分类： sports

Just six games into his tenure as Melbourne Football Club’s senior AFL coach, Steven King has added his voice to a growing cohort of league coaches pushing for major changes to the Victorian Football League (VFL) competition fixture, citing disruptive scheduling gaps that derail player development pathways.

The Demons’ reserves affiliate, the Casey Demons, have only been able to complete two regular matches through the first chunk of the 2024 season, with a scheduled bye for the club and a league-wide break to accommodate the VFL State of Origin exhibition match forcing the side into an extended break. The fragmented, stop-start schedule left King’s side with no official competitive outlet for their development players, prompting Melbourne to arrange an unofficial scratch match against Essendon’s reserves at the Bombers’ training base, the Hangar, this past Sunday.

King explained that the current scheduling structure fails star development players waiting for their chance to break into the senior AFL lineup. “I’ve got 12 to 15 players who are hungry to compete every week to prove they deserve an AFL call-up, and right now they can’t get that game time in the official competition,” King said. He pointed out a specific conflict with the State of Origin round: when the VFL pauses all club matches for the representative game, only a tiny handful of VFL-listed players get selected to participate, leaving dozens of AFL-listed reserves with no competitive match to play. “This is something the AFL should look into adjusting. If stand-alone clubs get a bye when they lose players to the State of Origin game, why can’t our AFL-listed reserves get the opportunity to keep playing?” he added.

The disjointed fixture has also forced awkward, difficult conversations between King and players on the cusp of senior selection. “Players come up to me and ask, ‘Does this mean I’m out of contention for the first six weeks because there are no games for me to prove myself?’ That’s a really tough question to answer,” King said. “All our guys want is to get out on the ground and play, so they can put their hand up for senior selection. I know most other clubs have already raised concerns about this issue, and I will be following the proper channels to push for change too.”

Looking ahead to this weekend, Melbourne is set to face the Brisbane Lions at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday for the annual Jim Stynes Foundation charity match. The game comes as a critical bounce-back opportunity for the Demons, who suffered an upset loss to Essendon during the league’s recent Gather Round.

When asked about his game plan for the Lions, who boast one of the deepest, most talented midfield groups in the competition, King said he would prioritize sticking to Melbourne’s own identity rather than completely overhauling the Demons’ game plan to counter the opposition. “We can’t be a club that just reacts every week and changes how we play to match the opponent,” King explained. “We know what works for our game and what fuels our belief. Of course we will tweak a few things to limit the Lions’ strengths — that’s just standard preparation. But as a young coach, I want this group to play our brand of footy and play to our own strengths.”

A dramatic all-Spanish Champions League quarter-final clash ended in heartbreak for Barcelona and jubilation for Atletico Madrid, as Diego Simeone’s side held on to seal a 3-2 aggregate victory and secure their place in the competition’s final four, despite a 2-1 second-leg defeat on Tuesday night at the Metropolitano.

Barcelona came out of the gate firing from the opening whistle, nearly taking the lead inside the first minute when teenage star Lamine Yamal’s sharp effort was tipped around the post by Atletico goalkeeper Juan Musso. The Catalan side did not have to wait long for their opening goal, however: in the fourth minute, Yamal pressured Atletico defender Clement Lenglet into a costly turnover, collected a return pass from Ferran Torres, and slid a low shot between Musso’s legs to silence the capacity home crowd and ignite Barca’s comeback bid, built on a 2-0 first-leg deficit.

Barca continued to dominate the opening exchanges, with Dani Olmo coming close to doubling their lead before his lobbed effort was gathered by Musso. The second goal finally arrived in the 24th minute, when Torres outpaced Lenglet to meet Olmo’s through ball and fired a clinical finish into the top corner, drawing the tie level on aggregate. Fermin Lopez nearly put Barca ahead on aggregate soon after, but Musso clawed away his header — an intervention that left Lopez bloodied after Musso’s boot caught him in the face.

Against the run of play, Atletico clawed their way back into the tie in the 31st minute when Barcelona switched off defensively for the first time. Marcos Llorente broke behind Barca’s high defensive line down the right flank and delivered a pinpoint cross for Ademola Lookman, who converted the finish to restore Atletico’s aggregate lead. Lookman, who had troubled Barca defender Jules Kounde all night, would see his strike prove the decisive goal of the tie.

The second half brought even more tension and controversy. Barcelona thought they had extended their lead on the night early on when Torres volleyed home, but the goal was ruled out for offside, leaving the Catalan side frustrated. With 20 minutes remaining to find the goal that would force extra time, Barca manager Hansi Flick — who had previously benched star forwards Marcus Rashford and Robert Lewandowski in favor of high-energy pressing from Torres and Gavi — brought on the two veteran attackers to turn the tide.

Tempers boiled over as the clock wound down: Atletico’s Matteo Ruggieri was left bleeding from the face after Gavi caught him with an elbow, and tensions reached a breaking point when Barcelona defender Eric Garcia was sent off for clipping the heels of Alexander Sorloth as the striker bore down on goal. The red card mirrored the first leg’s dismissal of Pau Cubarsi, leaving 10-man Barca with an uphill battle to salvage the tie. Flick pushed center-back Ronald Araujo into the forward line in a last-ditch attempt to find the needed goal, but Atletico held firm through eight minutes of stoppage time to confirm their progression.

This run marks Atletico’s first appearance in the Champions League semi-finals since 2017, and the club will next face either Arsenal or Sporting Lisbon for a spot in the final. The capital side has never lifted the Champions League trophy, having fallen in the 2014 and 2016 finals under Simeone’s leadership. Following the final whistle, Atletico captain Koke expressed his side’s pride at knocking out one of Europe’s elite clubs.

“Very happy, knocking out a great Barca side. We had a great game away… it was really hard for us at the start of this one, but the team knew how to get back on its feet,” Koke told Movistar.

For Barcelona, the defeat extends their 10-year wait for a sixth Champions League crown, having last won the competition in 2015. Despite the exit, midfielder Frenkie de Jong said the club is still progressing in the right direction under new leadership. “I think we had a very good game, we gave our lives out there, we tried everything,” the Dutch midfielder said. “I feel like luck was not on our side. We have to continue — we’re on a good path, we’re growing every year.”

For the second straight season, Paris Saint-Germain sent Liverpool packing from the Champions League on their home soil — but this year’s exit was far more devastating, ending the Merseyside club’s hopes of any trophy this campaign and casting major uncertainty over the future of manager Arne Slot.

Ousmane Dembele scored both goals in PSG’s 2-0 second-leg win at Anfield on Tuesday, wrapping up a lopsided 4-0 aggregate victory that exposed a yawning gap in quality between the two sides. The French champions did not even need to hit their full stride to eliminate the Reds, a stark contrast to 12 months prior, when Liverpool fell to the eventual tournament winners only on penalties, leaving with their heads held high.

Slot’s tenure got off to a promising start, with Liverpool claiming the Premier League title in his debut season last year. Buoyed by that success, the club’s ownership launched a historic £450 million ($605 million) summer transfer splurge, aiming to build on the foundation Jurgen Klopp left after his trophy-laden tenure and push for both domestic and European glory. Liverpool broke its own transfer record twice, landing Alexander Isak for an English-record £125 million from Newcastle United and Florian Wirtz for another nine-figure fee, while adding Hugo Ekitike, Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez to create a new-look squad. It was the biggest single-window spend by any club in history.

But the campaign was overshadowed by tragedy before it even began: fan favorite Diogo Jota died in a car accident while returning to Merseyside for pre-season training. While the emotional impact of losing a beloved teammate can never be measured, it has hung over the club all season, and on-pitch results have descended into chaos.

The disappointing campaign has already triggered a raft of high-profile exits. Mohamed Salah, who signed a two-year contract extension just 12 months ago, has cut his time at Anfield short a year early. Tensions between Salah and Slot boiled over in December when the Egyptian winger launched an angry outburst after being dropped from the starting lineup, and he was left on the bench for both legs of the PSG tie. Long-serving full-back Andy Robertson has also confirmed he will leave at the end of the season, meaning only Virgil van Dijk, Alisson Becker and Joe Gomez remain from the Liverpool squad that lifted the Champions League trophy in 2019.

Key departures of key first-team stars Trent Alexander-Arnold and Luis Diaz left a major hole in the squad, and the rebuild’s thin depth has been stretched even further by a devastating string of injuries. When Slot fielded all five summer signings in the starting XI for the first time against PSG, the experiment lasted less than 30 minutes before Ekitike went down with a suspected ruptured Achilles, an injury that will almost certainly rule him out for the rest of this season and well into the next.

“It is part of our season,” Slot told reporters after the defeat. “We had Alex, Hugo and Florian together for only 88 minutes before tonight. We added 28 minutes and I would be surprised if we can add a few more minutes to that (this season).”

Isak, the club’s record signing, made his first start back after a broken leg that kept him sidelined since December. Frimpong’s first season at Anfield has been ruined by recurring muscle injuries, forcing another half-time substitution against PSG. While Wirtz has avoided major injury problems, he has failed to replicate the form that made him the star of Bayer Leverkusen’s Bundesliga title-winning side two seasons ago.

Liverpool currently sits fifth in the Premier League table, with only one remaining goal for the season: securing a top-five finish to qualify for next season’s Champions League. Holding a four-point lead over sixth-placed Chelsea, the Reds are still favorites to claim that spot — but it remains unclear whether Slot will be the one leading them into it.

Speculation over Slot’s future has been growing for weeks, with Liverpool fans chanting for former Reds midfielder Xabi Alonso during the club’s 4-0 FA Cup defeat to Manchester City earlier this month. Alonso, who left his role as Real Madrid head coach in January, is widely tipped as the leading candidate to replace Slot if the club’s hierarchy decide to sack the Dutchman just 12 months after he won the Premier League.

A controversial nine-week suspension handed to St Kilda AFL forward Lance Collard for a repeated homophobic slur incident has drawn formal response from the AFL Players’ Association (AFLPA), with the governing body voicing disappointment and pushing for sweeping systemic change to how the sport handles discriminatory conduct.

Collard received the penalty this week following a hearing into his verbal abuse of a Victorian Football League (VFL) opponent, where he was recorded using an openly homophobic slur during a match against Frankston. The nine-week sentence includes a nine-week playing ban, with two weeks of the punishment deferred to the end of the current season. This marks Collard’s second breach of the league’s anti-discrimination rules: he previously served a six-week suspension in 2024 for an identical offence of using a homophobic slur.

In addition to this latest penalty, Collard is already serving a separate two-match ban for a high tackle offence committed during the same Frankston match. Throughout the tribunal process, Collard has consistently maintained his innocence, with his legal team arguing that a harsh suspension for the second offence could have irreversible, life-ruining impacts on his young playing career. To date, Collard has appeared in 15 senior AFL matches for St Kilda.

AFLPA chief executive James Gallagher released an official public statement Wednesday confirming the association’s position, noting that while the entire Australian Football industry shares a unified goal of eliminating homophobia from the sport, the current case underscores deep flaws in the existing approach to addressing discrimination.

Gallagher explained that the tribunal itself acknowledged that complex issues like homophobia and racism cannot be resolved through polarizing debate centered on whether offending language was used, and that the AFLPA is disappointed the panel did not accept Collard’s consistent claims of innocence. The association will continue to provide full support to Collard and St Kilda Football Club throughout the process, including exploring all possible avenues for an appeal against the suspension.

“A holistic solution that doesn’t focus solely on punitive measures can only be realised through meaningful engagement with LGBTIQA+ community leaders, education that reflects diverse backgrounds and experiences of players, alongside a disciplinary process that is fit for purpose, minimises and remedies the harms caused and shifts behaviour,” Gallagher said.

He added that through collective bargaining agreements, the AFLPA has already negotiated a formal shared commitment with the broader AFL to embed equality, inclusion and safety across the sport, and work continues to progress these pledges to make the game welcoming and safe for all participants. Gallagher also acknowledged the far-reaching impact of the entire disciplinary process on multiple affected groups, including the LGBTIQA+ community, First Nations communities, and Collard and his family.