Good evening!

No matter where you stand on JD Vance as a politician, he may not have been a very good footballer.

The Ohio State college football team visited the White House earlier this week to celebrate winning the national championship at the beginning of the year.

As Vance went to pick up the trophy, the team could only watch as he fumbled it spectacularly.

I’ve got 10 seconds

Stat of the day

$36.8 million
The financial deficit of Rugby Australia from 2024, as announced by CEO Phil Waugh at the governing body’s annual general meeting today. The figure marks a $9.2 million increase from last year’s deficit. The organisation is hoping to be debt-free by the end of 2025, banking on a lucrative British and Irish Lions Tour and a more valuable broadcast deal with the Nine Network, which was announced last week.

Quote of the day

“I want to apologise for what I said on the court today. It was a heat-of-the-moment comment I truly regret. That’s not how I want to carry myself and I take full responsibility.”
British tennis player Harriet Dart, in a statement posted to Instagram, after she requested the umpire to tell her opponent to wear deodorant because she “smells really bad”. Dart, ranked 110 in the world, lost the match at the Open de Rouen in straight sets to Lois Boisson. Boisson later posted a meme on her own Instagram account, jokingly requesting a collaboration with deodorant brand Dove. 

Random fact of the day

During a match at the 1993 Hamburg Open, the world's number one women's tennis player at the time, Monica Seles, was attacked by a Steffi Graf-obsessed fan. The fan leaned over the court barrier and stabbed the French player in the back with a boning knife. Despite later winning the 1998 French Open, the incident significantly affected Seles’ playing career. 

I’ve got 30 seconds

In case you missed it…

🏉 Fremantle Dockers player Patrick Voss will miss three games after failing to overturn a suspension at the AFL tribunal for a high hit on Richmond Tigers defender Nick Vlastuin. The hit saw Vlastuin leave the field with a bloodied and broken nose. Despite the injury, Vlastuin will start for the Tigers this weekend against the Gold Coast Suns.

⚽ Sydney FC will play the second leg of their Asian Champions League Two semi-final against Singapore’s Lion City Sailors tonight. The Australian club lost the first match of the tie 2-0 and will need to claw back the deficit tonight for a spot in the final. Sydney FC CEO Mark Aubrey said: “It’s probably one of the biggest games in the club’s history, if not the biggest game in the club’s history.” The match kicks off at 8:00pm (AEST). 

⚽ Matildas star Caitlin Foord continues to impress overseas. The Aussie scored two goals in Arsenal’s 5-1 victory over Leicester City in the Women’s Super League. Arsenal are currently second on the Super League table, three points behind competition leaders Chelsea.

Recommendation of the week

I’ve got 1 minute

PSG and Barcelona secure Champions League semi-final spots

Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Barcelona are the first two teams through to the Champions League semi-finals after beating Aston Villa and Borussia Dortmund, respectively. The next two sides will be determined tomorrow morning, with two more quarter-final matches to come.

PSG hold off Aston Villa

Aston Villa hosted PSG this morning and needed to win by at least two goals to level the aggregate score across the two legs of the quarter-final. It looked all but over for the home side when PSG went up by two goals in the first 27 minutes of the match. However, Villa made a remarkable comeback and by the 57th minute, the score was 3-2 in their favour. Ultimately, PSG did enough to hold Villa out for the remainder of the match and win the quarter-final tie by one goal (5-4).

In the other match of the morning, Dortmund played superbly to beat Barcelona 3-1. However, it wasn’t enough to overturn the four-goal deficit that they had accrued in the first leg of the tie. The final score on aggregate across the two matches was 5-3 to Barcelona.

Tomorrow’s fixtures

Tomorrow will see two matches kick off at 5:00am (AEST). Inter Milan will host Bayern Munich, and Real Madrid will play Arsenal. Inter Milan leads its tie with Bayern 2-1. The winner of that match will advance to a semi-final against Barcelona. Meanwhile, Arsenal won the first leg against Real Madrid 3-0 and will look to hold off the Spanish club to secure a spot in the semi-final against PSG.

Help us grow!

Enjoying the newsletter?

If you are, why not share the love with your friends? We’d love your help in getting the word out there.

Send them this link to sign up.

I’ve got 2 minutes

It’s been a big week for Lachlan Galvin. Here’s what you need to know

Last week, Wests Tigers playmaker Lachlan Galvin played a starring role in his side’s 20-4 win over the Knights, recording the most run metres of any player on the pitch.

This week, the 19-year-old knocked back a contract extension offer from the Tigers and was subsequently dropped to the club’s reserve side (Wests Magpies) for this weekend’s fixture.

Here’s what you need to know about the biggest story in rugby league at the moment.

Galvin rejects offer

The Tigers offered Galvin, whose current contract runs until the end of the 2026 season, a $5.5 million, six-year extension to stay with the club. A statement released by the club on Monday confirmed that Galvin had rejected the offer and would not be playing with the Tigers beyond 2026.

The statement added: “It should be noted that the club has no intention of releasing Lachlan from his contract, and he has not requested this.” As it stands, Galvin and his management team will be free to test the market on 1 November this year, but Galvin will remain with the organisation until the end of 2026.

Dropped from first grade

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Galvin was called into coach Benji Marshall’s office on Tuesday morning. In that meeting, he was informed he would not be playing for the club’s first-grade side on Easter Monday against the Eels. It remains unclear whether he will stay in reserve grade for an extended period or not.

Marshall’s decision was reportedly influenced by senior players at the club, including Jarome Luai and Apisai Koroisau. Luai was also one of three players at the club to express their disdain for Glavin’s decision publicly on social media. The ex-Panthers player posted an Instagram story with a caption that read “TeamFirst”.

Statement from Galvin

In a statement on CODE Sports, Galvin said: “The biggest reason why I made this call now is so that the Wests Tigers have enough time to plan their roster without me in the future. That’s the absolute truth of it… I just feel that as I move into an important period of my development as a half, that I continue to build my game at a different club.”

A report from the Sydney Morning Herald on Monday stated Galvin will leave the Tigers because he “has no faith in his coach’s ability”.

Looking back…

Looking forward… (All times are AEST)

TDA asks