Another year and more glory for Australian and Italian Sport. Join AusItalia.com's David Ferrini to review some of the more memorable moments of 2007.

2007, a year to remember for many reasons. The growth and support of the A-League and Australian football is encouraging while Serie A is back to its strongest line up in a decade and Italian football dominates the world stage at club and national level.

Italian cricket finally came down-under while Australia yet again lifts the ICC World Cup and regains the ashes. Individuals were newly crowned world champions as were clubs and Australians and Italians were amongst it all!

Australia secured more world titles in cricket, netball, surfing and moto gp while Italians abroad claim fame to football and formula one titles.

AusItalians continued to succeed in all sports including Australian Rules Football (Fevola, Dal Santo, Carrazzo, Firrito, Deledio and Rocca) and the AFL even announced an Italian team of the century.

Casey Dell'Acqua and Chris Guccione performed well on the tennis circuit. There was plenty of representation in the NRL for AusItalians (Mark and Anthony Minichiello, Laffranchi) and Mark Cattalini led the way in the NBL.

Luke Ronchi of Western Australia smashed his way into Australia's cricketing record books by hitting the fastest domestic one-day century from just 56 balls and also represented Australia A. Michael Di Venuto continued his world-class form for Tasmania and Durham (England) and scored 176 against Queensland and a double century against Kent.

Michael Zullo was the surprise packet of the A-League with some great performances for the Queensland Roar and earned a call up to the Olyroos while Socceroos and former La Liga, Premier League and Serie A player John Aloisi signed for the Central Coast Mariners.

Adam Federici remains with Reading in England's Premiership while Les Pogliacomi is at Oldham Athletic. Shane Stefanutto is playing for Lillestrom in Norway. Danny Invincible is a midfielder for Scottish club Kilmarnock.

Mark Bresciano continues to start for Palermo in Serie A while Vince Grella transferred to northern Italian giants Torino. Max Vieri, brother of Azzurri star Christian, is playing with Lecce while Socceroo Carl Valeri is with Grosseto, both in Serie B.

Other Australians playing in Italy include Zeljko Kalac (AC Milan), Jess van Stratten (Juventus) and Mario Karlovic (Torino).

There are many other AusItalians battling it out weekly in sport across the globe. Goodluck to them all.

Australia's cricketers enjoyed more success after reclaiming the Ashes against England 5-0 and then defended their world title in the West Indies. 19 year old Gold Coast girl Stephanie Gilmore won the women's surfing ASP World Title. Australia won its ninth Netball world championships after a great win over hosts New Zealand in the final and Casey Stoner held off Valentino Rossi to win the Moto GP crown.

Ferrari regained Formula One racing's top honour with an amazing last round comeback win to pip McLaren for the World Title with Kimi Raikkonen claiming victory. AC Milan added more glory to its huge trophy cabinet after winning the UEFA Champions League and then topped it up some more with the FIFA World Cup Club title. Italy's women's tennis squad couldn't defend their world crown after losing the final of the 2007 Fed Cup.

FIFA World Champions Italy topped their qualification group, including France, and were drawn in the Euro 2008 'group of death' against Romania, Holland and once again... France. Forza Gattuso.

Italy once again fell short in its final IRB Rugby World Cup group game, this time against Scotland, and missed out on a quarter-finals birth but was able to defeat Scotland and Wales in the Six Nations competition and create great awareness of the sport across the nation.

Pianoro once again took out the Serie A Cricket title and the Italian national squad visited Darwin in Australia to compete in the ICC World Group 3 competition captained by former South Australian captain Joe Scuderi with AusItalians Nicola Puccio (Melbourne) and myself David Ferrini (Brisbane) called up to the squad.

After defeating Fiji and eventual finalist Argentina but losing to Papua New Guinea, Italy finished equal first in Group A on four points but was ranked third thanks to an inferior net run rate and failed to qualify for the semi-finals. Eventual finalists Uganda and Argentina now join the likes of World Cup teams Ireland, Scotland and Bermuda in World Group 2.

Melbourne AusItaliana Natalie Gauci won the Australian Idol contest and now joins former competition runner-up Anthony Callea in the Australian music industry which includes the world famous Italo-Australian twin sensations "The Veronicas" of Brisbane.

In the dance scene Italian DJ Alex Gaudino set dance floors alight across the world with his mammoth hit "Destination Calabria". Is this your ring tone?

Italian Australians celebrated all year-round with Italian festivals spread across our great country. Club nights were held throughout the year in most capital cities. GSA and IAYA held Sydney events while GINQ offered Queensland youth "Ferragosto" and the "Italian Clubbers Guide".

Italo-Australian youth has a new and improved identity after regional and state youth leaders met with CGIE and Com.It.Es leaders in Canberra to discuss and reform the National Italian Australian Youth Conference (NIAYC) comittee.

The NIAYC conference will be held on the Gold Coast in September 2008 and is open to all interested people in the Italo-Australian community between the ages of 18-35 where issues from identity, Italy-Australia exchanges, future events and much more will be discussed. All sponsor enquiries welcome. More information is available on email enquiry to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

In a year succeeding that of which Australia finally qualified for the largest sporting tournament in the world and Italy winning it (2006 FIFA World Cup), 2007 had a lot to live up to but came through with more chequered flags and shiny trophies.

Australia and Italy continue to dominate world sport. Italian culture still greatly influences the sunburnt country and Australian culture is loved by all. Australian Italians are strongly represented on a national and international level.

With more awareness on a national level Australian Italians can unite as one on a regular basis. All generations can be linked. Let's not forget our traditions nor our way of life just because we live in Australia - a cosmopolitan paradise where every culture is welcomed. AusItalia.com endorses all cultural activity, not just Italian. Don't feel alienated should you not be of Italian background - all are welcome to our site and publicised events.

Be Australian. Be Italian. Be Italo-Australian. Be yourself.

AusItalia.com thanks you for your support in 2007 and looks forward to your future visits in 2008 and beyond.

On behalf of the AusItalia.com team,

Merry Christmas, Buon Natale

Happy New Year, Buon Anno

David Ferrini