It's been a massive year for Illawarra's best sportspeople.

And the Mercury is celebrating their achievements by launching the annual Sportsperson of the Year award.

Voting has now closed. Pick up Saturday's paper to find out who the Illawarra's Sportsperson of the Year is.

The Illawarra Hawks sent the Twittersphere into meltdown on June 18 when they announced the signing of LaMelo Ball.

The Hawks brought the American teen over to the Illawarra via the NBL Next Stars program, providing a chance for Ball to gain professional experience before his shot at the NBA.

Despite being just 18, Ball arrived with plenty of hype. And while the Hawks made a poor start to the season, it was hard to deny Ball's ability.

The guard fired his way into NBL history in November when he became the youngest player in the league history to record a triple-double. He repeated the dose just a week later.

Those strong performances have put Ball in the box seat to be the NBA's No.1 draft pick next year.

As Australia charged towards victory in Wollongong, it seemed appropriate that Damien Cook was steering the ship.

The Helensburgh product mustered two pieces of brilliance in the space of five minutes in the second half as the Kangaroos recorded a 26-4 victory over New Zealand in October.

The performance was the icing on a beautiful cake for the crafty hooker in 2019.

Cook, 28, played a key role in NSW retaining the State of Origin title while he enjoyed another consistent season with South Sydney as the Rabbitohs reached the preliminary finals.

In a year where a landmark deal was struck to bridge the gap between the nation's male and female footballers, Caitlin Foord continued to kick goals on the field.

The Shellharbour product was superb in several outings for Australia in 2019.

She was part of the Matildas' World Cup campaign which was unfortunately cut short early.

Highlights included Foord finding the back of the net to help Australia take a lead over Brazil. She shapes as a key figure as the Aussies prepare for their 2020 Tokyo Olympics push.

At a domestic level, Foord helped her beloved Sydney FC win the W-League premiership in February.

The 24-year-old re-signed with the Sky Blues in her quest to win back-to-back titles. She notched up her 100^th W-League appearance in November.

She moved away from Albion Park as an 18-year-old to pursue her athletics dream four years ago.

The move now seems to be paying dividends for Jessica Hull.

Hull set a new personal best at the Doha World Championships, missing out on the final by just one place to put herself firmly on the radar for next year's Olympics.

"My intention for everything I do now is to be in the best position to get on the final start line in Tokyo.

"Racing at World Championships is so different to anything collegiately or in Australia.

Hull was dragged into the controversy surrounding banned coach Alberto Salazer, sent home from the world championships in disgrace for drug possession and trafficking findings.

But Hull had only been with the Nike Oregon Project for a few months under coach Pete Julian.

"It wasn't a distraction at all," Hull said. "We knew a verdict was coming, we just didn't know what it was going to be. At the end of the day, since I've been there, we've always been very separate."

Nine years apart, Kiama's Brett Morris secured his second NRL premiership with the Sydney Roosters.

Now 33, Morris had moved to the eastern suburbs club after being squeezed out of the Bulldogs salary cap mess.

He'd had interest from the Dragons, the club he won his first title with in 2010, but a meeting with Roosters coach Trent Robinson led to the fateful decision.

And Morris was among the Roosters best in the grand final, after Canberra had thrown most of their attacking traffic on his defensive side and he kept repelling their challenge.

He played 15 games this year - taking his NRL career tally to 252 - and every game from round 15 onwards after recovering from a knee injury, scoring seven tries along the way.

Stibners is preparing for his fourth consecutive Paralympics next year, putting him in the rarified air of Australian sportspeople to compete at the highest possible level.

The 40-year-old 4.0 classified forward has been a crucial part of the Wollongong Roller Hawks winning multiple National Wheelchair Basketball League titles, including the last three.

And Roller Hawks teammates Luke Pople and Hannah Dodd are also well worthy of recognition for helping the Australian team qualify for Tokyo next year.

The Rollers won gold by beating South Korea in the Asia Oceania final, while the women's team, the Gliders finished with silver, after going down to China in the final.

But Stibners - who a leg amputated after a car accident in 2001, transforming his life, but setting him on course to winning the 2008 Paralympic gold medal with the Australian Rollers, as well as silver in 2012 - earns the nomination for his decorated career.

Athletics Wollongong member James Turner secured victory and set a new world record for the second time in just five days at the 2019 World Para-Athletics Championships in Dubai.

On the back of setting the new T36 100m benchmark on Sunday, the 23-year-old broke the T36 400m final world record

Turner was engaged in an intriguing battle with Russian Evgenil Shvetsov in the 400m final. He then caught Shvetsov on the final bend and powered home to set a benchmark time of 51.71 seconds.

He beat the previous record of 53.31 seconds, set by Shvestov at the 2012 Paralympics in London.

At the Rio Paralympics in 2016, Turner set a world crecord time to win gold in the 800m T36.

On Sunday, Shellharbour's Alex Volkanovski faces the biggest fight of his life.

Volkanovski will challenge Max Holloway for the featherweight belt at UFC 245 in Las Vegas.

He boasts a UFC career record of 20-1, trains regularly at Windang's Freestyle Fighting Gym.

Home is important for the featherweight fighter.

"The support back here has always been good and obviously right now you don't get much bigger than this," Volkanovski said.

"Bringing that big, shiny belt back here, it's going to mean a lot to our area. But it's been earned, not given - I've went through the hard yards. I've done what needs to be done and I've had that local support the whole time."

For the first time since playing in the National Soccer League in 1988, the Wollongong Wolves claimed a league title during the NSW NPL campaign.

At the end of a long and distinguished international playing career, which included two World Cups, Luke Wilkshire's first season as a coach took the Wolves to new heights and put the club firmly back on the A-League radar.

Early-season pacesetters, the Wolves would not be caught, losing just three games all year to finish with 51 points, nine clear of nearest rivals APIA Leichhardt.

And while the grand final champions trophy eluded them, they bounced back to win the end-of-season National Premier Leagues finals knockout tournament, beating Queensland's Lions FC 4-3 in extra-time after the game was locked at 2-all after 90 minutes.

Fittingly it was Thomas James, the Englishman recruited from the Canberra competition, who sealed the winner in the 116^th minute, before Lions pulled one back in the dramatic final moments.

The league and NPL finals series triumphs now sit on a mantle as the club's greatest achievement since the glory days where they won back-to-back NSL titles in 2000 and 2001.

Sportsperson of the year

2018: Ali Day (surf lifesaving)

2017: Kezie Apps (rugby league)

2016: Emma McKeon (swimming) and Tyler Wright (surfing)

2015: Michelle Heyman and Caitlin Foord (football)

2014: Emma McKeon (swimming)

2013: Sally Fitzgibbons (surfing)

People's choice award

2018: Alex Volkanovski (mixed martial arts)

2017: Rotnei Clarke (basketball)

2016: Alex Volkanovski (mixed martial arts)

2015: Michelle Heyman and Caitlin Foord (football)

2014: Brendon Santalab (football)

2013: Michelle Carney (football)