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Ahead of one of the most anticipated matches of their 2026 AFL season, Hawthorn Hawks head coach Sam Mitchell has opened up about how his squad has processed their humiliating 67-point loss to the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba last weekend — revealing the side has already put the disappointing result firmly in the rearview mirror.

The defeat marked the heaviest loss the Hawks have suffered so far this 2026 campaign, a lopsided result that saw third-placed Hawthorn fail to live up to their usual high standards against a dominant Lions side. But speaking to reporters on Thursday morning, just two days out from Saturday night’s clash against Collingwood at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Mitchell made it clear the club is refusing to dwell on the upset.

Mitchell explained that after the defeat, the coaching and playing group spent a short period reviewing the match, identifying key mistakes and taking away lessons to improve future performance, before intentionally shifting their full focus to the upcoming round. “You guys will keep talking about it, and rightly so, that’s your job – but for us we assess what happened in the game, we learn some lessons and we move on,” Mitchell said. “I haven’t thought or done anything about the Brisbane game for two days now. We spent a couple of days reflecting, analyzing, getting better, but then we move on.”

When breaking down where the Hawks went wrong against Brisbane, Mitchell pinpointed wasteful finishing and a failure to convert scoring chances as the main cause of the lopsided scoreline. He added that he expects the squad to address that issue when they take the field against Collingwood this weekend.

This weekend’s match at the MCG will be Hawthorn’s final home game of the 2026 regular season, adding extra stakes to the encounter. Preparing to face off against the Pies, Mitchell acknowledged the strength of the opposition, noting Collingwood’s tight tactical structure and well-drilled game plan under their coaching staff. He highlighted star defender Nick Daicos as a particular threat, noting the player demands constant attention from opposing defenses, and confirmed the Hawks are working on a game plan to balance limiting Daicos’ impact while leaning into their own on-field strengths.

Following the Collingwood clash, Hawthorn will close out their regular season with a trip west to Perth, where they will face off against the West Coast Eagles in round 24.

Two of the National Rugby League’s most notable departing players are facing uncertain final chapter outcomes this week, after fresh injury updates rocked the Brisbane Broncos and Cronulla Sharks respectively. For Brisbane Broncos’ legendary captain and halfback Adam Reynolds, a last-minute push to take the field one final time before retirement is now on a knife-edge, after a new training injury has derailed his comeback timeline.

The 36-year-old two-time NRL premiership winner, who is set to hang up his boots at the close of the 2024 season, has not appeared in a match since he was carried off early in Brisbane’s round 22 defeat to the Newcastle Knights. The club has long held hopes that their veteran playmaker would get a fairy-tale send-off in front of a home crowd at Brisbane’s iconic Suncorp Stadium, when the defending premiers host the Melbourne Storm in round 26.

Those plans suffered a major setback on Wednesday, when Reynolds sustained a calf strain during a team training session. Follow-up scans conducted at the Clive Berghofer Centre’s Qscan facility confirmed the injury is a grade 1 strain of the soleus muscle in his right calf, the Broncos confirmed in an official statement Wednesday. “His return-to-play timeline will be determined on a week-by-week basis,” the club added, leaving Reynolds just weeks to prove his fitness ahead of the season’s close. Brisbane closes out their regular season with an away match against the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in Sydney after their round 26 home clash, leaving only two possible matches for the halfback to make his farewell appearance.

While Reynolds still retains a narrow pathway to return, another departing NRL star has already seen his season and club tenure come to an abrupt early end. Cronulla Sharks centre Jesse Ramien, who is set to move to the North Queensland Cowboys ahead of the 2027 season, has played his final game in black, white and blue after undergoing surgery to repair a torn pectoral muscle.

Ramien suffered the injury during Cronulla’s clash against the St. George Illawarra Dragons on Sunday, and underwent initial scans on Monday to assess the damage. After consultation with a specialist, the club and player agreed that surgical intervention was the best course of action to support his long-term recovery, ending his 2024 season and his overall tenure with the Sharks immediately.

Over his career with Cronulla, Ramien has built an impressive legacy: the 29-year-old proud Indigenous athlete has notched 167 appearances for the club, notching 104 wins, 60 tries, and 39 assists while serving as a respected role model in the community and a beloved teammate in the dressing room. The Sharks confirmed Ramien will remain with the club in a behind-the-scenes support role through the upcoming finals series, where 24-year-old Mawene Hiroti will step into Ramien’s spot on the right edge of Cronulla’s backline. The club will honor Ramien and give fans a chance to farewell the star at their final home game of the regular season.

One of the Australian Football League’s most decorated veterans has put an end to months of swirling off-season speculation: star forward Jeremy Cameron is set to remain a Geelong Cat through the 2028 season, locking in his future with the club until well after his 35th birthday.

Cameron put pen to paper on his new contract on Thursday afternoon, alongside three other Geelong players who also secured contract extensions. Young utility Jhye Clark will also stay with the Cats through 2028, while veteran forward Jack Martin extended his deal to run through the end of the 2027 season.

The 33-year-old forward, a fan favorite and cornerstone of Geelong’s recent success, was already under contract through 2027. The one-year extension eliminates all uncertainty around his career plans heading into the 2027 AFL season, ending ongoing questions from fans and media about whether he would consider retirement or a move to another club before hanging up his boots.

Cameron’s resume with the Cats (and earlier with Greater Western Sydney) cements his status as one of the greatest forwards of his generation: across 296 career games, he has claimed a 2022 AFL premiership with Geelong, five selections to the All-Australian team – including a captaincy nod in 2025 – two Coleman Medals (awarded to the league’s leading goalkicker each season, earned in 2019 and 2025), and the 2022 Carji Greeves Medal, awarded to Geelong’s best and fairest player each year.

Andrew Mackie, Geelong’s General Manager of Football, highlighted that Cameron’s value to the club stretches far beyond his on-field goal-kicking and match-winning plays. “He remains an important player for us, and we’re thrilled he’ll continue to play an integral role through the extension of his contract,” Mackie said in a statement following the announcement of the new deals.

Mackie also shared praise for young midfielder Jhye Clark, whose new extension through 2028 caps a remarkable comeback arc in his young career. After a slow start to his AFL tenure that saw him spend an extended stretch developing in the Victorian Football League (the AFL’s second-tier competition), Clark fought his way back into the senior Cats side in the second half of the 2026 season, where he has already made his presence felt. “The young midfielder has worked hard at his craft and has come back into the AFL side and [is] having a strong impact,” Mackie said.

In a night defined by raw emotion and fierce on-pitch competition, Inter Miami’s iconic captain Lionel Messi made a heart-wrenching comeback to competitive soccer Wednesday, just days after the passing of his father and long-time agent Jorge Messi at age 68. Despite the Argentine superstar’s return to the lineup, Inter Miami fell in a tense 3-2 defeat to Mexico’s Club León, ending their 2025 Leagues Cup campaign in the group stage.

Messi had traveled back to his home country of Argentina last week to be with his family following Jorge’s death, missing Miami’s opening group stage loss to Monterrey on Saturday. After attending his father’s funeral on Sunday, the 8-time Ballon d’Or winner flew overnight back to Florida on Tuesday, and stepped off the bench at halftime Wednesday to a thunderous standing ovation from fans and players alike.

Hours before kickoff, Messi shared a devastating public tribute to his father on social media that opened new questions about his future in the sport. In the post, he opened up about his grief and uncertainty, writing: “I don’t know what I’ll do without you, I don’t know how to go on. I just played football, and now I have serious doubts about continuing to do so for much longer.”

The match itself unfolded as a tense back-and-forth battle: Inter Miami took an early 1-0 lead, but Colombian striker Daniel Arcila scored two quick goals to flip the script for León. Though Miami’s Yannick Bright pulled one back late to narrow the deficit, León held on to secure the win and punch the first ticket to the tournament’s quarter-finals.

Bright, who notched one of Miami’s two goals, told reporters after the match that Messi’s unexpected return left the entire team in awe. “I wasn’t expecting it,” Bright said. “It shows how much he cares. When I saw he was here, all I was thinking about was to give my 150 percent for him. It’s a tough situation. We try to stay close to him and support him as much as we can, but it’s a lot.”

Brazilian midfielder Casemiro, who joined Inter Miami following the 2022 FIFA World Cup, praised Messi’s extraordinary commitment to the team during his personal crisis, calling him “an example for all of us.” León manager Javier Gandolfi echoed that sentiment, saying of Messi: “Today he demonstrated once more what he’s made of. He is a human being that is different to the rest.”

This early exit marks the first time Inter Miami has been eliminated in the opening round of the Leagues Cup since the tournament expanded in 2023. That year, Messi led the franchise to a historic Leagues Cup title just weeks after his high-profile arrival, where he joined fellow former Barcelona stars Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba. In 2025, Miami advanced to the tournament final but fell to a 3-0 defeat against the Seattle Sounders; a post-final brawl resulted in star forward Luis Suarez receiving a suspension that kept him out of the entire 2026 iteration of the cross-league competition between MLS and Liga MX clubs.

As the Australian Football League (AFL) prepares for another weekend of high-stakes round matches, North Melbourne Kangaroos head coach Alastair Clarkson has shared his perspective on the ongoing concussion protocol controversy engulfing the Geelong Cats, arguing that the off-field saga could ultimately strengthen the Cats’ on-field performance when the two sides face off this Saturday.

Clarkson’s squad enters the matchup fresh off one of their most impressive wins of the 2026 season, having defeated the Western Bulldogs by a comfortable 23-point margin last weekend. While Geelong has been thrown into chaos by the scandal, which centers on a controversial concussion waiver policy involving Cats player Jake Kolodjashnij, Clarkson told reporters Thursday that he is bracing for the Cats to play their best football of the season, regardless of the off-field turmoil.

“Does it distract them what’s going on inside their footy club, or doesn’t it actually galvanise them? I’ve seen it work both ways,” Clarkson said. “We can’t control what happens inside the walls of the Geelong Football Club, but what we can control is how we approach this game and we’ve got to bring a similar approach to what we brought against the Western Bulldogs.”

Geelong head coach Chris Scott pushed back against repeated media questions about the saga and Kolodjashnij during his Wednesday weekly press conference, describing the intense public and press demand for details as “quite savage”. The AFL launched an official investigation into the club’s protocols last week, with the governing body originally expected to wrap up its inquiry this past Tuesday. Kolodjashnij has been ruled out of selection for this weekend’s clash as a result of the ongoing controversy.

Clarkson noted that while Geelong’s underlying goal of prioritizing player care was well-intentioned, the incident offers a critical learning opportunity for every club across the league. “It’s all about risk management, with everything you do with your football club and I think even within the Geelong camp, I think the premise of what they were trying to do, look after their player was right,” he explained. “But it will present an opportunity for 17 clubs, 18 if you include Tassie to address their protocols and their governance just to make sure they’re protecting their players and their footy club as best as they possibly can moving forward.”

For the Kangaroos, the match carries personal stakes even as the team has already been eliminated from 2026 finals contention. With just two rounds left in the regular season, Clarkson is focused on spoiling the finals hopes of top-ranked opponents, starting with Geelong this weekend. Clarkson, who will enter 2027 without a contract extension for the following season, will lead his squad to a final matchup against second-placed Sydney at the SCG after this Saturday’s home game against the Cats.

The Manly Sea Eagles’ under-pressure rookie head coach Kieran Foran has confirmed star fullback and co-captain Tom Trbojevic will not feature in this week’s clash against the Dolphins, while maintaining an optimistic outlook that the fan-favourite will return to the pitch before the end of the current NRL season as the club chases a unlikely late finals berth.

Trbojevic, the former Dally M Medal winner affectionately known to fans as ‘Turbo’, had been targeting a comeback from a recurring hamstring injury for Friday’s home fixture. But the club has elected to push his return back by at least seven days to prioritize a full, low-risk recovery. Clayton Faulalo, who has himself overcome a hamstring injury in recent weeks, will step into the fullback position for the upcoming match.

Speaking to media ahead of the round, Foran emphasized that Trbojevic’s recovery timeline is being assessed week-to-week, with player health taking priority over a rushed comeback. “We’re taking our time with him. We want to make sure that he comes back at full fitness and that he’s not feeling any hesitation there. It’s important that we prioritise that and put that first,” Foran said. “It was touch and go for this week, there wasn’t much in it. But with a guy like that, you don’t want any risk at all. You want to try to lower that as much as you can, and with Clayton fit and firing, we were able to be a bit smarter around Turbo’s return.”

Foran went on to confirm that the entire club remains fully focused on getting their superstar back on the field before the season concludes, with no plans to end his campaign early despite the club’s poor recent run of form. “We’re hopeful of getting him back before the end of the year. That’s certainly the push from our end and Turbo’s end,” Foran said. “We haven’t given up on the season one bit. Turbo’s a huge part of where we want to head.”

Trbojevic has not appeared in an NRL match since Manly’s round 20 fixture against the Titans, having already missed two months of action earlier in the year due to a separate hamstring injury. Faulalo, who is now cleared to return, has the full confidence of the coaching staff, Foran added. “Clayton is ready to go. He’s fully fit and there’s no hesitation around him re-injuring his hamstring. We’ve got all the confidence in him and we’re excited to have him back.”

The Sea Eagles currently sit 10th on the NRL ladder, four points adrift of the top eight with just four regular season rounds remaining. To pull off a miraculous late finals qualification, Foran’s side must secure a win over the Dolphins this weekend to keep their slim hopes alive. Foran, who took over head coaching duties from Anthony Seibold earlier this season, is already looking back at that upset 52-point win in his first match in charge for inspiration ahead of Friday’s clash.

In his first season as a top-flight NRL head coach, Foran acknowledged the campaign has been a major learning experience, marked by dramatic form shifts: the club sat third after 15 rounds, but has since dropped down the ladder following a five-match losing streak. Their most recent defeat came against the Melbourne Storm in Perth, where Manly gave up an early lead to lose by 22 points.

Despite the poor run, Foran said he has no intentions of making excuses for the team’s performance, and is focused on building consistent culture at the club moving forward. “We want to be a club that can handle those shifts and those obstacles better. We don’t want to use excuses and gloss over certain things. We want to be a club that you know what you’re going to get, and what what’s I’m trying to grow,” he said. “The attitude and the intent of the players is second to none, and when you’ve got that, you’re 95 per cent of the way there. You’ve just got to get the other little parts right.”

Contract speculation surrounding rising Canterbury Bulldogs back-rower Jacob Preston has been put to rest, according to head coach Cameron Ciraldo, who has pushed back on recent media reports claiming the club’s current contract offer falls far short of what the young star and his management are seeking.

Preston, 24, is entering the final 12 months of his existing deal with the Bulldogs, and would be eligible to open formal contract negotiations with rival NRL clubs from November 1 if he does not extend his stay at Belmore. In recent days, both the Sydney Roosters and North Sydney Bears have been flagged as potential suitors for the in-demand forward, but Ciraldo says a private conversation with the player himself has erased any doubt about Preston’s long-term future at the club.

“I’ve got no worries about Jacob not being here,” Ciraldo told reporters on Thursday, striking a defiant tone. “He was in my office yesterday telling me how much he loves being here, how much he’s committed to the Bulldogs and how much he loves playing with our playing group. So it’s probably a case of don’t believe everything you read in the media, no offence.”

Since making his NRL debut in 2023, Preston has rapidly emerged as one of the league’s most promising young forwards, and he is currently in contention for a spot in Australia’s Rugby League World Cup squad set to compete at the end of the 2025 season. While Ciraldo praised Preston’s on-field impact and upward trajectory, he added that the 24-year-old’s personal character is what ultimately convinces him the forward will sign a new contract to stay in Canterbury blue and white.

“He cares so much about his team and the club and the way we play, and he’s just starting his journey,” Ciraldo said. “I know he’s been playing for four years, but he’s still below that 100-game mark, and he’s just understanding what it takes to become a leader of a team and a club. He’s going to get there, and he’s going to get there here, I’m very confident of that.

“We love having him here, he loves being here. It’ll get sorted, it just doesn’t need to play out through the media. He’s one of those guys in the dressing room that brings a lot of joy and energy and laughter, and that (the media speculation) won’t affect him, he’ll be right.”

Beyond the contract talk, Ciraldo also shared an update on injured forward Sitili Tupouniua, who suffered a fresh hamstring injury during last week’s loss to the Roosters. The coach stopped short of ruling Tupouniua out for the rest of the 2025 season, leaving the door open for a potential return before the end of the regular season.

Tupouniua will definitely miss this Friday’s crucial clash against South Sydney Rabbitohs, a match that many have framed as an early finals decider, with the Rabbitohs holding a two-point advantage over the Bulldogs on the NRL ladder with just four rounds remaining in the regular season. Ciraldo, however, rejected the do-or-die framing, saying his side is focused on incremental improvement rather than chasing a specific result.

“They’re all important games for us, but if we start thinking about winning or results or outcomes, then we’re going to lose our way and miss somewhere in the process. So this week’s been all about how we can be better at our process,” Ciraldo said.

Ahead of the impending appointment of Essendon Football Club’s new permanent senior head coach, interim boss Dean Solomon has forcefully pushed back on recent public speculation that he is locked in a bitter internal rift with leading candidate Mark McVeigh, dismissing the unsubstantiated claims as nothing more than overblown daytime soap opera drama.

The rumours of internal friction first emerged in a Seven Network report Wednesday evening, which claimed tension was brewing between Solomon, McVeigh and another high-profile contender, former Essendon senior coach James Hird. The report further speculated that if McVeigh secured the permanent head coaching role, Solomon would be forced out of the club, despite his existing contract running through 2027.

Addressing the speculation directly for the first time during media comments Thursday morning, Solomon said he had no understanding of how the rumours originated. He emphasized that his decades-long personal and professional relationship with the candidates makes any talk of conflict completely unfounded. “Mark McVeigh has been one of my best mates since we were 15 years old, and I’ve known James Hird since I was 17,” Solomon explained. “I have no clue where all this talk has come from. It honestly feels like something straight out of an episode of *Home and Away*.”

McVeigh currently stands as one of four shortlisted candidates for the permanent Essendon head coaching position, alongside fellow assistant coaches Jaymie Graham from Fremantle and Murray Davis from Adelaide, plus Hird. Solomon reiterated that the club is conducting a rigorous, transparent evaluation process for all contenders, and stressed that the club does not need to hire an insider to fill the role. “It doesn’t need to be someone with past ties to Essendon,” he noted. “What we truly need is just the right person that can move this club forward.”

Solomon dropped out of contention for the full-time role last week, following a severe string of poor on-field results after he stepped into the interim position earlier this season. The interim coach also opened up about the uncertainty surrounding his own future with the club, noting that he is still working through personal and professional considerations. His wife and children reside in northern New South Wales, and he has been separated from his family for 10 to 11 months during his time filling the interim role. “Is this arrangement sustainable long term? Probably not,” Solomon admitted.

He acknowledged that the new permanent head coach, set to be announced in just two weeks, will almost certainly want to bring in his own hand-picked support staff to build a team for the next two to three seasons. “I think continuity is really important for any football program,” Solomon said. “Once the new senior coach is appointed, I’ll sit down with him and we’ll work through what my next step looks like together.”

The 2024 European Athletics Championships delivered a magical night of competition in Birmingham on Wednesday, headlined by a fairytale victory for local favorite Matthew Hudson-Smith, who reclaimed the men’s 400m title on the same track where he first began training at age nine.

Now 31 years old and born just a short distance away in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, Hudson-Smith added another chapter to his legendary European Championship career. Having already won 400m gold in 2018 Berlin and 2022 Munich, this victory marked his fifth European title overall. The result ties him with British athletics icons Roger Black, another 400m specialist, and long-distance legend Mo Farah for the most European gold medals won by a British male athlete, leaving him just one title behind compatriot Dina Asher-Smith.

In a fitting tribute to his connection to the venue, a temporary spectator stand at Alexander Stadium was named in his honor for these championships. From the opening gun, Hudson-Smith controlled the race, surging to the front early and holding off all challengers to cross the line in 44.17 seconds. The sellout crowd of 14,000 rose to their feet as he crossed the finish line, 0.23 seconds ahead of silver medalist Muhammad Abdallah Kounta of France, who is trained by British sprint legend Linford Christie. Dutch runner Jonas Phijffers rounded out the podium, taking bronze in a new national record of 44.41 seconds.

Reflecting on his emotional win, Hudson-Smith said: “My coach told me ‘This is your home — defend it’. I knew that for them to beat me they would have to pull off a super special moment. Nobody was going to beat me on this track. This is my home. I have been here since nine.”

The evening session featured three additional dramatic medal events across different disciplines. In the closing men’s 110m hurdles, Switzerland’s Jason Joseph claimed gold with a time of 13.12 seconds, prompting a joyful, sustained ringing of cowbells from the large group of Swiss supporters in the stands. France’s Just Kwaou-Mathey took silver in 13.16 seconds, while Poland’s Jakub Szymanski secured bronze with 13.26 seconds.

In the women’s 400m hurdles, Slovakian athlete Emma Zapletalova stepped into the spotlight left vacant by two-time defending champion Femke Bol, who switched focus to the 800m ahead of these championships. The in-form Zapletalova, who won bronze behind Bol at the 2023 World Athletics Championships, delivered a dominant performance to win gold in 52.91 seconds. Britain’s Emily Newnham took silver with a new personal best of 53.33 seconds, while Fatoumata Binta Diallo of Portugal claimed bronze in a national record of 53.55 seconds.

Finland made history in the women’s hammer throw, as Silja Kosonen secured the Nordic nation’s first ever European gold in the event. The former world under-20 champion, who finished fifth and fourth at the previous two senior European Championships, launched a personal best throw of 76.28 meters on her third attempt. From that point onward, no challenger was able to match her distance, leaving defending champion Sara Fantini of Italy to take silver with 74.35 meters, and Beatrice Nedberge Llano of Norway to claim bronze with 72.88 meters.

Beyond the medal rounds, Wednesday’s action also set the stage for a potential British podium sweep in the women’s 200m final on Thursday. Newly crowned 100m champion Amy Hunt, 2019 world champion Dina Asher-Smith, and Success Eduan all advanced from their semi-finals. Hunt, who is targeting four championship gold medals and will also compete in the women’s and mixed 4x100m relays, clocked a comfortable 22.37 seconds to win her semi. Asher-Smith, a two-time European 200m gold medalist who finished fifth in the 100m final, won her semi in 22.49 seconds. Defending champion Mujinga Kambundji of Switzerland, who is returning to elite competition after giving birth, finished seventh in her semi and missed out on the final, boosting British hopes of a top-three sweep.

“It’s amazing to have three British girls in the final,” said Eduan. “Me, Amy and Dina haven’t actually spoken about the possible cleansweep. We all just want to focus on our own races, but it would be amazing if that did happen.” Hunt added of her semi-final strategy: “The plan today was to come out and put down a hard first 150m, in order to practice it for tomorrow. I felt so strong from the turn and was just trying to look at the screen seeing where I was, what the time was.”