分类： sports

Richmond Tigers have finally broken through an 11-match losing drought, securing their first win in nearly three months against West Coast Eagles on Sunday. But the moment of celebration has been overshadowed by a costly lapse in judgment from young defender Luke Trainor, who received a one-game suspension from the AFL’s Match Review Officer for a deliberate stomach punch on Eagles utility Jack Williams.

The 20-year-old Richmond prospect’s moment of frustration boiled over in the second quarter of the upset win, after he and Williams had been trading minor, playful on-field jabs for several minutes. Trainor lashed out with a closed-fist strike to Williams’ midsection, leaving the Eagles player crumpled on the ground clutching his abdomen. Williams was able to regain his feet shortly after the incident and leave the field for the team bench.

Following the match, the Match Review Officer classified the off-the-ball incident as intentional strike with medium impact, resulting in an automatic one-game ban. Trainor will now be forced to miss Richmond’s upcoming away clash against Adelaide this coming weekend, stripping the club of a young developing player just as they are working to build momentum after their long losing run.

Richmond senior head coach Adem Yze opened up to media after the match, addressing the incident before the official suspension was handed down. Yze noted that he had not reviewed the incident immediately after the final siren, but confirmed the club would hold the player accountable if the strike was proven to be against league rules. The coach did praise Trainor’s overall on-field performance during the win, noting that the young defender had continued to show growth and played a key role in the club’s first victory in months.

Even so, Yze made clear that avoidable disciplinary suspensions are unacceptable for his side, particularly as the club already deals with a growing list of injured players sidelined for matches. “When we’ve got lack of availability through injury, we don’t want to be losing players through stupidity,” Yze told reporters. The coach added that the club has already held multiple conversations with the entire playing squad about avoiding unnecessary disciplinary incidents, noting that all players have been educated on what counts as acceptable and unacceptable on-field conduct.

The suspension comes as a disappointing gut punch for Richmond, who were hoping to build on their long-awaited win with a strong performance in Adelaide to continue climbing the AFL ladder.

The Sydney Roosters have delivered one of the most devastating displays in modern National Rugby League (NRL) history, and the powerhouse side is already making it clear that their best football is still ahead of them. Fresh off a record-breaking 82-12 rout of the North Queensland Cowboys in Townsville, the reigning contenders have issued a stark four-word-adjacent warning to every other team in the competition: they have not hit their peak yet.

This lopsided victory marked the Roosters’ sixth consecutive win, and it etched the club’s name into NRL record books: the 82-point haul stands as the highest score posted by any top-flight side since 1935, and the third-highest total in the 110-plus year history of Australian rugby league premiership. Stand-off Sam Walker delivered a career-best masterclass, racking up a personal total of 36 points to guide his side to the dominant win.

The performance was so strong that analysts have already suggested even reigning premiers Penrith Panthers would face a massive test against the Roosters if the side repeats this form on grand final day. But despite the glowing praise and jaw-dropping result, Roosters utility Connor Watson says the squad still has room to grow as they prepare for this Friday’s high-stakes clash against the in-form Canterbury Bulldogs. Speaking to reporters from the team’s pre-match mini-camp in Gosford, Watson outlined the side’s quiet confidence heading into the second half of the season.

“We feel like we’ve got more levels to our footy that we can still ascend to,” Watson said. “The weekend was a good start. Up to this game, we haven’t clicked into our best attacking rhythm yet. Our success so far this year has come from our defence, from the way we pressure opponents and grind out wins by scoring just enough to get across the line. That’s been a huge shift for us — in previous seasons, we dropped a lot of those tight matches, but this year we’ve taken the majority of them. To be in title contention come September, we need to keep winning those close games. But we know we can play better as a group, especially with ball in hand, and the Cowboys game was a really great first step toward that.”

Young fullback Cody Ramsey, who turned in an electrifying second-half performance after coming on as a substitute for captain James Tedesco, echoed Watson’s sentiment. Ramsey said that even a blowout win like the 70-point victory leaves plenty of room for improvement across all areas of the pitch.

“We can still definitely refine our craft in attack, and we also had a few defensive lapses that let the Cowboys through for line breaks,” Ramsey explained. “No matter how good a game looks on the surface, you can always pick out areas to work on. That could be our kicking game, our defensive line speed, our contact work. There’s still so much we can learn, and if we keep refining those small details, we’ll be able to execute even better by the end of the season.”

One key talking point from the weekend was Tedesco’s early exit from the match, with the star fullback coming off the pitch as a precaution after sustaining a minor ankle issue. But the club has moved quickly to ease concerns about his availability for Friday’s game, confirming Tedesco is on track to start against the Bulldogs. Watson said the captain’s resilience has long been a defining feature of his career, and he expects the skipper to be fully fit for the upcoming clash.

“You’d probably have to check with the medical staff for the full update, but he bounced back pretty well from the issue,” Watson said. “He played almost the entire first half with the niggle, and he still played like a beast, just like he always does. That’s one thing that’s been a testament to his career, especially after the early injury scares he’s had — his ability to just be resilient and bounce back quickly from these small injuries is incredible. I think he’ll be sweet to go on Friday.”

Four years after one of the most dramatic and widely discussed contract controversies in modern Formula 1 history, McLaren driver Oscar Piastri has playfully acknowledged the anniversary of the viral incident that launched his senior F1 career into the global spotlight.

The 2022 drama unfolded after two-time world champion Fernando Alonso stunned the motorsport community by announcing his departure from the Alpine team. In a rushed move to fill the empty race seat, Alpine issued an official statement on August 2 that same year, confirming its junior academy prospect Piastri would step into Alonso’s role for the 2023 F1 season. What the team did not anticipate, however, was an immediate and public pushback from the young Australian driver.

Piastri and his management team had never agreed to the terms outlined in Alpine’s announcement, despite the driver having come up through the team’s development program. Within just a few hours of the team’s press release, Piastri took to social media platform X (then known as Twitter) to set the record straight in unusually blunt terms for a young prospect stepping into the sport’s top tier.

“I understand that, without my agreement, Alpine F1 have put out a press release late this afternoon that I am driving for them next year. This is wrong and I have not signed a contract with Alpine for 2023. I will not be driving for Alpine next year,” his original viral statement read.

In the aftermath of the unprecedented public dispute, Piastri secured a race seat with McLaren, replacing outgoing Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo for the 2023 season. The young driver has since impressed enough with his performances to earn a contract extension that keeps him with the British-based team through at least the end of the 2028 F1 season.

To this day, the 2022 public denial remains one of the most recognizable moments of Piastri’s early career, with the original post regularly recirculated across F1 fan social media circles. On the four-year mark of the incident, Piastri leaned into the ongoing attention with a lighthearted new post for his followers, thanking fans for their flood of “anniversary messages” that marked the viral moment that reshaped his career path.

Ninety-six years after its launch as the British Empire Games, the Commonwealth Games finds itself at a critical crossroads, with the 2026 edition hosted by Glasgow doing little to ease growing uncertainty over the event’s long-term place in the global sporting landscape.

The multi-sport gathering was thrown into deep crisis in 2023, when the Australian state of Victoria shocked the sporting world by pulling out as 2026 host, citing soaring project costs that had become unmanageable for public budgets. With existing infrastructure already in place from the city’s successful 2014 Commonwealth Games, Glasgow stepped forward at the eleventh hour to rescue the event, delivering a streamlined 10-sport programme on a far tighter budget than previous iterations: the total 2026 cost came in at just £160 million ($216 million), a stark drop from the £780 million price tag of the 2022 Birmingham Games.

As the 10-day 2026 competition draws to a close, the next chapter is already mapped out: India’s city of Ahmedabad will stage the centenary edition of the Games in 2030, with plans to expand the sports programme back to between 15 and 17 disciplines. With the future of the event under intense scrutiny, AFP Sports examines the key takeaways from the 23rd Commonwealth Games and whether the historic gathering can remain relevant in an increasingly crowded modern sporting calendar.

### A Proven Launchpad for Emerging and Underrepresented Athletes
For decades, positioned two years away from the Olympic Games on either side of the quadrennial cycle, the Commonwealth Games has carved out a unique role as a springboard for rising athletic stars. “The Commonwealth Games is where champions are made,” Dr. Donald Rukare, president of Commonwealth Sport, told AFP.

That reputation was borne out again in Glasgow, according to Cameroon sprinter Emmanuel Eseme, who stormed to gold in the blue riband 100m event despite wet, sodden track conditions. Eseme credits the 2022 Commonwealth Games with launching his elite-level career, running a national record of 10.08 seconds in Birmingham that opened doors no other competition had managed. “The Commonwealth Games has been like a door opener for me,” Eseme said after his 9.83-second gold medal run in Glasgow. “No one in my country ever thought someone from Cameroon was going to run 10.08, I did it in the Commonwealth Games. It was great and you know things have just been going well since.”

While Australia dominated the 2026 medals table, finishing far ahead of the pack with 171 total medals including 70 gold (followed by England, Canada and India in the top four), the event has long prided itself on creating opportunities for the 74 small and lesser-known nations and territories that compete. This year was no exception: Jersey, Dominica and the British Virgin Islands all left Glasgow with gold medals.

“This is where it all started for me, and this is probably where it will end,” said Thea LaFond, Dominica’s Olympic triple jump champion, after her win. “It feels amazing to be a trailblazer for Dominica.”

Unlike the Olympic and Paralympic movement, which separate able-bodied and para-sport events, the Commonwealth Games also gives athletes the chance to compete as part of their home nation or territory, rather than being grouped into larger combined teams that are common at other international events. For Scottish runner Josh Kerr, who arrived in Glasgow as the event’s homegrown poster boy fresh off breaking a 27-year-mile world record, that sense of distinct national representation is irreplaceable. Kerr delivered on expectations, taking gold in the first running of the mile at the Commonwealth Games in 60 years. “To have Flower of Scotland playing versus the GB national anthem, it’s just different,” Kerr said. “Not many times in my career I’ll ever have that.”

The event’s reputation as an inclusive “friendly Games” was further reinforced by the largest para-sport programme in Commonwealth Games history, with six para-disciplines fully integrated into the main competition schedule.

### Lingering Problems Cast Shadow Over Long-Term Prospects
While Katie Sadleir, chief executive of Commonwealth Sport, says she is optimistic about the future, pointing to potential hosts led by New Zealand that have already expressed interest in staging the 2034 Games and beyond, the event’s history of recent host withdrawals tells a different story. This year marked the second consecutive Commonwealth Games that has been forced to find a new host at short notice, after Durban pulled out of staging the 2022 edition before Birmingham stepped in.

Ahmedabad’s 2030 candidacy is driven largely by India’s broader ambition to host its first Olympic Games, but it remains unclear what political and financial motivation will exist to stage the Commonwealth Games after the 2030 centenary.

The 2026 Games also laid bare the event’s growing struggle to attract top-tier talent: many of the world’s biggest sporting names opted to skip Glasgow to prioritize other competitions on the global calendar. Alongside Kerr, Britain’s top athletics draw, Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson, chose to focus on the upcoming European Athletics Championships instead. Other major absentees included women’s 100m Olympic champion Julien Alfred and Canadian swimming sensation Summer McIntosh.

This lack of star power translated directly to low spectator turnout, with large swathes of empty seats across venues – a stark contrast to Glasgow’s 2014 Games, which sold 1.3 million tickets and generated a buzzing atmosphere across the city.

Glasgow’s last-minute rescue effort has kept the Commonwealth Games project alive for now, but the 2026 edition has failed to resolve the deep structural issues that threaten the event’s long-term survival.

In the aftermath of a dominant 72-point victory over Essendon at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium on Sunday, Adelaide Crows senior head coach Matthew Nicks has publicly thrown his full support behind his trusted coaching director, Murray Davis, as Davis competes for the vacant Essendon senior coaching role.

Nicks confirmed he has already held open discussions with Davis about the career opportunity, and made clear that the 49-year-old assistant has his complete blessing to pursue the Bombers’ top job, even if it means Davis departs the Adelaide program ahead of the upcoming September finals series.

“I trust Murray completely,” Nicks told reporters post-game. “If he wants to stay with us, we would be thrilled to keep him here and work through the rest of the season. He has done incredible work for our program over the past two seasons, and he deserves every bit of this opportunity. If this role works out for him, we wish him nothing but the best.”

Davis has emerged as an unexpected dark horse contender for the Essendon position, standing out from the three other high-profile candidates due to one key difference: he is the only applicant in the running without prior senior-level AFL playing experience. His competitors for the role include Essendon club legend James Hird, former Bombers midfielder Mark McVeigh, and 2000 premiership-winning defender Dean Solomon, who currently serves as Essendon’s interim head coach.

Davis built his coaching resume over 13 seasons with the Brisbane Lions before joining Nicks’ Adelaide coaching staff at the start of the 2024 AFL season.

Beyond the coaching staff drama, Sunday’s blowout win over Essendon delivered major postseason momentum for the Crows. Combined with Brisbane’s lopsided loss to Carlton on Saturday, the victory pushed Adelaide up past Brisbane into the AFL’s top four, putting the club in an excellent position to secure a valuable double chance in the September finals series.

Nicks said his playing group is well aware of the opportunity now in front of them, but emphasized the squad remains focused on taking each remaining game one at a time. “We don’t shy away from the fact that a top-four spot is now within our reach,” he said. “If we win our final three games of the regular season, that spot is ours. But it’s easier said than done — we’ve got three really tough matches coming up, so we just have to lock in on the next challenge first.”

The Crows will return to their home ground this Saturday night to face Richmond, before traveling west the following week to take on league ladder leaders Fremantle in what is shaping up to be a critical test of their top-four credentials.

One of the Brisbane Broncos’ most decorated athletes is facing an unexpected and devastating end to her storied NRLW career, after the league’s match review committee issued a severe grade 3 dangerous throw charge following a controversial tackle during the recent Magic Round clash against the Canterbury Bulldogs.

The incident, which has sent shockwaves through Australian women’s rugby league, unfolded in the 28th minute of the weekend’s fixture. Brigginshaw, a four-time NRLW premiership winner playing what was meant to be her farewell season before retirement, pulled off a tackle on Bulldogs halfback Tayla Preston that dumped the playmaker directly on her head. Commentating during the match, rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns famously compared the high-impact play to a professional wrestling maneuver, calling it a “WWE toss” that was well outside the bounds of acceptable on-field contact. Though Brigginshaw was only sent to the sin bin for the infraction, match officials later noted she could have been immediately sent off for the dangerous play. Fortunately for Preston, she escaped the incident without serious long-term injury.

The charge has directly referred Brigginshaw to an upcoming judiciary hearing scheduled for Tuesday night, leaving her playing future this season hanging in the balance. The 33-year-old playmaker holds one of the most impressive ironman streaks in league history: since the NRLW’s 2018 relaunch, she has appeared in every single one of Brisbane’s 61 regular season and finals matches, never missing a single fixture through injury or suspension. That streak is now on the brink of ending.

With Brisbane holding six remaining regular season matches plus a potential finals run on the schedule, Brigginshaw had been on track to complete a full final campaign before hanging up her boots. A lengthy suspension, however, could cut that farewell tour drastically short, leaving her with just one or two more appearances in Broncos colors. Currently, the longest suspension in NRLW history stands at four matches, a mark that Brigginshaw could match or even exceed if the judiciary upholds the serious charge.

Despite the off-field controversy hanging over the club, the Broncos did secure a win over the Bulldogs over the weekend. Their next fixture is a road trip to Canberra, followed by a highly anticipated grand final rematch against the Sydney Roosters. It remains to be seen whether their legendary halfback will take the field for either game.

For the struggling Wests Tigers, the NRL’s final bye week of the 2024 season could not have come at a more opportune moment, with head coach Benji Marshall preparing to make high-stakes decisions about injured star players and team selection that will shape both the end of the current campaign and the club’s long-term future.

After a devastating two-month form slump that has seen the club drop seven consecutive matches and stumble to an effectively season-eliminated position, Marshall will use the seven-day break to weigh two competing priorities: grinding out a few late wins to salvage some pride from the year, or prioritizing long-term health and development by moving injured stars to season-ending surgery and giving young developing prospects valuable top-flight experience.

The Tigers have already had byes in rounds 1 and 12, leaving the squad stretched by two long stretches of back-to-back competitive matches. The team’s attacking unit has collapsed entirely during their losing streak, managing to put up just 45 points across their last six outings, a statistic that has left them adrift in the league standings.

In their most recent outing, a heart-breaking narrow loss to the Parramatta Eels on Sunday, playmaker Adam Doueihi turned in a standout performance in his first game back after missing the club’s previous loss to Canberra, scoring a try and nailing a late field goal. Even Doueihi’s best effort was not enough to halt the Tigers’ losing run, however.

Speaking after the match, Marshall acknowledged the physical toll the brutal losing streak has taken on his playing group, noting that multiple key stars have been playing through serious injuries that would already have required surgery for most players.

“It’s taking its toll,” Marshall said. “We’ve got guys playing busted who probably should have surgery but are still playing to fight for the club, which says how much it means to some of the blokes. So in terms of niggles and injury, it’s a good time for us.”

One of the biggest calls on the table is the future of fullback Jahream Bula, who has been managing a persistent shoulder injury for months and was barely able to impact Sunday’s match, which was marked as Api Koroisau’s 250th NRL game. The bye week opens the door for the club to send Bula and other injured players in for early surgery to get them healthy ahead of next season, a move that would require accepting further losses late in this campaign to open up spots in the matchday squad for young prospects.

Marshall must also decide how much game time he is willing to give rising young talents like Javon Andrews, who would benefit from senior minutes ahead of the 2027 season and beyond, ahead of tough upcoming road matches against the Sydney Roosters, North Queensland Cowboys, and Penrith Panthers.

The coach confirmed that the entire staff and playing group will hold strategic discussions this week to map out the final four weeks of the season, after using Sunday’s match to honor Koroisau’s milestone. “This game was a big occasion for us. We wanted to play for Api, and everyone wanted to be on board for that. I guess the bye gives us a good chance to just take a breath, have a look at the final four weeks, what the priorities are moving forward, and make a plan accordingly,” Marshall explained. “I want to win as many games as possible to finish the season. That’s the first priority. How that looks, we’ll see.”

While the Tigers were left to lick their wounds, the Eels celebrated a narrow win that netted them two crucial competition points, though head coach Jason Ryles made it clear he was far from satisfied with his side’s performance on Sunday. The Eels committed 15 unforced errors throughout the match, a mistake count Ryles described as unacceptable.

“The outcome was winning. The process wasn’t good,” Ryles said. “It was simple, fundamental errors that were self-inflicted. We have made a habit of that this year, and against an opposition further up the table, you don’t win those games.”

Ryles lamented his young, inexperienced side’s ongoing inconsistency: after pushing reigning premiers Penrith to the brink in a heroic performance last week, the Eels turned in a messy, disjointed display against the lowly Tigers. Isaiah Iongi scored a late match-winning try for the Eels, but that did little to ease Ryles’ frustration with the team’s overall effort.

“It was a really good performance from our younger guys in particular, to take Penrith to where we took them (last week) and probably be a little bit unlucky, to then dish that up is the most disappointing part,” he said. “It’s about being consistent every week. You can play NRL or you can be an NRL player. An NRL player is consistent every week, and we’re still learning that.”

Ryles added that the squad understands where they fell short, and the quick six-day turnaround ahead of their next match against South Sydney on Saturday is a welcome chance to put the poor performance behind them quickly. “The players are not silly. They are disappointed in the way we went about it and our process. But when you do win a game of footy at the NRL level, you have to make sure you celebrate it. Then we’ll park it, review it, and move on. I’m glad it’s a six-day turnaround.”

Weeks after delivering a landmark State of Origin series victory for New South Wales at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium, Laurie Daley has formally announced his departure from the role of NSW Blues head coach, leaving NSW Rugby League (NSWRL) officials with a pivotal decision to make on his replacement.

Daley, one of the most iconic figures in NSW rugby league history, bows out of the top job at the peak of his coaching tenure, wrapping up a decorated association with the Blues that spans decades as both a player and a leader. His playing career saw him make history as the first NSW captain to secure three consecutive State of Origin series wins between 1992 and 1994, and he carried that winning legacy into coaching. He first took the helm in 2014, where he ended Queensland’s record-breaking eight-year consecutive series winning streak – a triumph still regarded as one of the greatest upsets in Origin history. After a short break, Daley returned for a second coaching stint last year, facing widespread scrutiny from fans and pundits alike after NSW lost a home decider in 2024. Criticism followed him into the 2026 series, with analysts questioning his player selection strategies and bench management tactics. But Daley brushed off the backlash to lead the under-pressure Blues to a decisive game three victory in Brisbane, cementing his place in Origin folklore: he is the only NSW representative to claim an away series win at Suncorp Stadium as both a captain and a coach.

In a statement confirming his departure, Daley spoke of his lifelong pride in representing his home state. “I’ve always considered it an absolute honour and privilege to be involved with the NSW Blues State of Origin team, whether that was as a player or a coach, and I’ve always been ready to answer the call for my state whenever they needed me,” he said. “We faced plenty of challenges in the 2026 series and I’m proud of the way the players banded together to overcome them and save their best performance for game three in Brisbane to secure a memorable series win. I thank the fans for their passion and their support, and I can’t think of a better way to move on with the shield back where it belongs in NSW.”

Daley added that he was grateful for the opportunity to work alongside a talented cohort of players, coaching staff and administrators throughout his tenure. “The dedication, resilience and care they showed for each other and for the jersey is something I will always be proud to have witnessed,” he said.

NSWRL chief executive David Trodden, who faced heavy criticism for choosing to re-appoint Daley last year, said the 2026 series win vindicated that decision, adding that the organisation owed Daley a profound debt of gratitude for his decades of service. “NSWRL owes a massive debt of gratitude to Laurie for the service he has given to his state as both a player and a coach,” Trodden said. “He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players to have ever pulled on a sky blue jumper. He has also led NSW to arguably two of the greatest Origin series wins of all time as a coach after ending Queensland’s eight-year winning streak in 2014 and overcoming adversity to steer the Blues home in 2026. Those wins transcended football. They lifted and reinvigorated the whole state. He deserves to leave the NSW Origin arena as the hero that he is.”

Now, NSWRL officials face the task of selecting a new head coach to carry on Daley’s legacy, with two high-profile former Blues stars emerging as the early frontrunners. Former Blues captain Boyd Cordner, who served as an assistant coach under Daley during the 2026 series, is widely tipped as the top candidate to take over for the next campaign. Cordner, who represented NSW 16 times throughout his playing career, has already built a strong coaching resume through his successful work leading the Sydney Roosters’ youth development pathways program.

Fellow former Blues forward and current assistant coach Matt King is the second leading contender for the role. Penrith Panthers head coach Ivan Cleary, who is set to finish his tenure with the Panthers next year, has been heavily linked to the job despite publicly ruling himself out of the running for 2027. Many rugby league observers continue to push for Cleary to take over the role immediately, with a potential move to the Blues job in 2028 already flagged if he declines an earlier appointment. Should the top two frontrunners and Cleary decline the opportunity, Andrew and Matthew Johns are considered long-shot outsider candidates for the role.