Socceroos rated Australia's best

The Qantas Socceroos have taken out the hotly contested Team Performance of the Year award ahead of the Geelong Cats, Melbourne Storm, Melbourne Vixens and the Queensland State of Origin team at the 2009 Sports Performer Awards which were held in Sydney last night.

The award caps off an outstanding year for the Qantas Socceroos after qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in June, reaching 14th in the FIFA World Rankings in September, their highest ever position, and holding the position of the top ranked team in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the past 12 months.

Qantas Socceroos Head Coach Pim Verbeek was nominated in the Coach Performer of the Year category, but lost out to champion Horse Trainer Bart Cummings, while Qantas Young Socceroo Ben Kantarovski was nominated in the Young Performer of the Year Category which was eventually won by 18-year old West -Australian gymnast Lauren Mitchell.

In the major accolade of the evening, Triathlete Craig Alexander collected the Sports Performer of the Year Award after his historic back-to-back wins at the Hawaii Triathlon.

The winners of all categories were determined by an online public voting process, with close to 150,000 votes collected.