Opening today's newsletter with some sad news. AFL great and 2025 Australian of the Year Neale Daniher has died at the age of 65, his family confirmed on Monday. 

Diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2013, the former Essendon player and Melbourne coach spent the next 12 years turning his diagnosis into a national fundraising movement, co-founding FightMND and creating the Big Freeze event at the MCG. 

The Big Freeze is held annually alongside the AFL match between Collingwood and Melbourne on the King’s Birthday. It has raised more than $115 million for research into a cure. He is survived by his wife Jan and their four children. 

Vale Neale Daniher.

86
The number of points the GWS Giants scored in the third quarter against reigning premiers Brisbane on Sunday – marking the highest-scoring third quarter in VFL/AFL history. The Giants turned a six-point halftime lead into an 89-point advantage by the final change during the extraordinary burst, before running out 166-88 winners. Captain Toby Greene led from the front, kicking four of his five goals in the third quarter alone. Elsewhere on Sunday, the Western Bulldogs beat the Melbourne Demons 93-90.

"I mean it was raining... unfortunately for us, it stopped raining as the formation lap started. Just one of those things where if it rained a little bit more we would have looked like heroes, but it didn't so we looked like idiots."
Australian McLaren driver Oscar Piastri on the team's disastrous Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, where both he and teammate Lando Norris started on intermediate tyres expecting rain that never arrived. Intermediate tyres have grooves designed for wet conditions, unlike the slick soft tyres most of the grid chose for dry track. Piastri finished 11th after colliding with Williams' Alex Albon, while Norris retired with a gearbox failure. Mercedes teenager Kimi Antonelli extended his championship lead to 43 points over teammate George Russell after winning his fourth straight win. The next race is the Monaco Grand Prix on 7 June.

The record for the largest crowd at a women's sporting event was set 55 years ago at an international women’s football match. An estimated 110,000 people packed out Mexico City’s Azteca stadium to watch Denmark play Mexico in the final of Copa 71, a six-team international football tournament run outside FIFA's sanction. Denmark won 3-0 with 15-year-old Susanne Augustesen scoring every goal.

🏊 Australian swimmer James Magnussen finished last in both of his races at the inaugural Enhanced Games in Las Vegas on Sunday, the controversial event where athletes compete while taking performance-enhancing drugs under medical supervision.The two-time Olympian was beaten in the 50m and 100m freestyle by Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev, who pocketed $US1.25 million ($A1.75 million) after swimming faster than Cam McEvoy’s 50m world record time. The swim will not count as an official world record because Gkolomeev was using banned substances and wore a non-compliant swimsuit. World Aquatics has condemned the event and warned athletes involved in the Enhanced Games could face bans from future world championships and Olympic competition. Magnussen, who became the event’s first signed athlete in 2024, reportedly earned about $US100,000 ($A140,000) in prize money.

⚽ Tottenham Hotspur avoided their first relegation from England’s top football league since 1977 with a 1-0 win over Everton on Sunday, sending London rivals West Ham United down to the Championship instead. In English football, the bottom three Premier League teams drop into the Championship the following season, while the top Championship teams are promoted to the Premier League. Joao Palhinha, on loan from Bayern Munich, forced the ball over the line two minutes before half-time after his header rebounded off the post. A turbulent season for the Spurs saw the club cycle through three managers and finish 17th, two points above West Ham, who ended a 14-year stay in the top flight.

🚴‍♂️ Norwegian cyclist Fredrik Dversnes won stage 15 of the Giro d'Italia in Milan on Sunday, with race organisers neutralising the final lap on safety grounds following rider complaints. Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard, the two-time Tour de France winner, retains the pink jersey as overall race leader, with a two-minute and 26-second advantage over Portugal's Afonso Eulalio. Australia's Jai Hindley sits fifth overall, the highest of three Australians in the top 10. Six stages remain, with racing resuming on Tuesday.

🏉 The NRL paid tribute to South Sydney Rabbitohs forward Jai Arrow over the weekend after the 30-year-old announced his retirement last week following a Motor Neurone Disease diagnosis. The terminal condition progressively weakens the body's muscles. North Queensland Cowboys fans raised more than $50,000 through a club raffle ahead of Sunday's clash with the Rabbitohs, which the Cowboys won 30-18 in Townsville. The result leaves the Cowboys sixth on the NRL ladder, while South Sydney slips to seventh. It was the round's only Sunday game, with most teams on a bye ahead of Wednesday’s State of Origin opener in Sydney.

🏉 Collingwood's Scott Pendlebury broke the all-time VFL/AFL games record on Saturday, surpassing North Melbourne legend Brent Harvey's record of 432 games. The 38-year-old midfielder was honoured at the 10-minute mark of the first quarter, when more than 90,000 MCG fans rose holding  'SP433' signs in a tribute that briefly halted play. Every Collingwood player also wore gold numbers on their jumpers. The Magpies beat West Coast Eagles – playing as Waalitj Marawar for Sir Doug Nicholls Round –  92-82, with the  10-point margin matching Pendlebury's No.10 jumper. The milestone match came at a cost for Collingwood, with key forward Jamie Elliott stretchered from the field in the dying minutes after an ACL injury.

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NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo has quit the league’s top job after six years, with reports he is set to become the new boss of Tennis Australia.

Abdo is expected to succeed longtime Tennis Australia chief Craig Tiley, who announced earlier this year he would step down after more than a decade leading the organisation.

Here’s what to know.

Abdo was appointed interim NRL chief executive following Todd Greenberg’s exit in April 2020, before securing the role permanently later that year.

Alongside Australian Rugby League Commission chair Peter V’landys, he oversaw a period of major commercial growth for the game, with the NRL’s annual revenue nearing $1 billion.

His departure comes as the NRL negotiates what is expected to be the richest broadcast deal in rugby league history. The league is in talks with multiple broadcasters at this stage.  

The NRL is also preparing for major expansion, with the Perth Bears set to join in 2027 and the PNG Chiefs in 2028.

Multiple media reports say V’landys is expected to step in as interim chief executive.

Tennis Australia has been searching for a new chief executive since February, when Tiley announced he would step down after 13 years leading the organisation.

Tiley oversaw a major growth period for Australian tennis, including the expansion of the Australian Open into one of the sport’s biggest global events.

He is set to take over the United States Tennis Association, which runs the U.S. Open.

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The French Open, the second tennis major of the year and the only Grand Slam played on clay, is underway at Roland Garros in Paris and runs until to 7 June.

Here is what to know.

Thirteen Australians earned spots in the men's and women's singles main draws.

On the opening day in Paris, James Duckworth became the first Aussie through to the second round after Canadian Gabriel Diallo retired injured midway through the second set. It marked Duckworth’s first second-round appearance at Roland Garros since 2021. Meanwhile, Ajla Tomljanovic lost in three sets to American Caty McNally.

Eight Australians will be in action on Day 2 beginning tonight (AEST). Eighth seed and top-ranked Australian Alex de Minaur faces Britain’s Toby Samuel, 17-year-old wildcard Emerson Jones takes on four-time champion Iga Swiatek, and Daria Kasatkina meets Turkey’s Zeynep Sonmez. All three matches begin from 7pm (AEST).

Thanasi Kokkinakis, returning to a Grand Slam for the first time since the 2025 Australian Open, will face Frenchman Terence Atmane. Aleksandar Vukic, Maya Joint, Talia Gibson, and Rinky Hijikata are also in action.

Adam Walton, Alexei Popyrin and Kimberly Birrell round out the Australian contingent on Day 3.

World No.1 Jannik Sinner enters the tournament as one of the favourites after arriving in Paris on a 29-match winning streak

Questions also remain over the fitness of several leading players, including two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz, last year's semi-finalist Lorenzo Musetti and Britain's Jack Draper heading into the tournament. 

Novak Djokovic, seeded third and chasing a record-extending 25th Grand Slam singles title, opened his campaign overnight with a four-set win over Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.

The upsets started early when seventh seed Taylor Fritz was knocked out on Day 1 by fellow American Nishesh Basavareddy.

The leading contenders in the women’s tournament include world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka, world No.2 Elena Rybakina, four-time French Open champion Iga Swiatek and defending champion Coco Gauff. Between them, the four players have won 14 of the past 18 Grand Slam titles. 

Sabalenka, who lost last year's final to Gauff in three sets, is still chasing her first Grand Slam title outside hard courts.

The biggest upset of the opening day saw 2021 champion Barbora Krejcikova knocked out by American Hailey Baptiste in a near three-hour thriller.