分类： sports

Off the Australian Football League pitch, Carlton’s breakout young talent Talor Byrne is quiet and unassuming; once he steps between the lines, however, his electric energy and old-school country work ethic have quickly made him the most exciting emerging piece of the club’s future. The 19-year-old small forward has earned this week’s prestigious AFL Rising Star nomination, capping off a standout three-goal performance that powered Carlton past the Gold Coast Suns at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium last Saturday. When he arrived at the club at the start of the 2024 season, the Blues’ forward group was struggling through a disjointed, underperforming opening stretch—flat in front of goal, disconnected in build-up play, and failing to deliver consistent pressure on opposing defenses. Byrne’s arrival into the starting rotation has completely shifted that dynamic, injecting new life and urgent energy into an attack that sorely needed it. True to his grounded, country roots, Byrne has brushed off individual praise, staying focused on team success rather than personal accolades. When asked who he had first shared his Rising Star nomination news with, the young forward laughed and admitted he had yet to alert any of his family or close friends, adding with characteristic humility that he “should probably tell them soon.” For Byrne, the path to the AFL was not a straight, smooth line. Before being drafted by Carlton, he faced a period of self-doubt that nearly derailed his dreams of professional football. During his final underage season, Byrne lost confidence in his game and struggled to find the joy that first drew him to the sport. Rather than pushing through the slump at the elite underage level alone, he stepped back to split game time between the GWV Rebels youth academy and his local country club, where coach Chris McLaren helped him rediscover his love for the game. “I wasn’t playing very good footy at the end of my bottom age year, so I was just doubting myself sort of thing,” Byrne explained in an interview following his nomination. “My local coach was unreal for me, he sort of just helped me along there and just made me enjoy my footy again. In the pre-season I just had to lock in and give it a red-hot crack and I guess that’s why I am here now.” That dedicated, no-nonsense approach paid off: Carlton selected Byrne with the 45th pick in the 2023 AFL National Draft, and he relocated to Melbourne to join the club, initially moving into a home shared with Carlton star midfielder and former Rising Star winner Sam Walsh. Walsh stepped into multiple roles for the young draftee: teammate, mentor, friend, and even landlord, hosting Byrne for far longer than originally planned when the young rookie’s search for a permanent group house hit delays. To thank Walsh for his support, Byrne gave his star teammate a generous departing gift: a full slab of premium steaks from his cousin’s butcher shop at Midfield Meats. “He was great showing me the ropes, getting to know everyone and even him as a person – I didn’t really know him,” Byrne said of Walsh. “He had me for a lot longer than he probably expected because it took us a bit longer to find a house. He was great for the start of my career.” Today, Byrne shares a home with three other young Carlton players: Billy Wilson, Flynn Young and Harry Dean. When ranking his housemates, Byrne put Young at the top of the leaderboard for his cooking and cleaning skills, noting that Young “cooks and loves going in his little cleaning modes” while the rest of the group are far less consistent around the house. He and Dean, however, share a habit of unpredictable late-night energy bursts, where the pair run around the house to burn off excess energy before bed— a silly ritual that keeps the young group grounded through the pressure of first-year AFL football. With his Rising Star nomination, Byrne has cemented his status as one of the most promising young talents in the league, and his combination of humble off-field demeanor and explosive on-field output has already made him a fan favorite at Carlton, as the club looks to build a competitive future around its emerging core of young talent.

For rising NRL halfback Lachlan Galvin, the public criticism that followed his high-profile 2025 mid-season switch from Wests Tigers to Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs has been constant and often overwhelming. But the 21-year-old playmaker has opened up about an unexpected off-field passion that helps him block out the noise and stay focused on pushing his new side into the 2025 finals series.

Controversy has followed Galvin since his departure from the Tigers, and internal chaos at the club has kept the conversation around his exit alive long after he left. Recent off-field turmoil at Wests Tigers, including five-eighth Jarome Luai’s 2026 move to Parramatta Eels and fullback Adam Doueihi’s refusal to take the field for a recent match, has kept the spotlight trained on Galvin. Many Tigers fans have refused to forgive the young halfback’s switch, and he was met with loud boos from the crowd when the two clubs faced off in Round 13.

In his first extensive interview of the 2025 season, Galvin spoke about how he has learned to navigate the constant scrutiny. “There’s always going to be a bit of noise around this game, but I’ve learned to just block it out,” he said. “I love playing footy and I love being around my teammates, so nothing really changes how I approach the game. This is just part of rugby league, and I’ve accepted that.”

What many fans do not see is the routine Galvin has built away from Belmore Oval to decompress: a love of horse racing that has him mucking out stables and caring for thoroughbreds at Warwick Farm, a world away from social media criticism and match-day pressure. Galvin is a part-owner of a racehorse fittingly named Exit Clause, and he regularly helps out at trainer Jason Coyle’s stable with hands-on tasks from feeding horses to mucking stalls and saddling up for track work.

“That’s my escape,” Galvin explained. “It gets me completely away from footy, away from all the noise. It’s my own little bubble with Jason and a few of my family members, and that’s exactly what I need. When I get back to training after a few hours at the stables, I’m refreshed and ready to work hard.”

While the young athlete has been able to compartmentalize the backlash, Galvin acknowledged that the constant criticism has been harder on his family. “Any parent is going to hate seeing people say negative things about their kid, but we have our getaway, and we step away from footy whenever we can,” he said. “They’re all incredibly supportive, they know who matters, and they don’t pay attention to all the outside noise.”

Galvin’s escape to the stables has paid off on the field, as he has emerged as a key playmaker for the Bulldogs, who are now on the cusp of breaking into the top eight to qualify for the finals. The 21-year-old has formed a devastating right-edge combination with back-rower Jacob Preston, which produced another try in the Bulldogs’ recent clash against the New Zealand Warriors.

“He’s a freak, honestly. He makes me look so good out there,” Galvin said of Preston. “I just run at the line, and he always spots the right gap to hit. He’s one of the best back-rowers I’ve ever played with. It’s such a confidence boost having him inside me on defense and outside me on attack — I couldn’t ask for a better partner.”

Galvin also praised five-eighth Stephen Crichton, who turned out an exceptional performance just one day after welcoming his newborn child, as well as head coach Cameron Ciraldo for creating a supportive team environment that has helped him thrive through a turbulent 12 months. With the Bulldogs climbing the ladder and on track for a finals spot, Galvin said the team’s on-field success has made navigating off-field pressure far easier.

“Winning fixes everything, right? I already have such an amazing support network around me, but when you’re winning and everyone’s smiling, it makes everything so much better,” he said. While Galvin’s horses did not claim a win on the racecourse last Saturday, he is already looking forward to the upcoming Spring Carnival, where he hopes to celebrate a win both on the turf and on the football field.

An 11th-hour resolution has ended a public standoff between star Wests Tigers playmaker Adam Doueihi and club leadership, with the disgruntled halfback confirmed to resume team training on Tuesday following productive negotiations held Monday morning. The outcome has quashed widespread speculation that Doueihi had turned out his last match for the struggling NRL side, after he was sidelined for the club’s lopsided 56-10 defeat to Canberra over the weekend.

The conflict erupted after reports emerged that Doueihi, the Lebanese international who has been the Tigers’ standout performer throughout the 2024 season, refused to take the field when asked to shift from his usual halfback position to play lock or come off the interchange bench. The unrest prompted an urgent sit-down between Doueihi, his agent Isaac Moses, head coach Benji Marshall, and senior club officials at the Tigers’ Concord headquarters. The closed-door meeting wrapped up in less than an hour, with no details of internal discussions released to the public.

Following the negotiations, Wests Tigers chief executive Shaun Mielekamp released a brief, upbeat statement confirming the positive outcome. “It was a very positive and productive meeting,” Mielekamp told reporters. “Adam will be at training tomorrow, which is a very good sign. What’s really important is that what was said in that meeting stays in that room. That’s important for us as a club. We’re all doing what’s best for the club. I’ve got no further comment, thank you.”

The resolution comes amid one of the most turbulent stretches in the Tigers’ recent history, a stretch that has seen the club plummet to 16th place on the NRL ladder — far outside finals contention, with the club’s last post-season appearance dating all the way back to 2011. The side got off to a promising start to the 2024 campaign, but a cascade of key injury blows and off-contract drama has sent their form into a nosedive. The unrest has been compounded by star playmaker Jarome Luai’s high-profile decision to sign with the PNG Chiefs starting in 2028, ending his planned tenure with the Tigers beyond 2026; Luai is now set to join rivals Parramatta for the 2027 season.

The Doueihi drama dominated headlines this week, overshadowing the NRL debut of young Tigers prospect Javon Andrews, who made his first senior appearance in Canberra. All attention now turns to how Marshall will adjust his halves combination ahead of this weekend’s match against Parramatta, where Doueihi is now in line to return to the side.

Speaking after the Canberra defeat before the meeting, Marshall acknowledged the situation had been a difficult unexpected challenge for the first-year head coach, who has openly described this current slump as the hardest period of his coaching career to date. “That situation was a tough one to deal with this week, unexpected to be honest,” Marshall said. “As a coach, I always try to make decisions on what I think is best for the team… for Adam, I can understand his disappointment, we asked him to play a different role and he just wasn’t in a good headspace to play this week, you have to respect that. We’ll try and get to a resolution next week some stage and put the noise to bed.” That resolution has now come to fruition, bringing a temporary end to off-field turmoil at the struggling club.

It has been two full seasons since star St Kilda Saints forward Max King last graced the field at the top-tier Australian Football League (AFL) level, and his highly anticipated comeback against North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium on Sunday ended in sudden disappointment. Ruled out mid-match due to what the club has described as hamstring tightness, King left the venue early before the traditional post-match team song, and is scheduled to undergo medical scans on Monday to assess the full extent of the new issue. Now, St Kilda captain Callum Wilkie, who has been teammates with King for eight years after the pair entered the league via the same draft, has publicly backed the club’s decision to bring the forward back to the senior side, and offered public support to the injury-plagued athlete.

Speaking to sports outlet SEN, Wilkie refuted any claims that King was rushed back into AFL action. He explained that King’s prior hamstring injury, sustained earlier this year during a comeback stint in the lower-tier Victorian Football League (VFL), was always managed with a deliberate, conservative approach. “It’s not like we rushed him back,” Wilkie noted. “He did the hammy 12 weeks ago and it wasn’t a 12-week hammy, it was about a four-five week hammy. They took a very conservative approach with it and built his training loads and conditioning up over the last 12 weeks, but especially the last month or so when he was hitting game loads at training.”

As someone who trained directly alongside King in the lead-up to Sunday’s match, Wilkie said he saw first-hand that the forward was fully prepared to return to senior competition. “I was playing [against him in intra-club training] and saw what he can do, he was ready to come back and it was great have him back out there playing with us,” Wilkie said. “The fans loved it, we loved it as players and he’ll be back very soon I imagine.”

In Sunday’s match, King started each of the first three quarters on the interchange bench, entering the game roughly eight minutes into each term. He finished the short outing with just two disposals: a misaligned shot on goal and a quick handball, having taken a mark and attempted a score in the second quarter. After the match, head coach Ross Lyon defended King and the club’s selection call in a tense press conference, noting he prioritized preparing for the win over collecting immediate medical updates.

Wilkie reached out to King after the match after the 24-year-old left the stadium early, and told reporters he reassured King that the setback would not change his standing within the club. “Yeah, well he left early so didn’t get a chance to see him in the rooms after but, you know, (I) messaged him saying we love him and are right behind him,” Wilkie said. “Whatever this is doesn’t change who he is and what he means to our football club. But, hammy tightness like Ross said, he’ll get a scan today and then the club will release a statement to the extent of what that actually is.”

Wilkie also addressed the enormous public pressure King has faced amid his well-documented history of injuries, which has kept him sidelined from AFL competition for two full years. “I’ve been with Maxy for eight years – we got drafted together – and he’s obviously had a storied injury career that the media and everyone has addressed thoroughly,” Wilkie said. “There’s so much pressure on that young man’s shoulders, what’s it been, two years since he played an AFL game? He would’ve been rightfully frustrated and devastated and the club made that call that he was allowed to go home and we live by that.”

The 2024 Tour de France wrapped up on Sunday with two historic moments that will be remembered for years in cycling: Slovenia’s Tadej Pogacar etched his name into the sport’s record books by securing his fifth overall title, while Dutch star Mathieu van der Poel pulled off a nail-biting victory on the iconic Champs-Élysées that capped a stunning turnaround for his team.

Pogacar’s fifth Tour win puts him in an exclusive group of all-time cycling greats, joining legends Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain as the only riders to claim five overall titles at cycling’s most prestigious Grand Tour. But rather than dwelling on his place in history, the 25-year-old Slovenian said he is ready to step away from the pressure of competitive racing and savor quiet life after three weeks of grueling competition across France.

“Right now I just want to enjoy the moment of winning the Tour,” Pogacar told reporters after crossing the finish line in Paris. “If it’s the fifth or the first, it doesn’t matter — it’s unbelievable to wear the yellow jersey and to cross the line in Paris winning it. I will just enjoy this moment, not thinking about any history, not thinking about joining any club. I just want to live this moment, come back home, relax, enjoy the small things of life.”

Pogacar added that each of his five Tour victories holds a unique place in his heart, saying: “I’m really happy and proud to win a fifth Tour. Every single one has a different story, a different meaning, different emotions. Each one of them feels incredible and unbelievable for me.”

While Pogacar took home the overall yellow jersey, the final stage belonged to van der Poel, a cobbled classics specialist who achieved a long-held career dream with his dramatic win on Paris’s most famous avenue. The 31-year-old broke away from the peloton alongside Pogacar on the Montmartre climb, where thousands of cheering fans packed the route to create a electric atmosphere. The two riders held off a chasing group of sprinters for 10 kilometers, pushing all out to hold their lead to the line.

In the final 700 meters, van der Poel surged ahead alone as a fatigued Pogacar was unable to match his acceleration. In the end, the Dutchman held off the chasing pack by the thinnest of margins, forcing a photo finish that confirmed his win. “It was no words, no communication, we just both rode to the death, to the final and I ran out of gas,” Pogacar said of the final sprint. “I knew that we had to go all out, he knew we had to go all out, we both committed and he took a beautiful victory.”

Van der Poel admitted he never expected to hold off the chasers all the way to the line, saying he spent the final 500 meters bracing for a rider to pass him. His Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Jasper Philipsen came the closest, with van der Poel only spotting the Belgian’s wheel alongside him in the final meters. “I thought we were going to get caught back, but then I was just thinking about this moment, and I just put my head down in the last 500 metres,” van der Poel said. “I just went as hard as I could, and I was just waiting until a wheel was coming past, and it didn’t happen… In the very end, I see a Pirelli tyre next to me, and it’s the one from Jasper.”

The win marked a bright end to a difficult Tour for van der Poel and his team, a outcome he said proved the squad’s resilience. “It just shows that we never give up. Maybe the start of our Tour was not good, but I won on the Champs Elysees. I think it’s pretty good,” he said. When asked where he found the strength to hold on, van der Poel joked: “If there was one race I still wanted to win in my career, I have a few, of course, but this was one of them. We have a saying in Dutch that it has to come from your toes. I don’t know where this came from, but not from my toes!”

Behind Pogacar in the overall classification, Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel secured the best result of his Tour de France career, finishing second overall with two stage wins including a victory in a high mountain stage. The performance silenced critics who had claimed Evenepoel, a renowned time trial specialist, was not built to contend for overall victory at three-week Grand Tours, even after he won the 2022 Vuelta a Espana. Evenepoel said the result proved he deserves to dream of winning the Tour one day.

“Second place, for me was more like the fact to prove towards myself that I did well to not let go my dream of stepping on the podium of Grand Tours as much as possible and aiming to try to win them,” Evenepoel said. “Because that’s my career goal. After this result, I think I’ve shown towards myself, my team and also to the outside world that I deserve to dream and aim for that.”

The 2026 Commonwealth Games continued to deliver thrilling competitive action across swimming and gymnastics on Sunday, with veteran athletes producing career-defining performances and young contenders pulling off major upsets against pre-race favourites.

In the biggest headline of the day, 32-year-old Australian swimming icon Cameron McEvoy cemented his legacy at the multi-sport event by claiming his first ever individual Commonwealth Games gold medal in the men’s 50m freestyle. Not only did McEvoy dominate the race from start to finish after a blistering start off the starting blocks, he also smashed the existing Commonwealth Games record to secure a historic win that completed an Australian 1-2-3 podium sweep, with Flynn Southham taking silver and Jamie Jack claiming bronze.

McEvoy’s long-awaited individual gold adds to his three previous Commonwealth Games gold medals won in relay events, capping a decades-long run of consistent podium finishes: he took silver and bronze in the same 50m freestyle event at the 2014 Glasgow Games and the 2018 Gold Coast Games held on home Australian soil. The iconic sprinter now holds an Olympic title in the 50m freestyle alongside his new Commonwealth individual crown.

Elsewhere in the swimming pool, British superstar Adam Ramsay-Peaty has locked in his spot for the upcoming 50m breaststroke final after qualifying fifth fastest in the semi-finals, and he says he has a clear battle plan to bounce back after a disappointing third-place finish in the 100m breaststroke final that left him emotional. The 31-year-old is chasing a piece of history this Games, aiming to become the first English swimmer ever to claim Commonwealth gold at four different editions of the event. However, he will enter the final ranked third overall, trailing 100m breaststroke champion Sam Williamson and South Africa’s Michael Houlie in qualifying times.

Reflecting on his recent disappointment, Ramsay-Peaty framed setbacks as an inevitable part of elite sport. “In sport, it’s not really about when you get beat down because it’s going to be inevitable. It’s actually how long it takes you to look at it, respect it, and turn it around,” he told reporters ahead of Monday’s final. “I’m really happy with that. I’ve got a great trajectory for tomorrow.”

The day’s swimming schedule delivered no shortage of other standout results. Australian distance swimmer Lani Pallister claimed her second gold medal of the meet with a dominant performance in the women’s 1500m freestyle, while 20-year-old Australian underdog Iona Anderson pulled off a massive upset to edge pre-race favourite Kylie Masse of Canada in the women’s 100m backstroke. Australia also extended their perfect run in relay events, clinching another gold in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay. After several days of overwhelming Australian dominance in the pool, Sunday’s competition brought more diversity to the podium, with multiple other nations locking in top finishes.

South African swimmer Pieter Coetze added a 200m backstroke gold to his 50m backstroke title won on Saturday, while Canada’s Josh Liendo snatched a narrow one-hundredth of a second victory over Australia’s Matthew Temple to take gold in the men’s 100m butterfly. Host nation Scotland also earned a swimming gold, as Angharad Evans mounted a stunning late comeback to win the women’s 100m breaststroke.

Gymnastics competition also delivered drama and historic moments for host Scotland and Canada. In the men’s all-around final, 21-year-old Scot Reuben Ward held off a late charge from Canada’s Felix Dolci to claim gold by just 0.200 points, with Australia’s Jesse Moore rounding out the podium. Ward called the win an almost unreal achievement, comparing the path to gold to climbing a mountain. “I knew I could do it, but to actually do it. When the score came through, it is just jubilation and joy,” he said. “Incredible! I’m so lucky to be in this position. I would not have been in this position without my family and my team-mates. It is like climbing a mountain.”

Dolci, who already earned team gold with Canada earlier in the competition, overcame a disastrous start that saw him fall twice from the pommel horse in his first apparatus to mount a stunning comeback, turning in five near-perfect routines that nearly earned him the top spot. The Canadian said he was proud to showcase the value of resilience even when all odds seem stacked against an athlete. “I wanted to show that it’s never done until it’s done. That’s something I deeply value and I’m glad I was able to showcase that,” he said.

Canada also earned gold in the women’s all-around final, where 30-year-old veteran Ellie Black outscored Australia’s Breanna Scott and 16-year-old Canadian teammate Lia-Monica Fontaine to take the top spot. Black said that entering the competition, her primary goal was just to get back to competing at a high level, making the gold an unexpected bonus. “I’m so proud. My goal was not to come in and win. It was to come in and compete again,” she said. “To come out on top, is the cherry on top. I love the Commonwealths, it’s so fun to be here.”

Outside the pool and gym, netball pool stage action delivered two high-stakes matches, with Australia producing a dominant 66-47 win over England in the day’s biggest pool clash, while New Zealand earned a narrow 53-48 victory over Jamaica in the second key Pool B match.

Australian Football League (AFL) has officially confirmed a three-year fixture plan for its revived State of Origin series, bringing both long-awaited clarity for fans and disappointing news for supporters based in Victoria, who will be locked out of hosting the showcase match for the entire three-year cycle. The announcement, made Monday, marks the next chapter of the event’s comeback after a nearly 30-year hiatus that concluded earlier this year with an electric opening clash.

The 2023 return of State of Origin saw Western Australia play host to Victoria at Perth’s Optus Stadium, where a sellout crowd of more than 58,000 spectators turned out to watch the inter-state showdown. Victoria claimed victory in the high-stakes match, with Greater Western Sydney defender Lachie Ash taking home the best afield honors, while Jesse Hogan earned the top player title for Western Australia.

Under the newly locked-in three-year arrangement, South Australia will rejoin the series starting next season (2027). The 2027 matchup will pit Western Australia against South Australia at Perth Stadium, with Perth retaining hosting duties for that fixture. In 2028, South Australia will step into the host role, welcoming Victoria to the iconic Adelaide Oval for the annual Origin clash. The cycle will reset in 2029, when Western Australia will once again host Victoria back at Perth Stadium.

AFL Chief Executive Andrew Dillon noted that the multi-year scheduling agreement brings much-needed certainty for all stakeholders of the series, a feature he says will let supporters lean into the long-held inter-state rivalries that define the event. “State football is one of the great traditions of our game, and we are pleased to see it continue in 2027 and beyond after the huge success of its return earlier this year,” Dillon said in a statement following the announcement.

“Origin inspires passion, State pride and draws upon decades of rivalries that are central to the history of our game and our greatest players,” he added. “Locking in the structure for the next three years provides fans, clubs, players and stakeholders certainty on Origin, allowing them to embrace the state rivalry and celebrate our great game.”

Dillon also extended gratitude to the state governments that have partnered to support the series over the coming three years, acknowledging Western Australian Premier Roger Cook and his government for supporting the 2027 and 2029 matches, as well as South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas and his administration for their partnership to bring elite state-level football back to Adelaide in 2028.

For Victorian fans disappointed by the three-year hosting gap, a scheduling conflict provides context for the decision: Victoria was always seen as an unlikely candidate to host the 2027 match due to a pre-scheduled Ashes Test cricket match between Australia and England that will occupy the state’s major sporting venues during the same window.