A third Brownlow for Gazza, Warner on fire in the Ashes: predictions for 2015

Gary Ablett likes winning Brownlows. I reckon he might win a third. Hawthorn like winning premierships. I reckon they might win a third (consecutive), too.

We (the media) all seem to like talking about what did or did not happen at Essendon in 2012, so we'll probably keep doing that for another year as well.

Hmm ... oh, expect the experts to write off Geelong mid-season and then later ask themselves: "Why do I always do that?" when they make the top four again.

There'll probably be some hype about Richmond before round one, won't there?

Expect AFL players to talk all year about how "external pressure" in the media doesn't affect them or their teams because they don't pay any attention to it. But then, at the same time, they will purposefully not say anything at press conferences so as to not risk fuelling that external pressure... you know, the same pressure they don't pay attention to.

- Matt Murnane 

BASKETBALL 

2014 was a year of international success for Australian basketball with seven players in the NBA and key players on the San Antonio Spurs, Phoenix Mercury and Maccabi Tel Aviv sides which won titles in the NBA, WNBA and Euro League.

The Opals' bronze medal campaign at the FIBA women's world championships added to the vibe of success but 2015 has to be a year of taking care of business.

The Boomers and the Opals face Rio Olympics qualifiers against New Zealand mid-year and both must advance as they have legitimate medal hopes in 2016.

Off court both the WNBL and NBL need new, far-reaching TV deals and must leverage our international success to court live national coverage.

Potentially we could have Australians on both teams in the NBA finals should Cleveland Cavs or Chicago Bulls face San Antonio Spurs or Golden State Warriors, with all four being serious contenders.

Bendigo Spirit could win a third-straight WNBL title but face stern opposition from Townsville Fire and others while Melbourne United has the talent to win the NBL.

- Roy Ward

CRICKET 

The yearly ritual of pundits bemoaning the imminent death of one-day cricket will, even among the most pessimistic, be suspended for the duration of the World Cup. And, no matter who makes the final, the atmosphere will not match what we will see on day two of the tournament when India and Pakistan duel at Adelaide Oval.

As we burn the midnight oil in July and August for the Ashes, fans of Australia will again be flummoxed at their team's susceptibility to swing, conventional and reverse. But David Warner may bludgeon enough runs anyway for Australia to win their first series in England since 2001. The squad won't quite contain the big four of Pattinson, Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood, with Cummins likely to be the only absentee until his body can complete at least half a season of Sheffield Shield.

Looking beyond Australia, Kumar Sangakkara and Hashim Amla will make another truckload of runs, and look impossibly elegant in doing so.

The long-awaited use of the pink ball in a day-night Test next summer will be relegated to a secondary issue behind the significance of it being part of Australia playing New Zealand, undoubtedly world cricket's biggest improver, in the teams' first series in four years. Bring it on.

- Jesse Hogan 

GOLF 

We thought 2014 could be Jason Day's year after he won the World Cup, but he never broke through for a major win — although his win at the World Match Play was a corker. The 2015 US Masters could be his event. He has gone so close so often and he has the combination power/putting game and high ball flight to master Augusta.

Fellow Australian Adam Scott has one year left with the long putter, so expect him to build a "cash in" year.

Other than that, the only other name you need to know is Jordan Spieth. The young American is the next big thing and will start doing even bigger things this year than he did in the last.

On the women's side, watch for Lydia Ko to win her first major.

- Matt Murnane

V8 Supercars

V8 fans are looking to returned former champion Marcos Ambrose and mighty American entrant Roger Penske to break the Jamie Whincup/Triple Eight Holden stranglehold on the championship trophies. They will be disappointed. Too much, too soon is expected of Ambrose and Penske's takeover of Dick Johnson Racing, which will take time – and a lot of money – to become a title threat. DJR Team Penske will run a Falcon for Ambrose without factory backing in what is officially Ford's swansong season in V8s, but it's effectively all over for the Blue Oval. Even its sole supported team's Ford Performance Racing branding is set to disappear as new-look Falcon FG X racer marks the beginning of the end of V8 Supercar's foundation Ford versus Holden rivalry.

Formula one 

Daniel Ricciardo will emerge as an even bigger star as he takes over from new Ferrari signing Sebastian Vettel as Red Bull Racing's top gun. Ricciardo is set to win more races, but he and RBR are likely to still play second fiddle to Mercedes, which is showing no signs of being less dominant. So expect Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to squabble for the world title once more, with Dan The Man the best placed to – again – pick up the pieces when the Silver Arrows stumble. Vettel has his work cut out leading Ferrari back to the front, while Fernando Alonso's move from Maranello to the renewed McLaren-Honda alliance is a big gamble. Around the racing, there will be the usual ongoing political drama about money and technical rules.

MotoGP 

'Wild child' Aussie Jack Miller's big leap from Moto3 tiddlers to MotoGP monsters will be an exciting ride. Miller's outgoing personality will enliven motorcycle racing's premier class as he learns to tame his Honda beast with the Japanese maker's LCR satellite team. No respecter of reputations, the young Townsville tearaway should make a big impression one way or another, although it will be too soon to expect him to unsettle reigning Moto maestro Marc Marquez or even the rejuvenated Valentino Rossi.

World Endurance Championship sports cars 

Forgotten in the frenzy of interest surrounding Ricciardo in F1, Mark Webber is set to strike in his and Porsche's second season in long-distance sports car racing. A tilt at the WEC world title and – more importantly – a serious shot at winning the famed Le Mans 24 Hours are realistic prospects. Porsche will be ready to challenge Audi and Toyota, while Webber should have fully adapted to endurance racing in the high-tech, closed-cockpit sports prototypes that have way more gadgets and gismos than F1 racers.

IndyCar 

Laconic Aussie ace Will Power is ready to defend his hard-won IndyCar Series title. Power finally broke through last year after successive near misses and is more comfortable than ever on the high-speed oval speedways that are so crucial in the multi-discipline series. His main competition will be internal as the powerhouse Team Penske operation – yep, the same mob coming to a V8 event near you this year – has expanded to four cars, with fast Frenchman Simon Pagenaud joining Power, charismatic veteran Helio Castroneves and Colombian firebrand Juan Pablo Montoya. That fiery foursome represents one of the strongest – if not the strongest – line-up in one team in the long history of Indycar racing.

- Mark Fogarty

RACING 

With TVN and its associate racing network in the last days of its existence, a state-of-the-art new boutique channel is very much on the horizon for Australian viewers. In fact, you will find that the new broadcaster will show vision not only of the best and most important races from around Australia but will highlight brilliant new off-camera direction.

Racing Victoria must quickly get its house in order or Victoria will join NSW with a racing commission that could be in place as early as Easter.

No Japanese horses arrive for the Melbourne spring, but the house-full sign again goes up at Werribee – on the trophy cabinet – after another internationally trained invader wins the Melbourne Cup, with Precedence again qualifying and running in the top 10.

- Patrick Bartley, Adam Pengilly 

RUGBY LEAGUE/Melbourne Storm

With Cameron Smith to miss the start of the NRL season, the naysayers up north are already talking down Melbourne Storm's premiership hopes but only the most partisan of Storm haters would write off the side in 2015.

For some, Smith's injury is the first sign the superstar trio of Smith, Cooper Cronk and Billy Slater are too old and too run down, but from an objective viewpoint, Cronk remains among the best halfbacks in the NRL while Slater is enjoying a full preseason and appears primed to star again.

The side will need to be a more resolute group that can defend for the full 80 minutes and be ruthless in attack – if it does that it will be a top-line premiership contender.

Watch out for big seasons from Marika Koroibete, Kevin Proctor and Kurt Mann plus more Victorian-born players pushing for first-grade selection.

- Roy Ward 

RUGBY UNION

Wallabies fans will turn to 2015 with major questions hanging over the national team and the code.

The Wallabies are retooling under new coach Michael Cheika ahead of the Rugby World Cup in England and Wales in September but many accomplished stars are ineligible as they have taken up big money offers from France or Japan.

Kurtley Beale's poor behaviour and too many 2014 losses hardly improve the standing of the Wallabies heading into a World Cup year and more losses this test season will only make things worse.

Super Rugby ratings were down in 2014 and while the Australian Rugby Union starts a new TV deal this year, another drop in audience or drain of more stars to other competitions will not go unnoticed.

Rugby has always been a game of physical risk and glorious reward. To have success this year the Wallabies must regain their discipline and their daring. It won't be easy.

- Roy Ward

SOCCER 

January: The Socceroos will defy all the doomsayers and, buoyed on a wave of popular support, easily defeat Kuwait in the first Asian Cup game, sweep through their group and then on to the semi-final. Coach Ange Postecoglou, mindful of the mistakes of Brazil World Cup boss Luis Felipe Scolari, tries to tone down the emotional approach and bans players from hugging, kissing, crying or waving shirts with the injured Tim Cahill's name on the back as they take the field for their sudden death encounter with North Korea. They see off the lads from the Hermit Kingdom 7-1 and then complete the job in style, avenging their 2011 defeat by beating Japan on penalties in the final when goalkeeper Mat Ryan scores the winner. Cahill, on crutches, vows he will be back to spearhead the attack in Russia 2018, and perhaps Qatar 2022 (if it all hasn't been cancelled by then).

May: Melbourne City, having won their past 20 games on the spin, take out the A-League title but fall foul of the FFA player regulations. Regrettably, Australia's soccer powerbrokers have to knock back desperate pleas from Vincent Kompany, Sergio Aguero, David Silva and Frank Lampard, who all want to make Latrobe University their new home. David Villa's request has already been politely turned down by the club.

August: Adelaide United's attempt to defend its FFA Cup crown falls at an early hurdle when the Reds are eliminated by state league opposition when they could field only eight fully fit men. Several players were taken to hospital having swallowed their tongue attempting to replicate coach Josep Gombau's lispy Spanish accent in a light-hearted training session the day before.

November: Michael Owen, the former star English striker, comes Down Under to see his horse Brown Panther contest the Melbourne Cup once more and decides to come out of footballing retirement, offering his services to any club that can provide him with a weekly punting fund and a member's ticket for every Flemington and Randwick meeting as well as a spot on Sky Channel/TVN or whoever might be televising racing then...

- Michael Lynch

TENNIS 

When Andy Murray turned the Big Three in men's tennis into the Fab Four by winning the US Open, then 2012 Olympic singles gold, followed by that historic 2013 Wimbledon triumph, there seemed no great threat in sight to the ruling quartet completed by Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

That officially changed last year with Stan Wawrinka's mature-aged Australian Open breakthrough, as the first non-Big Four member to win a slam since 2009. Next, at the US Open, came Marin Cilic's success, the lowest-ranked men's final in 12 years, which featured talented Japanese trailblazer Kei Nishikori on the other side.

More is to come, one would think, in 2015, with even Nadal's coach, Uncle Toni, recently declaring the era of domination to be over, despite Djokovic, Federer and Nadal – who have shared 38 major titles – still ranked among the top three, and Murray recovering from back surgery to No.6. The amazing thing, he believes, is that it lasted so long.

So, some more names to note: Grigor Dimitrov, Milos Raonic and, from the younger crew, Borna Coric, Alexander Zverev and Australian Nick Kyrgios. As Lleyton Hewitt prepares to depart, and sit in the Davis Cup captain's chair in 2016, his heir apparent Kyrgios – just ahead of his pal Thanasi Kokkinakis, for now – might not not be quite ready yet but showed at Wimbledon that he is coming. fast.

- Linda Pearce