Ok, I know you’ve been eagerly awaiting the results from Wednesday’s poll question: ‘Did you already know the reason behind Australian teams wearing green and gold?’

For those who missed it, the main inspiration for the colours is Australia’s national flower, the golden wattle.

The results: a 50/50 split! (I don’t feel like such a fool after all).

🏉 Fremantle downed the Sydney Swans 111-73 last night in a top-of-the-table clash in Perth. The Dockers trailed by up to 25 points and were goalless at half-time before piling on nine goals in the final quarter to blow the game open. Fremantle forward Josh Treacy kicked four goals. It was just the third goalless first half in Freo's history. Round 18 continues tonight when Collingwood take on North Melbourne. 

⚽ France’s Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé fired France into a third straight World Cup semi-final with a 2-0 win over Morocco in Boston. Mbappé missed a first-half penalty before scoring in the 60th minute for his eighth goal of the tournament, moving him to the top of the Golden Boot’s standings, ahead of Argentina’s Lionel Messi. Dembélé sealed the result six minutes later. France will now meet the winner of tomorrow morning’s quarter-final between Spain and Belgium in the semi-finals.

🚴 Tadej Pogačar reclaimed the yellow jersey at the Tour de France overnight after a solo attack on the Col du Tourmalet delivered him his  23rd career stage win. The four-time champion, chasing a record-equalling fifth Tour title, had started the day trailing leader Torstein Traeen by seven minutes and 53 seconds. The Norwegian crashed on the Tourmalet descent and dropped out of contention for the yellow jersey. Pogačar now leads his Danish rival, Jonas Vingegaard, by two minutes and 42 seconds overall.

🏉 Violence prevention group Our Watch has condemned Australian boxer Benjamin Hussain after he posted and later deleted a video joking about domestic violence spiking ahead of the men’s State of Origin decider. In his original post, Hussain said “Boys, in Queensland domestic violence goes up 40% on Origin night” and Nathan Cleary “is single-handedly going to make it double”, and added “hopefully all you dogs and partners wear mouthguards when they go to sleep tonight.” Hussain later apologised, saying he was using “dark humour”, but Our Watch CEO Patty Kinnersly told ABC the comments were unacceptable in a year when 36 Australian women have been killed by men. 

1800 Respect: 1800 737 732

🏊 Olympic backstroke champion Kaylee McKeown has withdrawn from the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and the Pan Pacific Championships after being diagnosed with glandular fever. McKeown said she is “gutted to medically withdraw” after months of fatigue, shortness of breath and loss of appetite. In a post on  Instagram, she added: “Glandular got me good, the sneaky bugga. Bit rude, really”. Swimming Australia head coach Rohan Taylor also said her health “is the most important thing”. Australia will now send a 59‑strong team to the Games, which is running from 23 July to 2 August and 43 athletes to Pan Pacs, running from 12 to 15 August. 

Reporting by George Finlayson and Pavitra Ravi.

Talking points: Both men's semi-finals will take place on Centre Court at Wimbledon tonight. German third seed Alexander Zverev will look to avoid an upset against British wildcard Arthur Fery, who was ranked 114th before the tournament and is only the second men’s wildcard to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals. Then, world No. 1 Jannik Sinner meets seven-time champion Novak Djokovic in a rematch of last year's semi-final, which Sinner won. In the women’s singles, the tournament will stage its first all-Czech Grand Slam final between Karolína Muchová and Linda Nosková. In last night’s semi-finals, Muchová saved a match point to beat American Coco Gauff in a third-set tiebreak, while Nosková defeated Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk in straight sets.

How to watch: The men’s semi-finals begin at 10:30pm tonight (AEST) while the women's final will be played early on Sunday morning. You can watch the tennis on Channel 9, 9Now and Stan Sport. 

Talking points: Spain and Belgium meet in a rematch of their 1986 quarter-final, which Belgium won on penalties. Spain have been rock solid in defence and are yet to concede a goal at this tournament. On the other hand, Belgium come into the match with some goalscoring momentum after beating the U.S. 4-1. On Sunday morning (AEST), Norway play England in their first-ever meeting at a major tournament. Norway striker Erling Haaland leads England captain Harry Kane by one goal – seven to six – in the Golden Boot race. Argentina and Switzerland will round out the weekend. The Swiss are into their first quarter-final since 1954 and face a tough assignment against the defending champions, who they have never beaten in seven attempts.

How to watch: All matches will be shown on SBS and SBS On Demand. Spain and Belgium kick off on Saturday at 5am (AEST).

Talking points: The Wallabies meet France in Brisbane after a nail-biting 33-31 loss to Ireland last week. The reigning Six Nations champions are returning to Australia for the first time since the Wallabies defeated them in a series in 2021. Fabien Galthie’s side are missing star players Antoine Dupont, Louis Bielle‑Biarrey and Thomas Ramos, but showed their depth in last week’s tight 34-32 loss to the All Blacks. Meanwhile, Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt has named flyhalf Declan Meredith for his Wallabies debut after Carter Gordon and Ben Donaldson were both made unavailable through injury. Australia has a strong record against France in Brisbane, winning the past seven meetings in the city. 

How to watch: You can watch the Nations Championship on Stan Sport. The Wallabies and France kick off on Saturday at 5:30pm (AEST).

Reporting by Pavitra Ravi and George Finlayson.

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