If you’re a North Melbourne AFL fan, get down to Vinnies in Hampton, stat.

On Sunday, former coach Alastair Clarkson was spotted dumping a haul of his old Kangaroos kit at the local op shop less than a week after he was sacked from the club with a year left on his contract.

The club’s decision to part ways with Clarkson came as a shock, with the four-time premiership-winning coach at Hawthorn telling The Age he and his family have all been “so publicly humiliated.”

So, was Clarkson’s public offloading of Kangaroos kit a way of getting back at the club or a generous way of giving back clothing he simply didn’t need anymore?

36
The number of European club football teams playing in the UEFA Champions League, which begins tomorrow morning (AEST). In the league phase, the teams have been divided into four groups and will play every team in their group across eight matchdays. The knockout phase will begin early next year. French club Paris Saint-Germain are the tournament’s reigning champions.

“If the Olympic movement actually does grasp the challenge that they’ve got, and recognise that while there are some traditional sports that we love dearly, they have no modern relevance whatsoever and there’s others that absolutely have earned and need a more prominent position within the Olympic movement.”
Australian Sports Commission boss and former Olympic swimmer Kieren Perkins speaking at a sports conference in Melbourne about the need for the Olympics to continue evolving its event roster. Perkins did not specify which sports he thinks have no modern relevance. At LA2028, two sports, flag football and squash, will make their Olympic debuts while softball, baseball, cricket and lacrosse will all return after absences. Breakdancing is the only sport that has been cut since the Paris Olympics in 2024.

Today marks 20 years since the death of legendary Australian racing driver Peter Brock. A record nine-time winner of the Bathurst 1000, Australia’s most prestigious homegrown motorsport event, Brock was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001. He died in a crash aged 61 while racing in a rally near Perth on 8 September 2006.

🏀 The Opals, Australia’s women’s basketball team, lost their final group stage match at the World Cup to European champions Belgium. The Aussies went down 80-68 in Berlin after having won their opening two matches against Puerto Rico and Türkiye. The result means the Opals finish second in the group and will now face world No.14 Italy in a do-or-die qualification match for a spot in the quarter-finals.

🏉 Brisbane Lions star Zac Bailey has signed on to stay with the club through 2034. Bailey had reportedly entertained an offer from the Adelaide Crows, who Brisbane will play in a semi-final on Saturday, but opted to stay with the Lions on an eight-year deal. The two-time All-Australian is now one of only four players in the league with a contract signed through 2034.

🎾 Chinese tennis star Qinwen Zheng came back from 5-0 down in the opening set to defeat Poland’s Iga Świątek 7-5, 6-3 and advance to the U.S. Open quarter-finals overnight. It’s the second time in two matches that Zheng has won a set from 5-0 down after winning the deciding set against American Madison Keys in the same fashion two days earlier. The U.S. Open quarterfinals will begin tomorrow morning (AEST).

Only 3% of Australia's medical research funding goes towards women's health issues.

If that makes you feel hysterical, you're not alone. Swisse gets it: that's why they've launched HYSTERIA, a platform reclaiming the word and pushing for real conversation and funding for women's health. Their Ultiboost range backs that up, with support for everything from PMS and hormones to vaginal health and mental clarity, at every life stage.

The AFL announced on Monday that it will introduce limits on contact training for men’s and women’s clubs, aiming to reduce concussion and head trauma cases.

At the moment, the limits cover the men’s preseason from the 2027 season. Frameworks for both men’s in-season training and for the AFLW are set to follow.

All 18 clubs will be restricted to 120 minutes of total contact training per week when preseason begins in November, including a sub-limit of 60 minutes on high-intensity work. From week five until kick-off, the cap will rise to 160 minutes per week, inclusive of 120 high-intensity minutes. Contact training includes any team drill or activity that involves tackling, bumps, and physical body clashes, which all carry a risk of head trauma or concussion.

Clubs also cannot run high-intensity contact sessions on consecutive days.

The move stems from 2023 recommendations from the Victorian Coroner’s investigation into the death of former Richmond midfielder Shane Tuck.

Tuck played 173 games for the Tigers and was a full-time professional boxer from 2015 to 2017. He was diagnosed post-mortem with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head trauma.

After the coroner recommended limiting the number of contact training sessions in a season, the AFL ran a two-year consultation, which it said on Monday found “concussions occurred most commonly in match simulation and small-sided high-intensity drills”.

The announcement also comes after the AFL fined Geelong $140,000 in August over a secret 2024 concussion waiver, in which key defender Jake Kolodjashnij consented to taking on legal responsibility for any future brain trauma to shield the club from action.

The NRL introduced its own contact training restrictions for its men’s and women’s competitions in April this year.

Lifeline: 13 11 14

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Cricket Australia (CA) has approved the partial privatisation of the Big Bash League (BBL).

States can now sell 49% stakes in their BBL teams.

Here’s what to know.

The BBL is Australia’s short-form summer cricket competition. It features eight teams: the Adelaide Strikers, the Brisbane Heat, the Hobart Hurricanes, the Melbourne Renegades (already set to be sold), the Melbourne Stars, the Sydney Thunder, the Sydney Sixers, and the Perth Scorchers.

The league’s short matches have contributed to its popularity, with a Hobart v Brisbane game in January reaching more than 2.1 million viewers nationally, with strong audiences across key age groups.

CA is the national governing body for cricket. It owns the BBL, but currently each team is owned by its state association (e.g. Cricket NSW owns the Sixers and Thunder).

On Monday night, the CA board decided to push ahead with privatising the BBL without unanimous support, finalising a plan developed over the past nine months despite opposition from NSW and Queensland.

Under the plan, private companies or individuals would be able to buy minority stakes in BBL teams. Their investment would help teams grow and recruit players. They would receive a share of profits and have voting rights on key decisions. With a maximum 49% stake, they would not hold majority control.

CA has taken its first step by launching a sales process for the Melbourne Renegades, with bids to be invited ahead of the 2027-28 season. Pending that result, other clubs may follow under a self-determination model that lets each state decide its own pathway.

The decision was confirmed at the SCG on Tuesday, with Australian men’s captain Pat Cummins and women’s captain Sophie Molineux present alongside senior players Ellyse Perry and Travis Head.

It is not yet clear how this will impact the Women’s Big Bash League.

In a media release, CA said it will “maintain control over the most significant aspects,” including investor approval, salary caps, international scheduling, player availability, and branding proposals.

In an op-ed for The West Australian, former Australian men’s head coach Justin Langer said “while the money is undeniable… what separates the successful franchise from the expensive mistakes… is the relationship between the owner and the people running the cricket”.

TDA has asked the Australian Cricketers’ Association and Cricket NSW for comment.