There is nothing like sitting down at the end of one year and boldly predicting what will happen the next. Sports editor Hayden Meikle gazes into his crystal ball.
If I had gone through this exercise a year ago, I would probably still be wiping the egg off my face.
There is no way, for example, I would have predicted Roger Federer losing to Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon, the Kiwis winning the Rugby League World Cup or Sonny Bill Williams staging his sensational walk-out on the Bulldogs.
Trevor Immelman winning golf's Masters? No.
The Patriots being upset by the Giants in the Super Bowl? Never.
The collapse of motorsport? Unlikely.
Of course, I would have had my little victories.
It didn't take a brave man to predict the Crusaders winning yet another Super 14 rugby crown.
Picking the All Blacks to bounce back from yet another World Cup failure with a season of dominance was all too easy.
And tipping Valerie Vili to be New Zealand's star at the Olympics was second in predictability only to tipping Michael Phelps to become the greatest swimmer of all time.
So here we go again.
It's the third day of 2009 and there are 362 more for these predictions to come true or, more likely, to prove the folly of predicting sports results.
•The Hurricanes will win their first Super 14 title, Wellington will make it a capital double by winning the Air New Zealand Cup, North Otago will win the Heartland Championship, and University A will win its first Dunedin club banner since 2004.
•New All Blacks will include Tim Bateman, Michael Paterson and, finally, Josh Blackie. The All Blacks will lose just one test all year to easily keep their No 1 ranking, and coach Graham Henry will extend his contract through to the 2011 World Cup.
•The Highlanders will finish eighth in the Super 14 and Otago will finish seventh in the Air New Zealand Cup.
•India will become the No 1 ranked test cricket side and will also win the world twenty/20 championship in England.
•New Black Caps will be BJ Watling and Trent Boult.
•Otago will win the provincial twenty/20 title and reach the final of the State Shield but get beaten by Central Districts. Wellington will win the State Championship.
•The Warriors will be beaten by Manly in the NRL grand final.
•The Southern Steel will reach the top four of the ANZ Championships but the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic will beat the New South Wales Swifts in the final.
•The Breakers will reach the Australian NBL finals but fall just short. The Nelson Giants will win the New Zealand league. Our Otago Nuggets will announce they cannot re-enter the league in 2010.
•Dreams of Dunedin's proposed covered stadium will finally crumble and work will begin on knocking down and rebuilding half of Carisbrook.
•Halberg Award winners will include Vili (woman and overall), Nick Willis (man), Kirsten Hellier (coach) and the Kiwis (team).
•Liverpool will end a 19-year wait by winning English football's Premier League, with Chelsea three points behind and Manchester United a further two back. Arsenal will win the FA Cup.
•Rafael Nadal will win another French Open but Roger Federer will regain his Wimbledon crown and also win the US Open. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will win the Australian Open.
•Anthony Kim will win his first golf Major. Padraig Harrington, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson will each win one.
•In the professional American sports, the Pittsburgh Steelers will beat the New York Giants in the Super Bowl, the Boston Celtics will beat the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA finals, the New York Mets will beat the New York Yankees in baseball's World Series, and the Detroit Red Wings will beat the Boston Bruins in ice hockey's Stanley Cup finals.
•Lewis Hamilton will repeat as Formula 1 champion. At least one more major team will pull out of the competition.
