Most professional athletes are lucky to be competing into their thirties. Not 11-time surfing world champion Kelly Slater.

Slater is 54 years old and currently competing as a wildcard in the Tahiti Pro, one of the world’s toughest surf competitions. 

If that isn’t remarkable enough, he is through to the third round after outsurfing three-time world champion Gabriel Medina in his second-round heat on Monday (local time). 

He’ll take on the defending Tahiti Pro champion, Australia’s Jack Robinson, next.

I’ll reiterate, fifty. four. years. old. 

Correction: Yesterday's story on Adelaide veteran Tex Walker's retirement said he captained the Crows to the 2017 premiership. He captained them to the 2017 grand final, which they lost to Richmond. That’s one way to get an inbox full of angry Tigers fans!

3 weeks
How long Australia’s Miles Amatosero has been banned from rugby union for after receiving a red card during the Wallabies 35-32 win over Japan in Osaka on Saturday. The second-rower was sent off for a dangerous hit on Japan captain Warner Deans. The suspension could be reduced to two weeks if Amatosero participates in World Rugby’s ‘Coaching Intervention Programme’. However, he will miss this Saturday’s second Test against Japan in Townsville regardless.

“Leadership in football is not a possession. It is not about holding – or demanding – power to be held. It is a duty of service to the football family that entrusts it.”
Peak football bodies from around the world – including the Union of European Football Associations, North America’s CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation – in a joint open letter calling for FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s resignation. It comes after Infantino’s failed plan to sell international tournaments, including the World Cup, to private investors.

Bandy is a winter team sport played mostly in Russia, Sweden and Finland, and it works like football on ice. Two sides of 11 skate through two 45-minute halves, steering a ball with curved sticks on a frozen sheet the size of a football pitch, far bigger than an ice hockey rink.

🎾 The Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA), a player group co-founded by Novak Djokovic, says a run of injury withdrawals from the Canadian Open proves the tour calendar has grown too long. Jannik Sinner (world no.1), Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz missed the men's event in Montreal, while defending women’s champion Victoria Mboko was among the absentees in Toronto. By the group's own count, arm injuries this year are up 112% on last year's average. The PTPA’s recommendations included reducing the number of mandatory events and giving players a more meaningful voice in building the tour schedule. 

⚽ Western United has been removed from the A-Leagues after the competition's operator, the Australian Professional Leagues, terminated the Melbourne club's participation agreement on Monday. The move ends both the men's and women's sides, which have not played since the club entered hibernation in September 2025 due to financial troubles, including unpaid players and staff. The Australian Taxation Office has pursued its owner over a $15.5 million debt, and Football Australia refused the club a licence in May. The club were A-League champions in 2022.

🏐 Sports Entertainment Network (SEN) bought the Giants Super Netball licence last week, and will take control of the western Sydney side on 1 October, ahead of the 2027 season. The group has promised to rebrand the club. Four days before the deal was announced, SEN lodged a trademark for "Sydney Sirens", according to the Guardian. That name already belongs to a women's ice hockey team who have played in the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League since 2005. The ice hockey side, amateur and self-funded, say they are weighing their options, with the netball team's new name still to be announced.

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The NRL is pushing to introduce a World Cup-style third‑place playoff game during grand final week, pitting the preliminary‑final losers against each other. It could roll out as early as this year. 

Here’s what to know. 

Bulldogs CEO Aaron Warburton allegedly raised the idea of a third-place playoff round at a CEOs meeting last week.

ARLC Chairman Peter V’landys said it’s “very likely” to happen, calling the NRL “a can-do organisation”.

V’landys suggested it would be simple to schedule the playoff, too. “Last year I sat back and saw Thursday, Friday and Saturday had nothing, no sport. It was clear air, in grand final week,” he told 9News Sydney. 

Speaking on Nine’s 100% Footy, rugby league great Paul Gallen said the additional round could pose a “big risk” for player welfare.

Players already complete 27 rounds before finals and some players additionally take part in State of Origin and Test matches across the year.

Former Jillaroos player Allana Ferguson added the format suits global tournaments but not domestic leagues, proposing a standalone NRLW grand final instead.

Bulldogs General Manager Phil Gould said he supported the “thought bubble” but thinks “we can do it a better way”.

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Last week, it was revealed that AFL club Geelong had signed a secret deal with player Jake Kolodjashnij to shift the legal risk of any future brain trauma onto the player rather than the club.

In response, the AFL issued a formal 'please explain', a written demand that Geelong account for the waiver and why it was hidden from the league.

Now, Geelong have met to prepare a reply, due to the AFL by the end of today, with a fine likely.

Kolodjashnij joined Geelong in 2015 and has spent his entire career at the club. In 2024, while dealing with concussions but medically cleared to play, he re-signed on a two-year deal to the end of 2026. 

The waiver was not part of that contract but a separate informed consent form, under which the player took on legal liability for any future brain injury, shielding Geelong and its doctors from a claim. Neither the AFL nor the AFL Players' Association was told it existed until it was made public last Thursday.

The Herald Sun first reported the secret deal without naming the player. The AFL and the players' association responded that night with a joint statement confirming Geelong would strip the waiver out, adding that the league was satisfied the letter had not been used to return a medically unfit player to the field. No sanction followed.

The next day, Geelong chief executive Steve Hocking told reporters the arrangement had carried his approval, and took the blame for not lodging the document with the AFL, meaning it was never formally filed with the league as required. Hocking confirmed the 'please explain' had arrived.

Kolodjashnij then named himself publicly, saying he had gone through the AFL's independent concussion panel, which decides whether a player with a concussion history is safe to keep playing, and accepted its finding. 

Hocking was the club's chief executive when the deal was done and Craig Drummond, now chairman of the AFL Commission, was Geelong's president. Drummond has since apologised and removed himself from the league's deliberations. He said: "Regardless of the player's agreement, the club went too far in adding a waiver into an informed consent document and it will be removed."

Geelong captain Patrick Dangerfield said on Monday that the club had "buggered up" while giving Hocking his full backing, and president Grant McCabe said the reply would let Geelong "detail the actions it took in navigating this complex matter."

Geelong must reply to the AFL by the end of today, Tuesday 11 August. There are two separate issues in play. Not lodging the document is an administrative breach, which AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon has said carries a maximum penalty of $20,000. 

The waiver itself, the attempt to strip the player of his right to sue, falls under separate rules with no cap, and is where the bigger fine would come from. Fox Footy has reported the club can expect a six-figure fine.