have now put her song, All I Want for Christmas is You. back to number one for the seventh year in a row! So come on Australia let’s try and find a good old Aussie track to stream or download to be top of the charts next festive season or else perhaps me and my mates might have to record a track…
Best Beer Award
With IPAs, XPAs, WCIPAs, NEIPAs, Pale Ales, Seltzers, Hard Lemonades and Ciders to name a few of the drinks that you can get on tap these days, jeez it’s been tough to land on what should be winning the award for 2024. As you know your mate Joe Fortune is a bloke with simple tastes and isn’t too demanding when it comes to the grog as long as it’s cold and fizzes.
So, with that in mind, I’ve been so bloody stoked to see more and more ripper lagers coming back on tap and being made by local hotels and breweries. I’ve therefore decided not to pick one specific brewer or brand but instead have selected that Lager is the winner of the Beer of the Year Award. Love the sweet and cold amber nectar and its well worth its victory. Cheers to all of you readers, I hope you’ll be raising a cold one of two to celebrate this sensible decision!
Animal of the Year
As you’ll recall a few weeks ago in my weekly news feed, Burt, the famous croc, who was captured back in the 1980s before becoming one of the world’s most well-known reptiles recently passed away. He starred in Crocodile Dundee alongside Paul Hogan and Linda Kozlowski, many of you will know he famously appeared in the scene where Kozlowski’s character gets attacked while kneeling by a creek…
After his movie fame, Burt settled down and retired at Crocosaurus Cove, a popular reptile attraction in Darwin where he became a true-blue ambassador for crocodile education, and teaching tourists about reptiles. Known for having a bit of a temper Burt was a croc with plenty of personality. To honour his legacy, he has won my Animal of the Year Award for 2024.
Iconic Aussie Moment
There’s only one pick here… that’s right, Raygun’s performance and the fallout after the Olympic Games. I mean who can forget the 36-year-old university lecturer being the face of Team Australia for Breaking, as it made its debut at the Paris Games. Gunn’s performance quickly became one of the standout moments of 2024.
Her routine included a kangaroo dance among other interesting moves that some deemed questionable and led to her not getting a single point from any of the nine judges. While others found her performance humorous, it quickly turned into mockery, even landing a parody on The Tonight Show in the US.
Raygun has since retired from the sport but let’s just appreciate what happened was something completely unique and we should be bloody proud that of course it was an Aussie who delivered such a ripper moment that will live long in the history of the Olympics!
The Fortune Award Winner
All the awards are done and dusted now for the big one The Joe Fortune Award 2024 goes to … Oscar Piastri! Yeah I know something of a surprise, I’ve even caught myself on the backfoot here but dead set the young Formula One driver deserves it. What a year he had against the mighty Max Verstappen and his Red Bull team, our Aussie looked like a star in just his second season in F1. He managed to win two races and finish 4th in the drivers’ standings but also played a huge part in leading the McLaren team to successfully claim the constructors’ championship. He has set high expectations so let’s see how he goes in the Australian Grand Prix in a couple of months’ time, but for now good on you Oscar you’ve bloody well deserved this Award; hope you celebrate it with a schoey or two.