Good evening!

This morning I had the pleasure of jumping on TDA’s podcast to discuss the increasing influence of streaming services on sport.

If you’re interested in hearing about the numbers behind Drive to Survive's impact on Formula One or you'd like to think more about why the bout between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson wasn’t your typical boxing match…you can listen via this link.

My favourite stat from the podcast: The percentage of F1’s audience that is women jumped from 8% in 2017 to 40% in 2022. Drive to Survive first aired in 2019.

I’ve got 10 seconds

Stat of the day

4
The number of players on Ireland’s national rugby team who are injured and will miss this weekend’s clash against the Wallabies in Dublin. Jamie Osborne (fullback), Jacob Stockdale (wing), Tadhg Furlong (prop), and Ryan Baird (lock) have all been ruled out. The weekend’s game will be the first time Australia has played Ireland under the guidance of Joe Schmidt, who coached the side between 2013 and 2019. 

Quote of the day

"I thought it was pretty obvious that by wanting to ride for [Great Britain] for the rest of my career, that would mean I didn't want to ride for Australia. It's almost like you leave your job and three months later they go, 'Yeah, well, you're fired.' Well, I already left. It was just words on a piece of paper, and [the words] don't carry much weight for me."
Former Australian Olympic cyclist Matthew Richardson in response to a statement from AusCycling following his defection to Great Britain’s cycling team. The 25-year-old has been banned by AusCycling from representing Australia in future. Richardson, one of the world’s top track cyclists, has already started competing for Great Britain and is leading the UCI Track Champions League after the opening event on the weekend. 

Random fact of the day

American Pam Reed is one of the greatest ultrarunners of all time. In 2002, Reed became the first woman to win the Badwater Ultramarathon outright. The Badwater is an annual 217 km running race held in California that attracts the world’s top ultra-athletes. In 2003, Reed repeated the feat. 

I’ve got 30 seconds

In case you missed it…

⛷️ Evgeny Ustyugov, a former Olympic biathlete who represented Russia, has been stripped of his medals from the 2010 Vancouver Games for breaching anti-doping laws. The 39-year-old won gold in the mass start and bronze in the men’s relay. Ustyugov had already been stripped of another medal from the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. The Court of Arbitration in Sport “determined that Mr Ustyugov committed an Anti-Doping Rule Violation based on anomalies identified in his Athlete Biological Passport,"

🚴‍♂️ Former Olympic track cyclist Anna Meares has been reappointed as Australia’s Chef de Mission for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. At the Paris Olympics earlier this year, Meares oversaw Australia’s largest-ever haul of gold medals (18). She told the press: "LA 2028 will be a very different challenge again. A spread-out Games, new sports on the program, the prospect of a bigger team — all of this makes me excited about Los Angeles”.

🏀 NBA team the Atlanta Hawks were fined $US100,000 ($AU154,000) by the league for not fielding star player Trae Young in a match against the Boston Celtics. The decision not to play Young violated the NBA’s player participation policy, which mandates that star players must take the court unless an approved reason is given. The 26-year-old was put on the Hawks’ injury list, but an NBA investigation found he was healthy enough to play.

🏏 The Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) finals series will begin tonight with The Knockout match between the Sydney Thunder and the Hobart Hurricanes. The Thunder will host the Hurricanes at Drummoyne Oval in Sydney. The winner is set to advance to the Challenger Match against the Brisbane Heat next week. The winner of the Challenger will then play the top-of-the-table Melbourne Renegades in the WBBL Final.

I’ve got 1 minute

Mariners face uphill battle in AFC Champions League after 3-2 loss

The Central Coast Mariners lost 3-2 to Japanese club Vissel Kobe in their fifth match of this year’s Asian Champions League. The result means the Mariners will have to beat some high-quality teams in the three remaining matches of the group stage to advance to the knockout stage.

What happened

Vissel Kobe, the defending champions in Japan’s top-tier J-League, opened the scoring with a header in the 40th minute. The Japanese club struck again just after half-time with another goal and extended their lead to 2-0.

However, the battle was far from over as the Aussie club resiliently worked its way back into the match. Attacking pressure from the Mariners led to a 54th-minute Vissel Kobe own goal before 19-year-old Bailey Brandtman scored the equaliser 20 minutes later. With nine minutes until full time, Daiju Sasaki took a long-range shot which slipped through the goalkeeper’s gloves and gave Vissel Kobe the winning advantage.

What’s next?

The Mariners are now 11th in the 12-team group, while Vissel Kobe is ranked first. Three matches remain in the group stage with the top eight teams set to advance to the knockout stages. The Mariners’ next AFC Champions League match is against Japan’s Yokohama FM (4th) on 3 December.

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Tributes flow for Phillip Hughes ten years on from the promising cricketer’s death

Today marks the 10th anniversary of Phillip Hughes’ death. The 25-year-old was one of Australia’s most exciting cricketing prospects before his life was cut short.

Hughes was hit in the neck by a cricket ball during a Sheffield Shield match. He subsequently died from his injuries. Cricket Australia released a statement from Hughes’ family yesterday, while tributes from across the cricket community have continued to flow today.

Career

Hughes was a talented batsman who made his first-class cricket debut with NSW at the age of 18. Just over a year later, Hughes would go on to play his first Test match for Australia. In his second Test match, against South Africa in 2009, he scored a century in both innings and became the youngest men’s player to do so. Against Sri Lanka in 2013, Hughes became the first Australian batsman to score a century in their One-Day International debut.

In his final match on 25 November, Hughes was vying to regain a spot in the Australian Test team. That day, he was on 63 runs before being injured by a bouncer – a ball that is bowled short so it bounces early on the pitch and rises high near the batsman’s head. Hughes died of a vertebral artery dissection, a rare brain injury.

Tributes

Former Australian cricket coach Darren Lehmann told the ABC: "He loved life full stop. He did everything to get back into the side. He made every post a winner. It would've been nice to see him play just one more Test match."

A part of the Hughes family statement read: “He played cricket for all the right reasons and had the ability to take it all in his stride. He loved being a part of a team and representing Australia for the game he loved so deeply… Phillip, we love you, we miss you and we are forever proud of you. We think about you every day and we are so thankful you were ours. Thank you for being the most extraordinary son and loving brother. “

ICYMI: TDA Sport has a new game on Instagram called Blurdle. IYKYK.
Today’s answer: Turducken
Useless clue: Mary Fowler (Get it? Email me if you do.)

A deep dive powered by Deakin University

Helping athletes get back to their best

Deakin University research is changing how we think about athletic development. Led by Associate Professor Steve Swanson, the study looks at how sports can support athletes during their return to play after injury.

The work is part of the Australian Institute of Sport's "Win Well" strategy, which emphasises that success in sports needs four key elements:

• Physical - Bodily functioning, positive health, energy, absence of illness

• Mental - Cognitive functioning, meaningfulness, life satisfaction

• Social - Positive relationships, culture, functioning members of groups

• Emotional - Positive feelings, absence of negative feelings, happiness

The study focuses specifically on athletes who are returning to play after injury or surgery.

Research shows that well-being issues increase during recovery times. There's an important difference between an athlete simply getting back to play versus returning to their previous performance level.

Through interviews with psychologists, coaches, physios, and wellbeing managers, the research team is learning how sports staff can work together better. They've found that:

• Recovery timing creates pressure

• Mental readiness matters as much as physical healing

• Support staff need to work as a team

• Coach and support staff wellbeing also need attention

The goal is to help athletes succeed both in sport and life while making sure the people supporting them have the resources they need.

Looking forward… (All times are AEDT)

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