Good evening!

In case you missed it, the World Conker Championships have been embroiled in scandal.

The men’s winner, 82-year-old David Jakins, is being investigated after he was found carrying a steel conker. Regular conkers are the seeds from a horse chestnut tree.

Jakins said: “I was found with the steel conker in my pocket, but I only carry [it] around with me for humour value and I did not use it during the event.”

Can someone explain the joke? If you have no idea what conkers are and you’re mildly curious, you can read the rules here.

I’ve got 10 seconds

Stat of the day

54
The number of runs New Zealand beat Pakistan by to qualify for the semi-finals at the women’s cricket T20 World Cup. The winner and runner-up of Group B, which could be any of the West Indies, England, or South Africa, will play either New Zealand or Australia in the semi-finals.

Quote of the day

"We are going to keep going and push all the way here, we can still come back from this."
The skipper of Great Britain’s sailing team, Ben Ainslie, after Team GB lost their fourth straight race to New Zealand in the America’s Cup on Monday in Barcelona, Spain. New Zealand now leads the best-of-13 series 4-0. Great Britain has not won the America’s Cup in the 173-year history of the event.

Random fact of the day

Rafael Nadal’s partnership with tennis racquet manufacturer, Babolat, began when he was nine years old. Since that time, Rafa has used 1,250 racquets, 16,500m of grip, 300km of strings, and 125 tennis bags. Nadal has never smashed a racquet during his career and always carries his bag on his right shoulder.

I’ve got 30 seconds

In case you missed it…

🏉 Former Wallabies captain Rocky Elsom has made a statement declaring he is innocent to the Sydney Morning Herald after becoming the subject of an international arrest warrant. Despite Elsom not being present, a French court found the 41-year-old guilty of embezzling €700,000 ($AU1.13m) during his 2015-16 tenure as president of French rugby club RC Narbonne. The charges require him to serve a five-year prison sentence and pay back the money. Elsom has been in Dublin, Ireland coaching rugby at a private boys’ school.

🏏 Australian cricketer Cameron Green will miss the upcoming five-Test series against India to undergo back surgery. The all-rounder requires surgery for a stress fracture in his back and will miss six months of cricket. Steve Smith will reportedly move down the batting order and selectors will announce an opener to join Usman Khawaja at the top. The first Test starts on 22 November at Perth Stadium. 

🏀 The New York Liberty beat the Minnesota Lynx 80-66 in Game 2 of the WNBA finals to tie the five-game series at one each. Breanna Stewart starred for the Liberty with 21 points and a WNBA finals record of seven steals. After playing the first two games in Brooklyn, the teams will travel to Minneapolis, Minnesota for game 3 on Thursday (AEDT).

🏉 Port Adelaide’s Matilda Scholz was the AFLW Rising Star nominee for week seven. In Port’s eight-point defeat of Collingwood last Thursday, the 19-year-old had 15 disposals and a goal. In the lead-up to her goal, the ruck also took a contender for Mark of the Year.

I’ve got 1 minute

Jarryd Hayne returns to rugby league as coach for the Fijian national team

Jarryd Hayne is returning to rugby league after six years away from the sport, part of which was spent in jail on sexual assault charges. The 36-year-old former Dally M winner has joined Fiji’s coaching staff ahead of the upcoming Pacific Championships. Fiji is playing in the Pacific Bowl and will face Papua New Guinea on Saturday.

Context

Hayne was accused of sexually assaulting a 26-year-old woman at her Newcastle home in 2018. The case went to three separate trials. The first trial resulted in a hung jury. The second trial resulted in a guilty verdict and the former Parramatta Eels star spent almost two years in jail. He was freed in June after he successfully appealed the guilty verdict.

What they said

Fiji coach Wise Kativerata told the Sydney Morning Herald: “I wanted to make sure he was okay. He was happy to hear from us. After a while, I told him about rugby league in Fiji and how it really needed a lift. Then I asked him to come along and help with the team because I knew that it would be good for him and good for us.”

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Socceroos to face World Cup Qualifying challenge in Japan tonight

The Socceroos will take on Japan tonight in Saitama, just north of Tokyo. It is the Aussies’ fourth of five matches in the third round of World Cup Qualifying and just the second match under coach Tony Popovic.

Context

The Socceroos have had a rough start to the third round, with an upset 1-0 loss to Bahrain and a frustrating 1-1 draw with Indonesia. Last Thursday, they beat China 3-1 to get their campaign back on track. Sitting in second place in Group C, Australia has to finish in the top two to qualify for the World Cup. Their two remaining matches are against arguably the best sides in the Group, Japan and Saudi Arabia. Japan have recorded convincing wins in all three of their matches so far against China (7-0), Bahrain (5-0), and Saudi Arabia (2-0).

Head to Head

Australia and Japan’s men's soccer teams have played each other 27 times. Japan has won 11 times, Australia has won seven times, and the match has ended in a draw on nine occasions. To add to tonight’s challenge, the Socceroos have never beaten Japan on their home soil. The last time Australia beat Japan was in 2009 at the MCG.

What they said

Socceroos midfielder Jackson Irvine said: "This is a tough moment — we're playing against probably one of the most in-form teams in world football, let alone Asian football, with players playing at the top of their game all across the world, and we know that we have to be at our absolute best.”

Popovic said: “I want us to have the confidence to build on that performance [against China] and show a better playing style — that’s key for us. We feel if we can do that, we have a chance to definitely win the game. We have a long way to get to the World Cup still. For now our focus is this match. We’re not looking too far ahead — our mindset right now is to win tomorrow.

How to watch

Kick-off is at 9:35pm AEDT and will be streamed on Paramount+.

A message from our sponsor

Hunter Fujak and Joshua McLeod, both lecturers in Sport Management at Deakin University, recently wrote an article that explores the various voting systems football codes in Australia use to determine their Best and Fairest players.

Fujak and McLeod point out that the AFL, NRL, Rugby Australia, and A-League all use different methods to elect the respective competition’s best player. These different methods present different biases which naturally affect the outcome of the award.

The two examples they outline in detail are the AFL’s Brownlow Medal and NRL’s Dally M Medal. The Brownlow is voted on by the AFL’s umpires and has been criticised as a midfielder’s award - the Brownlow has been awarded 27 times since 2000 and Adam Goodes is the only player that would not be considered primarily a midfielder. The Dally M is also subject to a similar positional bias with 91% of medals being won by fullbacks, halfbacks, five-eighths, and hookers. The Dally M is voted on by two independent and anonymous judges, who presumably have their own biases too.

Fujak and McLeod emphasise that often the awards that are most valued by players are the internal club awards which are voted on by their peers and coaches. This is because the people most involved with the club naturally have a more holistic understanding of who their best and fairest players are.

Ultimately, they suggest that it is likely no method will be perfect but perhaps it is the human dimension of the award that makes these awards such an engaging spectacle.

Think Beyond The Field. Study Sport at Deakin.

Looking forward…(All times are AEST)

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