Category: Sports

A clash of kings is coming. Eddie McGuire has revealed the Australian Football League plans to expand its yearly fixture to mid-October, a time usually reserved for laying turf wickets and warming catching fingers. Cricket Australia, too, is on the march. On 12 March 2027, the MCG will host a one-off Test match between Australia and England to celebrate the sesquicentennial anniversary of the first ever international Test match, a time when eyes are fixed on the AFL’s round zero. This blurring of football and cricket seasons will force sports followers to pick their poison. Which way they lean will ... Read more

The passing of Keith Stackpole during the week and the many subsequent tributes which appeared on The Roar and elsewhere gave me pause to consider that there was much said about Stacky as a man as there was about him as a cricketer. It reminded me of a quote from Wes Hall that I once read and have kept as a reminder that talked to the relationship between what we do and what we are. “People will always remember great players. But they will really remember the ones that made them feel good.” With this in mind, I selected my ... Read more

Penrith will fight the NRL’s crackdown on illegal shots at the judiciary, hoping to help save their ailing season by wiping Scott Sorensen’s two-game suspension. Sorensen went to the sin bin for his shoulder charge on rampaging Manly forward Nathan Brown late in the first half of the round-eight loss that sent Penrith to the bottom of the ladder. The second-rower was one of 18 players sin-binned on the weekend as the NRL took its tough stance on illegal contact to unprecedented heights. On Sunday morning, the match review committee cited Sorensen for a grade-two shoulder charge, which carries a ... Read more

A Set small text size A Set the default text size A Set large text size Look, I’m not asking for much. I don’t want your mortgage. I don’t want your firstborn child. I just want you — yes, you, wealthy NBA playoff game attendee — throw on the free T-shirt that’s literally sitting there begging for attention on your seat. Once upon a beautiful time, every NBA playoff game looked like a sea of colour-coded chaos. Red outs, white outs, yellow outs — it was like every arena became a massive, sweaty, screaming crayon box. The fans looked united. ... Read more

Two weeks after Lachie Galvin set the NRL news cycle ablaze when the teenager informed his junior club he had no intention of renewing his contract beyond 2026, he was ecstatic after playing his part in the Wests Tigers’ dramatic 20-18 extra-time triumph over Cronulla. The Tigers responded to his shock announcement by dumping the prodigious 19-year-old to NSW Cup, with club chief executive Shane Richardson and coach Benji Marshall at loggerheads with Galvin’s agent Isaac Moses.  But he played a starring role in his comeback match, making a crucial try-saving tackle in the final minute of regulation to help ... Read more

A Set small text size A Set the default text size A Set large text size Former Wallabies coach Dave Rennie has guided the Kobe Steelers into the Japan Rugby League One playoffs for the first time since 2018. The Steelers beat the Sagamihara Dynaboars 59-33 on Saturday to lock up fifth spot on the standings. Rennie has presided over steady improvement at the Kansai-based club since he joined two years ago, with Saturday’s success earning Kobe a shot at the post-season for the first time since their last title seven years ago. One of the teams standing in Kobe’s ... Read more

A Set small text size A Set the default text size A Set large text size There aren’t enough betting options in rugby league. Cricket betting gets it right. There, things get pretty granular. You can put your hard earned on whether the next ball will be bouncer or a yorker or a Trevor Chappell. Will the next over be a maiden or a run fest? What will be the next type of scoring shot? Who will be the next player to forget to pick up his hat from the umpire? What grade of sandpaper are the Australians using on ... Read more

A Set small text size A Set the default text size A Set large text size When even the great Virat Kohli salutes him as the player who’s making all the difference for his beloved Royal Challengers Bengaluru, then Josh Hazlewood can be assured he must be doing something right. On Sunday, another two scalps for the evergreen Australian quick ensured Hazlewood donned the purple cap as the IPL’s leading wicket-taker of the season while they also helped propel RCB to a six-wicket win over Delhi Capitals that hoists them to the top of the table. RCB have never won ... Read more

A Set small text size A Set the default text size A Set large text size Arsenal’s three Matildas have helped them to a famous Women’s Champions League semi-final triumph at all-conquering Lyon with Caitlin Foord finding the target in the remarkable 4-1 win that sets up a final against champions Barcelona. Foord, who’d declared how she felt Arsenal could still pull off one of the great shocks in European women’s football, celebrated with her fellow Australia internationals Steph Catley and substitute Kyra Cooney-Cross on Sunday as the Gunners overturned a 2-1 first-leg deficit in France. The home club, eight-times ... Read more

A Set small text size A Set the default text size A Set large text size Liverpool have powered their way to a record-equalling 20th English title, enjoying their Premier League coronation at Anfield with a 5-1 hammering of Tottenham which only shoved Ange Postecoglou ever closer to the Spurs exit door.  In front of their own Anfield disciples on Sunday, Arne Slot’s Liverpool overcame the early rude shock of a Spurs goal from Dominic Solanke to pulverise the hapless visitors on their irresistible march to glory.  First-half strikes from Luis Díaz, Alexis Mac Allister and Cody Gakpo put them ... Read more