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New Zealand Warriors player Mitch Barnett is set to make his debut for NSW in State of Origin next week. But Barnett’s selection didn’t come without sacrifice.

While training for Game I as part of the extended squad Barnett missed the birth of his son, Zane.

He said, "I had to leave camp to get back for the birth but I missed it. It was planned, but I had an obligation to help the boys — I trained here and got on a flight knowing I'd miss it,"

You can see what it means to play State of Origin!

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Stat of the day

75
The number of athletes who will head to Paris as part of the athletics team. It is the largest athletics team Australia has sent to a non-Australian Olympics. The squad includes six medallists from last year’s World Championships and three from the Tokyo Olympics.

Quote of the day

"It was not easy to focus on the match today… it’s very difficult to read the news and just to go onto the court is extremely tough, so I’m happy that I could play today and get a win."
Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina following her defeat of Wang Xinyu in the Round of 16 at Wimbledon. Svitolina wore a black ribbon after a series of Russian missile strikes hit Ukraine on Monday, killing at least 36 people.

Random fact of the day

The Australian Rowing Team announced a new name today, the Rowsellas. While other Australian sporting teams have well-established team names (think Matildas, Wallabies, Hockeyroos) it is the first time that Australian rowing has had one. Australia will send 37 rowers to the Olympics and 8 rowers to the Paralympics in Paris. 

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In case you missed it…

🎾 Ninth-seed Alex de Minaur is through to the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the first time after beating unseeded French player Arthur Fils in four sets (6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3). De Minaur will play second seed and seven-time champion Novak Djokovic on Wednesday (time TBD).

🏉 State of Origin coaches Billy Slater (Qld) and Michael Maguire (NSW) have announced their teams for the series decider to be played next Wednesday 17 July. Three Newcastle Knights players have been called up to play Game III. Centre Bradman Best will replace injured Latrell Mitchell for NSW while Dane Gagai and Kalyn Ponga will both appear for Queensland for the first time since the 2022 decider. 

🦅 West Coast Eagles coach Adam Simpson will depart the club after 11 years. Simpson coached the Eagles to a final in 2015 and a premiership in 2018. However, the club has won only eight of its last 57 games and currently sits in 16th (out of 18) on the ladder after finishing last in 2023.

🏀 A’ja Wilson became the Las Vegas Aces' all-time leading scorer during a win over the Dallas Wings on Sunday. Wilson, who is a two-time WNBA MVP, now sits on 4,301 points for the Aces, surpassing the previous record of 4,300 held by Sophia Young-Malcolm. 

I’ve got 1 minute

A club member of the Brisbane Lions has been stripped of their membership after allegedly racially abusing Adelaide Crows player Izak Rankine in an online forum.

What happened

Rankine, a 24-year-old Ngarrindjeri man, was booed during the Round 17 match at The Gabba and also allegedly racially abused on social media. The Lions responded by identifying the individual who posted the comments and cancelling their club membership immediately.

What they said

The Brisbane Lions said in a statement: "Racism is unacceptable. There are no excuses. We condemn the social media comments made towards an Adelaide Crows player during the match last night. They do not reflect the values of our club or our players."

Adelaide Crows chief executive Tim Silvers added: “As an industry, we have a collective responsibility to not only call out racism, but do everything we can to eradicate it, and we support Brisbane which has acted swiftly and decisively."

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We are nearly halfway through the men’s Tour de France, the most-watched and most prestigious cycling race in the world. We thought it’d be helpful to give you an update and a bit of an explainer as to how it all works.

Who rides in the Tour?

There are 176 riders in this year’s edition of the tour. Every rider is part of an 8-man team, and 22 teams are competing. 

Although cycling may seem like an individual sport (there are no tandem bikes here, as much as we’d all love to see that), winning the Tour requires lots of teamwork. Each team elects at least one leader, and the other riders (known as ‘domestiques’), work together to protect their leader’s position in the race, sometimes letting their leader almost literally ride on their coattails so they can preserve energy.  

Who wins?

The winner of the Tour is the cyclist with the lowest accumulated time after 21 stages (days of racing). The leaderboard for the lowest accumulated time is called the general classification (GC).

The yellow jersey is worn by the GC leader after each stage and kept by the overall leader at the end as the competitors ride into Paris, where the final stage concludes. 

How about the jerseys?

The yellow jersey is the most sought-after prize of the Tour, but it is not the only symbolic jersey on offer. 

The green jersey is worn by the leader of the points classification. Every day of the tour has a certain number of ‘points’ on offer, with flat, long days holding the most points and shorter hill climbs with less. As a result, sprinters usually win this jersey because of how many points are on offer for nailing the stages featuring a decisive sprint. 

The polka-dot jersey is awarded to the leader of the mountains classification. Each mountain climb portion of a stage is allocated a certain number of points, based primarily on their classification from easy to extremely hard. Riders who finish in the first ten positions at the top of a climb score points, and the rider with the most ‘mountain climb points’ wears the polka-dot jersey. 

The white jersey is awarded to the rider under the age of 26 who is highest in the general classification. 

Where are we up to? 

Tonight, the riders will race in Stage 10, starting in the French city of Orléans and ending in Saint-Amand-Montrond. It is characterised by a relatively flat course perfect for sprinters. Slovenian rider Tadej Pogačar, who won the tour in 2021 and 2022, currently leads the general classification by 33 seconds, with Belgian rider Remco Evenepoel sitting in second place. 

How to watch

You can watch the Tour de France on SBS On Demand.

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ACL injuries in footy? Should women and girls be playing? You’re asking the wrong question.

Dr Aaron Fox from Deakin’s School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences is working hard to shed light on the complex world of ACL injuries in sport, particularly the differences between male and female athletes. The findings are fascinating.

One of the core differences to have emerged from the research is that AFLW players sustain ACL injuries in non-contact situations (like reacting to an opponents' directional changes) more than their male counterparts. But Dr Fox emphasises these differences aren't due to inherent knee susceptibility, but potentially how young women and girls have grown up with sport, and the sports they would typically play differing from what they now play in adulthood.

The solution? Make sure young women and girls are not held back or limited in their athletic development and have exposure to a range of sports early in life, particularly adolescence.

As well as growing junior AFLW, there also needs to be advancements in technology. Dr Fox and his team are developing innovative ideas around ACL injury risk screening methods, which he hopes will revolutionise how athletes are assessed and trained. These cutting-edge approaches, combined with increased awareness and targeted training programs, are paving the way for reduced injury rates and safer participation in sport for all athletes - the brains hub of Deakin University is well and truly on the case.

Looking back…

Looking forward…(All times are AEST)

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