Australia fell to an opening defeat against a fully professional New Zealand side but gave a hint they can mix it with the bestFor half an hour, romance had trumped realism. As Australia romped to a 17-0 lead over New Zealand, with 19-year-old Bienne Terita scoring two tries in only her second Test, and the evergreen Sharni Williams cutting holes in midfield in her fourth World Cup, we began to wonder if maybe, just maybe, conventional wisdom could be suspended and give way to something magical.Maybe a rag-tag group of amateurs could beat one of the sport’s powerhouses. Maybe money wasn’t the key ingredient to success. Maybe a World Cup title in one code could shift the paradigm in another....
Players and fans are making a strong stance for greater inclusion in the game through their guernsey designsWith only three rounds remaining in the regular season of the AFLW, this weekend’s Pride round is pivotal as teams make their last dash for the finals and look to cement their place in the top eight.That this round, which is important to so many fans and players of the women’s game, comes at such a meaningful time adds to its gravity and underlines the seriousness with which the issue of LGBTQ+ inclusion is taken within the sport. While rainbow flags, guernseys and socks will add colour and joy across all the grounds during round eight, the white-line fever will step up a...
Dr Paul McCrory’s work shaped concussion policy across global sport for the past 20 years – but organisations have been misledThe words land with a slap. “There is no scientific evidence that sustaining several concussions over a sporting career will necessarily result in permanent damage.” They are from a December 2001 editorial in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, called “When to retire after concussion?”It goes on to say that it is “neuromythology” that a player ought to retire after suffering multiple brain injuries. “The unstated fear behind this approach is that an athlete suffering repeated concussions will suffer a gradual cognitive decline similar to the so called punch-drunk syndrome or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy seen in boxers. Based on published...
Phil Gould labelled it a five-year plan. He was wrong on the timeline but a decade later this Panthers team is a juggernautThe golden west is now in a golden age. Penrith, just the third NRL team to win win back-to-back unified competitions in three decades, were as close to perfect as they come.Their grand final win was a demolition job, a 28-12 onslaught few teams in history could have withstood – not even the brave Parramatta. Continue reading...
Denied the fairytale ending in 2016, Jackson has finally bowed out in a manner befitting her status in Australian basketballTwo weeks ago, Australia’s Lauren Jackson – perhaps the greatest female basketball player of all time – told me she did not believe in fairytales. No matter. On Saturday, Jackson farewelled her remarkable career in true fairytale fashion. It would be hard to script a more appropriate ending. On home soil, the Opals beat Canada to win the bronze medal – or “rose gold,” as Australian fans like to say – at the Fiba Women’s World Cup. Jackson reprised her form of old, leading the scoring with 30 points, to add a fourth World Cup medal to her tally (alongside four...