Good evening!

On this day 24 years ago, American basketballer Vince Carter completed "le dunk de la mort" (the dunk of death) at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Carter jumped over 7’2” French player Frédéric Weis to dunk the ball.

An amazing moment, nearly as amazing as the French name for it.

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Stat of the day

7
How many years since Australian golfer Jason Day has played in the Presidents Cup. Day returns to the Cup this weekend alongside fellow Aussie Min Woo Lee as part of the International team at Royal Montreal in Canada. The International team (made up of 12 players from outside Europe and the U.S.) will take on 12 Americans in a competition held over three days.

Quote of the day

“I think I’m even more happy than my Olympic gold to be honest.”
Arisa Trew after winning gold in the women’s park skateboarding at X Games Chiba 2024 in Japan on the weekend. The 14-year-old Olympian from the Gold Coast is the first person to win five X Games titles before the age of 15.

Random fact of the day

Ultra-athlete Neil Aigus completed the world’s longest non-stop swim earlier this week. The 37-year-old swam 140km around the islands of Malta, Gozo, and Comino in the Mediterranean Sea. It took him over 50 hours. The swim is pending World Record ratification from the World Open Water Swimming Association.   

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In case you missed it…

🏉 The NRL has handed Bulldogs player Josh Addo-Carr a breach notice following his positive roadside test for cocaine earlier this month. The star winger has until next Tuesday to respond. It’s expected that the 29-year-old will be issued a fine and forced to miss four games. It’s not yet known whether the Bulldogs will keep Addo-Carr, who says he doesn’t know why cocaine was allegedly in his system, on contract next season. 

🏉 In the AFLW, Richmond defeated Port Adelaide 48-27 in Melbourne last night. Five-time All-Australian Monique Conti starred for Richmond with 23 disposals and eight tackles. Richmond has won four consecutive games and sits second on the AFLW ladder.

⚖️ Jordan Chiles’ lawyers have asked the Federal Supreme Court to force the Court of Arbitration for Sport to consider key video evidence. The footage was captured by a documentary crew who were present at the Olympic floor routine event where Chiles’ coach asked for her score to be reconsidered. A later appeal by Romanian athletes over the timeliness of her coach’s request saw Chiles stripped of a bronze medal.

🏎️ Red Bull’s F1 team leader Christian Horner said he believes the team is looking better ahead of the final six races of the season. Red Bull has not won a race since Max Verstappen won the Spanish GP in June. In that time, McLaren has moved into the lead of the Constructors Championship, and its driver Lando Norris is 52 points shy of Verstappen in the Drivers’ Standings. Horner said: “I think we’ve got a vein of development and I think we’ve understood some of the issues with the car. I think we’re starting to address them.”

🏉 Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus has made nine changes to the South African side after a one-point loss to Argentina last weekend. The two teams will face off to determine the winner of the Rugby Championship on Saturday at Mbombela Stadium in South Africa. After coming off the bench in Santiago del Estero, star lock Eben Etzebeth will start for his 128th Test, surpassing Victor Matfield’s record for the most Tests played for South Africa.

🏉 Sydney Swans captain Callum Mills has been ruled out of this weekend’s Grand Final despite training at “100 per cent” in a test of his match fitness this morning. Mills missed the Preliminary Final against Port Adelaide due to a hamstring injury. The club said “a joint decision was made by the club’s medical staff and the coaches to rule him out”.

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Kalyn Ponga withdraws from Australian selection, could face club ban

Newcastle Knights fullback Kalyn Ponga is at risk of being banned from playing NRL games after he withdrew from selection for the Australian team. 

What happened

The Knights released a statement on Tuesday outlining Ponga’s intention to withdraw his name from possible selection for the Kangaroos. It said his priority was winning a premiership with the club. 

According to the NRL rules for NSW, a player who withdraws from, or is unavailable for selection for representative sides, is not allowed to play club games instead of representative matches. 

Ponga was the recipient of the 2023 Dally M Medal and has represented Queensland in the State of Origin on numerous occasions. 

What they said

In a statement released by the Knights, Ponga said: “I want to win a comp, for me anything short of that, isn’t success. My focus has never shifted from wanting to win a Premiership with the Knights, that has been my goal since I joined the Club in 2018 and continues to be my focus.”

Former Australian representative and selector Bob McCarthy told Nine newspapers: “I’d be putting the red line through his name. You don’t knock back the Australian jersey. I can’t see his reckoning there. It’s the ultimate reward, playing for your country.”

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Aussie men lose 3rd ODI to England and Aussie women hand NZ a 10th straight T20 loss

Two Aussie cricket teams were in action last night. The men’s ODI team’s 14-match winning streak came to an end against England, while the women’s T20 team sealed a 3-0 series win against New Zealand ahead of next month’s World Cup.

Men’s ODI Series v England

England have kept their hopes of a series win against Australia alive, winning the third ODI by 46 runs last night. England’s captain Harry Brook was named the player of the match after he scored 110 runs off 94 balls. It was Brook’s first century in an ODI.

Alex Carey was Australia’s high-scorer with 77 runs off 65 balls. Steve Smith reached his 34th ODI half-century with 60 runs off 82 balls. After 50 overs, the Australians had set a total of 304 runs for the English to chase. 

England’s turn with the bat was cut short with 13 overs to play as bad weather interrupted the match. The Duckworth-Lewis method calculated England was 46 runs ahead of Australia. 

The visitors missed the presence of spin bowler Adam Zampa and star batsman Travis Head, who were both rested.

Australia now leads the five-match series 2-1. The next match will be played at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London on Friday.

Women’s T20 Series v New Zealand

At Allan Border Field in Brisbane, Australia affirmed their status as the world’s number one side, seeing off New Zealand by five wickets. Australia’s Georgia Wareham starred for the home side with two wickets (2/21) and a handy 26 runs with the bat. She was named the Player of the Match.

New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat. Georgia Plimmer high-scored for the visitors with 53 runs off 48 balls before her wicket was taken by Wareham. New Zealand finished the innings with a total of 146/6. 

The Aussie women looked comfortable chasing the total set by their opposition with Ellyse Perry scoring 36 runs off 29 balls followed by Ash Gardner with 33 runs off 26 balls. They reached the total with five balls remaining and five wickets in hand. 

The result meant a tenth consecutive loss for New Zealand, who will be keen to get back to their winning ways.

Both teams will now prepare for the T20 World Cup next month in Dubai.

A message from our sponsor

How AI can be used to manage athlete performance

Dr Dan Dwyer, a Senior Lecturer in Applied Exercise And Sports Science at Deakin University, recently wrote an article that outlines a technology developed by Deakin University researchers called the Coach Decision Assistant (CoDA).

The CoDA is a tool powered by artificial intelligence that has the capability to provide real-time insights and decision-making suggestions based on thousands of AFL data points. The technology would allow AFL coaches to make more informed decisions or validate their thinking during a game. It would also enable coaches to simulate potential tweaks and assess the probable outcomes of their decisions before they make them.

Dwyer asserts that similar technology is already in use in sports such as the NBA (basketball) and NFL (American Football). PhD student Mitch Aarons, who has worked extensively on the project, predicted this sort of technology will soon be in use across the AFL and AFLW as well as other sporting codes in Australia.

Ultimately, CoDA has the potential to remove the guesswork from a coach’s decision-making process in situations where there are countless variables at play.

Think Beyond The Field. Study sport at Deakin.

Looking back…

Looking forward…(All times are AEST)

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