Latrell Mitchell chases inner peace while Nathan Cleary’s return signals the real start of Penrith’s pursuit of back-to-back titlesLatrell Mitchell is unlikely to view Friday’s clash between the Rabbitohs and Panthers in a re-run of last year’s grand final as a chance to provide any kind of atonement but deep down the emotional fullback will feel an added responsibility to carry South Sydney on his broad shoulders.Mitchell missed last year’s decider after he was suspended for six weeks following a shocking incident when Souths met rivals the Sydney Roosters. Mitchell aggressively hit former teammate Joey Manu high, leaving the mercurial Roosters centre with a facial fracture that ended his season. Continue reading...
The Swans star cements his place in the annals of AFL history amid wild scenes that, like his 1,000-goal mark, are unlikely to be seen againI’ll never forget the first time I saw Lance Franklin play football. Hawthorn was playing at the MCG and I was there under extreme sufferance. The Hawks were unspeakably bad that year. My eyes were glazing over when this beanpole of a second gamer suddenly swooped on a loose ball, shoved Brent Hartigan aside, gathered it one handed, and threaded a left foot goal from the forward pocket. It all happened in a tick over two seconds. He waltzed in and out of the stoppage like he owned the sport, like the MCG was his...
Since taking an extended break from tennis at the age of 18, the retiring champion has put her happiness and wellbeing firstThroughout the chaotic month of January, Ash Barty burst into the new tennis season in full flow, dismantling all challengers. She scythed them with her backhand slice, out-served opponents who towered over her by half a foot or more, and continually displayed her encyclopaedic knowledge of each opponent’s game, homing in on their weaknesses and methodically picking them apart.In a sport where players tend to focus only on themselves, that last quality is distinct enough. But it is even more fascinating considering Barty’s relationship with tennis. Despite the game flowing through her veins, it is not of particular interest...
He achieved greatness but never pretended to be perfect, and perhaps we all loved him a little bit more because of thatThere is a scene in the 2001 Channel 4 documentary Shane Warne’s English Summer in which the Australian leg-spinner is shown in the Hampshire dressing room a few minutes before play is about to begin, wolfing down an enormous plate of chips. The interviewer suggests that perhaps this is not the nutritional regimen normally associated with the world’s top athletes.“Well,” Warne replies through a mouthful of ketchup and deep-fried matter, “if I don’t have my chips, I’m not happy. And if I’m not happy, I don’t bowl well. A piece of lettuce or fruit doesn’t make you feel good,...
Shane Warne was a great Australian as much as a great Australian cricketer, and a startlingly vivid entityOh, Warnie. What have you got up to now? Death is always shocking; the most shocking of all the everyday things. A day on from the death of Shane Warne, aged 52, there is still a sense of genuine disbelief, a shared bruising that seems to transcend the usual response to the loss of a much-loved sports star.This is still hard to grasp. It feels like an escapade, a twist, another moment in the fond, picaresque story that is the life of Shane. Mainly, though, it just feels a little worse with every passing hour, a death that makes less sense, and seems...