My man, please. I have had so many goes at Warne over the years, I have had to put another man on! And the reaction to that piece was so strong, and so complimentary, I dinkum felt seriously unworthy, cos' ...

Cos, I just don't know what it is. But when it comes to Shane Warne, strangely, I see the ball as big as a pineapple, in slo-mo, and there are so many angles with which I can see to hit it, and him, I am simply overwhelmed by the possibilities. I shoulda been a cricketer. Either way, for a sports columnist, Warne is the gift that just keeps on giving.

Then there was the issue of how the winner of a Shane Warne Foundation sponsored raffle for a Mercedes last June was none other than Warne's former PA and one time general manager of that very foundation!

My strong suspicion? It is just the luck of the draw, and it's all rinky-dink, ridgy-didge and all the rest. But no properly run foundation would ever allow former employees to enter and such a result is emblematic of how it was so badly run that it is now being audited by the Victorian government, even though it has just closed its doors. Watch this space. (It did blow up, as did the fact that three-fifths of bugger-all money given to the Shane Warne Foundation actually found its way to charitable causes. The foundation was shut down. Warne goes on.)

A great Australian

Meantime, great news early in the year, that the National Museum bought Australian Olympian Peter Norman's famous singlet from the 1968 Olympics, where Norman was outrageously excoriated, and then rightly celebrated for what happened after winning a silver medal in Mexico City in the 200 metres. Before the medal ceremony, in the changing room, Norman found out that the two black American athletes – gold medallist John Carlos, and bronze medallist Tommie Smith – were about to deliver Black Power salutes, in protest at the treatment of black people in America.

"I will stand with you," Norman said quietly, and he did just that, also donning an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge to indicate his solidarity.

Come the moment, Norman, on the silver podium, was the one nearest the flags and so had his back to the two Americans, but he knew they were proceeding with their plan when ...

"When I was standing there," he told me in 1999, "and I could hear this particularly rich baritone singing The Star-Spangled Banner, really belting it out, and then the voice suddenly faded out. I knew then that John and Tommie had gone ahead with it ..."

Australian silver medallist 200m sprinter Peter Norman at  the Mexico Olympics in 1968.

The same thing happened all over the stadium, with the singing replaced by stunned silence, which was in short order replaced by cat calls and booing. It was an iconic sporting moment, when our bloke stood on the right side of history – even if, at the time, it was so much thought to be the wrong side that the two Americans were immediately sent home in disgrace. As to Norman, there would be strong assertions that the reason he was not picked for the 1972 Olympics was because of his actions in 1968, though that is hotly disputed by the AOC. Either way, by 1999 when I interviewed him for a profile before the Sydney Games, he proved to be a very good man, who'd nevertheless done it a bit tough in previous years with alcoholism and depression, and had been all but entirely forgotten by the wider world. But the Americans knew, and honoured him. And his family knew. Just a week before I talked to him, Norman's young teenage daughter, Emma, was asked by her high school teacher to write a story "about a famous person".

"I'd like to write about my father," Emma said.

"Emma," the teacher replied, "it is nice that all children think their parents are famous, but I want an essay about a really famous person.

"Well," Emma replies equably, "he's in all five of those sports books you've got on the shelf, so isn't that famous enough?"

Gotcha!

Norman died of a heart attack a decade ago, and both Smith and Carlos gave eulogies and were pallbearers at his funeral. On October 11, 2012, Dr Andrew Leigh guided through the Australian Parliament an official apology which noted, "That this House: 'Acknowledges the bravery of Peter Norman in donning an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge on the podium ... and apologises ... for the treatment he received upon his return to Australia, and the failure to fully recognise his inspirational role before his untimely death in 2006'."

Bravo, Peter Norman. Bravo the National Museum for honouring him in this manner.

Dogged by incident

What is an NRL season without a good late night atrocity story? This year's was provided by Mitchell Pearce – and most of it was overblown nonsense. It was all to do with footage emerging of him, late at night, pissed as a newt and – in the great traditions of the NRL – simulating sex with a dog. Look, I hold no brief for Pearce and he is clearly a young man who has a serious problem with alcohol. Once he is on it, instead of a brake he has only an accelerator. Instead of a tipple he goes till he tips over. His behaviour was outrageous, unacceptable, disgraceful and all the rest.

Most of it, however – with the possible exception of the attempted kiss – you would find in that thumping volume, the Book of League Sins under Totally Pissed Idiot, rather than Crimes and Misdemeanours.

Just like I wish that Todd Carney wouldn't try and drink his own urine, I wish that Pearce would not simulate sex with a dog, urinate on a couch as well as on himself, and make a drunken play for the young woman.

Ultimately, however, none of those things are any of my business and we know the police don't think it theirs. He was an invited guest, the dog thing was not a serious attempt at congress, and, at least knocked back for a kiss, he stopped. Asked to leave, he ultimately left. I repeat, I hold no brief for him. And I am deeply uncomfortable at finding myself, I gather, on roughly the same side of the argument as Alan Jones.

My point is that while everyone is right to wring their hands at what Pearce did, all talk of "tearing up his contract", was too extreme, just as the law might come down on the side of Todd Carney in his case against Cronulla for wrongful dismissal – and I do not pre-judge their decision.

A further troubling issue for me is how the footage emerged. In a private home, Pearce, on his day off, was filmed without his consent, and his own right to privacy was clearly breached in return for commercial gain. In the US, you will recall, and as reader Matthew Donnell and points out, "when the LA Clippers' shockingly racist owner, Donald Sterling, was illegally recorded the NBA eventually allowed a sale for more than $1billion to end the litigation risk, because it was illegally sourced".

I suspect this one was too, and don't think either Channel Nine, News Corp or Fairfax Media should have paid for it.

What they said

The tearful Belgian cyclist Femke Van den Driessche, 19, after a motor was discovered inside the frame of her bike, powered by a battery: "I don't know how that bike got there. I was surprised to see that bike standing there. It's not my bike. There's been a mistake ... I don't know how it got there ... The mechanics made a mistake." In the world of sports-cheats, a new one.

The Six Nations began in February and the star of the show from the start was our man and the new England coach, Eddie Jones: "Arrogance is only bad when you lose. If you are winning and you are arrogant then it is self-belief. When you lose it is being arrogant ..." 

Novak Djokovic looking ahead to the French Open: "[I'm] very hungry. But the wolf needs to eat a lot of different meals to get to Paris. Paris is a dessert." I think this might be an old Serbian expression meaning, "I've never felt stronger and am going to rip you bastards a new one, just you see if I don't!" He did, and became the first man since 1969 to hold four grand slam titles concurrently. Has barely won since, but  when the reason emerges next year, it will make headlines worldwide.

Jesinta Campbell on Buddy Franklin: "I don't think you ever truly recover from a mental health issue. It is really something that you battle with and challenge with every day ... It's hard and just because he is a sports star doesn't mean that he's bulletproof." They got married later in the year, and appear to have lived happily ever after.

Shane Warne on Steve Waugh: "There's a lot of reasons I don't like Steve Waugh ... because he's the most selfish cricketer I've played with." (See item — TFF, from the Randwick end.)

Jarryd Hayne on playing in the NFL: "Obviously the endurance side of things is different but I got hit twice head-on and my head was rattled for a couple of days ... It's pretty tough. It's like having a helmet and running through a brick wall. If you do that, you can make it in the NFL."

Willie Wood, the star of Super Bowl I, exactly 50 years ago when told that he was "the best of the best", a Hall of Famer, simply looked blank and said, in the presence of the New York Times reporter: "I was?" Despite 12 years in the NFL, he remembers absolutely nothing of it, and can only just speak.

Captain of the Australian Army rugby team, in his pre-match speech to his own team, before playing a Turkish rugby side at Gallipoli to mark the centenary of the battle: "Righto you pricks, last time we were here we lost!" This time the Australians triumphed, and both teams caroused into the night, all good friends, and jolly good company.

Team of the year

Heather Hawkins. The cancer survivor from Coogee ran seven marathons on seven continents in seven days — Antarctica, Chile, Miami, Madrid, Marrakesh, Dubai and finally Sydney.

Marcus Rashford. British teenager scored twice for Man United against Arsenal at Old Trafford, in front of 75,000 fans, and was back at school hours later.

Michael Hawker. Stood down as chair of Australian Rugby, after a terrific stint reorganising the whole thing. Well done, oh good and faithful servant of the game.

Michael Clarke. Made a comeback to cricket, with Western Suburbs. Seemed odd, to me, but by the end of the year was doing well in the Nine commentary box.

Southern Thunder. Australian baseball team qualified for next year's World Baseball Classic.