We’re past the halfway mark of what might genuinely go down as one of the greatest years in sport. The World Cup’s been won, Wimbledon’s done and dusted, and the Winter Olympics feel like a lifetime ago. But if you think the best of 2026 is behind us, think again — the back half of the year is absolutely stacked. Here’s everything still to come, month by month.
September
The football calendar shifts into full swing, with the Premier League, Champions League, and every major European league back underway. The NFL season kicks off too, giving fans a full weekend rotation of football (both codes) to sink into. On the multi-sport front, the Asian Games get underway in Aichi and Nagoya, Japan, running into early October and even featuring esports as an official medal event for the first time. Golf fans get the Presidents Cup at Medinah, tennis has the Laver Cup in London and the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in Shenzhen, and back home the AFL Grand Final wraps up the Aussie Rules season at the MCG.
Why you shouldn’t miss it: September is as close to sporting sensory overload as the calendar gets — there’s genuinely something major happening in almost every sport, every single week.
October
Formula 1 heads to Bahrain as the championship enters its final stretch, with the title picture starting to sharpen. But the headline act this month is the Rugby League World Cup, kicking off across Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea — and with Australia the heavy favourites on home soil, expect the Kangaroos to be under real pressure to deliver. Add in the Chicago Marathon and a mouth-watering El Clásico between Barcelona and Real Madrid at the end of the month, and October has plenty to keep fans occupied.
Why you shouldn’t miss it: A Rugby League World Cup on Australian soil, with the hosts favoured to win it, is the kind of home-nation storyline that doesn’t come around often.
November
Tennis takes centre stage, with the WTA Finals in Riyadh, the ATP Finals in Turin, and the Davis Cup Final 8 in Italy all wrapping up the tennis calendar in style. It’s a genuine showcase of the best players in the world competing in season-ending, high-stakes formats. Away from tennis, the Melbourne Cup runs at Flemington — “the race that stops a nation” — and the Rugby League World Cup reaches its business end.
Why you shouldn’t miss it: Season finales tend to bring out the best in elite athletes, and having three of the sport’s biggest end-of-year tennis events inside a few weeks of each other is as good as it gets for fans of the sport.
December
The year closes out with two genuinely huge cricket Test series — New Zealand touring Australia, and England heading to South Africa — giving traditionalists a proper festive dose of the longest format. On top of that, the PDC World Darts Championship begins its run through Christmas and into the new year, always one of the most fun, atmosphere-heavy events on the entire sporting calendar.
Why you shouldn’t miss it: There’s something fitting about the year ending with Test cricket and darts — two sports steeped in tradition, right as the sporting calendar prepares to reset and do it all again in 2027.
The Bottom Line
If 2026 has taught us anything, it’s that there’s no such thing as an off-season anymore. From football codes to tennis, cricket, motorsport, and everything in between, the rest of the year has more than enough left to keep any sports fan fully occupied through to New Year’s. Buckle up — round two of 2026 is just getting started.
Written by Laura Hardaker