My name is Lucy and I’m filling in for George today. Though we’ve never met face to face (or screen to screen?) I’ve been involved with this newsletter since it started — first as a fact-checker, then as its editor.

My favourite thing about working on this newsletter is that it’s taken me from a person who is pretty good at pub trivia to an absolutely lethal competitor.

Read on for more facts that are sure to come up at a future trivia night, just far off enough in time that you will have forgotten the specific details.

1,000
The number of matches Pep Guardiola has led as manager, reaching the milestone with current team Manchester City’s 3-0 win over Liverpool. Of the 1,000, Guardiola’s teams have won 716. The win takes Man City within five points of Arsenal’s spot at the top of the table, continuing their strong season after a disappointing 2024/25 showing.

“I know at times Carlos [Alcaraz] is going to be unplayable. But there’s also times that if you can hang in there, you get a couple chances here and there and you just got to take them, right?... I didn’t take that moment and then the match became a very difficult one.”
Alex de Minaur speaking to the press after losing his first ATP Finals match 7-6, 6-2 to world no.1 Carlos Alcaraz. De Minaur, Australia’s highest-ranked male tennis player, will have more chances with his remaining group stage matches. He must finish in the top two of his group, which also includes Taylor Fritz (no.6) and Lorenzo Musetti (no.9), to make the next round.

Some historians have suggested the richest athlete of all time is not Michael Jordan or Cristiano Ronaldo, but an Ancient Roman chariot-racer. A 17th-century translation of Gaius Appuleius Diocles’ tombstone (dating to the 2nd century AD) says he earned close to 36 million sesterces — an enormous sum for the time. Across a career of 4,257 races, Diocles reached the podium almost 70% of the time, outright winning 1,462 races.

🏏 India has won its T20 series against Australia after the fifth and final match was rained out. Of the three matches not impacted by weather, India won two, including a particularly dominant win on Thursday. Though Saturday’s match didn’t reach six overs, India was already showing signs of back-to-back wins, scoring 52 without a loss before lightning struck. The two sides will next meet in this format at the T20 World Cup in February, assuming both advance from the group stage.

🏎️ Oscar Piastri’s F1 Drivers’ Championship hopes have been set back further with a fifth-place finish at the Brazilian Grand Prix in São Paulo. Going into the weekend, Piastri was only one point behind McLaren teammate Lando Norris, who pushed ahead of him in the standings at the Mexico Grand Prix last month. A poor performance in the sprint (worth eight points) and a ten-second penalty for a collision with Kimi Antonelli in the main event saw Piastri’s hopes of regaining some ground fall away, however. He landed in fifth place, his fifth consecutive race without a podium finish, and is now 24 points behind Norris. In order to become the first Australian to win the drivers’ championship since 1980, Piastri would need to win every single race, and Norris would need to place lower than second.

🏉 Australia’s men’s rugby league team, the Kangaroos, have retained the Ashes with three straight wins over England. Isaah Yeo was back in the skipper’s seat for the third Test, a dead rubber following back-to-back wins in London and Liverpool. The Kangaroos started strong with two early tries, keeping England to their half-time score of just eight points through the second  half. Yeo’s replacement while he was off, Harry Grant, starred for the Aussies, running 88 metres and scoring a try. Grant was named player of the match, while Cameron Munster won player of the series. Both teams now have their sights on the upcoming World Cup in Australia this time next year. 

🏉 Also in international rugby league, Australia’s Jillaroos have retained the Pacific Championships title with a 40-8 win over the Kiwi Ferns on Sunday. Superstar fullback Tamika Upton was back after a calf injury ruled her out of the Jillaroos’ previous match against New Zealand earlier this month. On that occasion,  Australia won 10-4, with only Jessica Sergis and Abbi Church scoring tries. The Jillaroos were in finer form on Sunday, with Olivia Kernick, Julia Robinson, Keilee Joseph, Upton, and Ellie Johnston joining Sergis in the try-scorers club. The Ferns were disadvantaged by two separate sin-binnings, one in each half, though fought to keep possession rates almost level with the Jillaroos. The night was not a total washout for the Kiwis, with the men’s side defeating Samoa 36-14. 

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Elena Rybakina has defeated world no.1 Aryna Sabalenka to win the WTA finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 

It was a fairytale win for Rybakina, currently world no.6, who was the last to qualify for the tournament. 

Here’s how it went down. 

Sabalenka went into the match with an overall advantage, having been the last player to defeat Rybakina (who had since won 10 matches) and having won eight of their 13 past meetings. 

In the first set, Rybakina held her nerve against Sabalenka’s powerful serve, wearing her down and capitalising on her mistakes to take out the set 6-3.

The second set saw Rybakina drop only two points across four service games. 

Going into a second-set tiebreak, Rybakina again held her nerve to hit the match-winner and take out the title with a 7-6 victory.

Rybakina collects a winner's cheque of $US5.23 million ($AU8 million), a new record for the largest payout in women’s tennis history.   

Speaking to the press after her win, Rybakina said: “I’m super proud and honestly didn’t expect such a result, of course, turning not the greatest season to actually [a] pretty good one. So yeah, I’m very, very happy.” 

In a post to Instagram, Sabalenka said: “​​This wasn’t the outcome I was hoping for but I’m grateful to have made it to the finals.”

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The Australian Football League (AFL) will add an extra week to its finals series from the 2026 season, introducing a wildcard round that gives teams that finish in 9th or 10th position a shot at the premiership. 

It’s the biggest change to the finals system since 2000. Here’s what you need to know. 

Currently, the top eight teams on the ladder at the end of the season qualify for the AFL Finals Series. 

Under the new system, the top six teams will move straight to the finals, while the teams that finish 7th and 8th will host wildcard games against the teams that finish 9th and 10th. 

The winners of those two games will then be ‘reseeded’ into 7th and 8th positions based on which team finished higher on the ladder in the regular season. From there, the finals continue as they have since 2000, when the current system began. 

In a statement, CEO Andrew Dillon said the move was designed to give fans a greater number of “games of consequence”, and more finals matches, which are “the best-attended and most-watched on television”.

A number of former players, including Brendan Fevola, Nick Reiwoldt, and Warren Tredrea, have expressed disappointment with the move. Criticism has centred on the fact that, under the new system, 10 of the league’s 18 teams will now be included in the finals series. 

Responding to the criticisms at a press conference today, Dillon said: “I don’t think [the new system] rewards mediocrity… It makes that gap between sixth and seventh something clubs will strive for.”

There are also a number of commentators who support the move, arguing it would create more memorable moments throughout the season. According to Dillon, the move is overwhelmingly supported by the clubs' CEOs.  

The AFL is not the first sport to introduce a wildcard-style pathway to the finals. 

In 2020, the NBA expanded its finals series, which comprised 16 of 30 teams, to 20 teams. Teams that finish in the top six of their conference progress to the finals, while teams placed between 7th and 10th compete in a ‘play-in tournament’ for the two remaining spots in the top eight.