🏉 Betts Calls Out Crows Camp

Good morning, it's Thursday, 4 August. Legendary scholar Newmano once said: "Tuesday has no feel. Monday has a feel, Friday has a feel, Sunday has a feel." Well, it's Thursday today but for us it feels like Friday because it's our last newsletter for the week (full details at the bottom). Who knows what today feels like for you, but we do know this newsletter will bring you up to speed on the latest sports news, so let's get into it.

⏱ 1341 words = 7 minutes

👀 Lawyers at the ready...

THE MAIN GAME

🏉 Eddie explains what really went on

Eddie Betts, one of the AFL's most exciting players to watch of all time, has revealed what really happened at the Adelaide Crows infamous pre-season camp in 2018 that took away his drive to play footy.

Golden points: Excerpts of Betts's autobiography The Boy from Boomerang Crescent detail the psychological trauma Betts and his teammates went through on the Gold Coast in January 2018.

• Betts says the aim of the camp, which was run by high-performance leadership consultancy firm Collective Mind, was to make the players mentally tough and resilient after they lost the 2017 AFL Grand Final to Richmond as the premiership favourites.

• The players were blindfolded, forced to listen to the Richmond theme song on repeat, told they couldn't shower and were made to take part in tasks that Betts describes as "weird shit" and "extremely disrespectful" to his Indigenous culture.

• But Betts says he was left shattered when the camp's 'counsellors' started yelling private and sensitive information he had shared with them in confidence for the whole group to hear.

• Following the camp, Betts told the Crows that he didn't want the club's Indigenous players to be involved in any of Collective Mind's further activities. 3 weeks later, he was voted out of the club's senior leadership team.

• He says he never had the same energy after that camp and after 2 more seasons with the Crows, he left the club and returned to Carlton to finish his career.

• Betts says he told the AFL and AFL Players' Association everything that happened but felt as though he wasn't heard. The camp was later cleared of any breaches by both AFL and SafeWork SA investigations.

They said it: "It’s obviously hurt him in a number of ways. People’s welfare and wellbeing are paramount to our club. Anyone who leaves our club and doesn’t have a positive experience, we are sorry. We’d love to see Eddie, Anna and his family back at our club," Crows CEO Tim Silvers yesterday morning.

Key click: Check out the excerpts from The Boy from Boomerang Crescent that were first published in The Age.

What's next: The AFL Players' Association says it will re-interview players who attended the camp because it believes those players were pressured to remain silent.

QUICK SINGLES

🥇 Comm Games: 2 Sri Lankan team members are missing. The pair - a female judo athlete and team manager - have not been spotted since Monday's competition. Sri Lankan officials have ordered all team members to hand over their passports so this doesn't happen again, but the concern is the missing pair has fled so they don't have to return to Sri Lanka, which is in the middle of an economic crisis.

🏎 F1: Oscar Piastri's F1 future takes off, stalls and is now the butt of jokes. Hours after Alpine announced Aussie young gun Oscar Piastri would drive for them next year, Piastri tweeted that Alpine are wrong and he won't be in their car next year. Alex Albon will be driving next year for Williams and copied Piastri's tweet, with a few minor changes, to announce his contract extension.

🥊 Boxing: Paul Gallen's retirement bout might be a 2-for-1 deal. Reports say Gallen is going to end his pro boxing career this year with 2 fights. The thing is, they're on the same night. Gallen is expected to face 2 former league stars in Queensland in September. As a former NSW Blues State of Origin skipper, the crowd probs won't be on his side.

⚾️ Baseball: Legendary LA Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully passes away aged 94. Scully was the voice of Dodgers baseball for 67 years, calling some of baseball's most iconic moments. The Hall of Famer was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016 and signed off that same year with a brilliant farewell message.

⚽️ Football: Cristiano Ronaldo bailed early and his manager ain't happy. Ronaldo was spotted leaving before full-time in Manchester United's pre-season match against Rayo Vallecano. Man Utd manager Erik ten Hag called it "unacceptable" and it's just another sign Ronaldo doesn't want to be at Old Trafford this season.

⛳️ Golf: LIV golfers are lawyering up. Phil Mickelson and 10 other LIV golfers have filed a lawsuit against the PGA Tour challenging their suspensions from the tour. The LIV golfers say the lawsuit aims to "strike down" the PGA Tour's anti-competitive rules. The PGA says it's not backing down. Get the popcorn.

COMM GAMES CORNER

🥇 Medal Tally: Australia added 5 gold, 6 silver and 7 bronze medals on Day 6 of the Comm Games. Full tally here.

📺 What's on: Check out some of the key Aussie events on Day 7. Watch it all on Channel 7 and stream it on 7plus. For the full schedule click here.

• 6:00pm - Netball - Australia v Jamaica

• 7:00pm - Cycling - Women's Individual Time Trial

• 9:00pm - Cycling - Men's Individual Time Trial

• 11:30pm - Women's Beach Volleyball - Australia v Cyprus

• 5:35am (Friday) - Athletics - Men's Discus Final

• 6:00am (Friday) - Men's Hockey - Australia v Pakistan

LEFT OF FIELD

🎾 Tennis: What do British tennis star Emma Raducanu and Harry Potter's arch-rival Lord Voldemort (or You-Know-Who if you're suspicious) have in common? Well, if Raducanu had her way, they'd both hail from house Slytherin at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. If you know the Harry Potter books or movies, Slytherin are kinda the bad guys but Raducanu says they've just got a bad reputation and that they're actually mysterious and kinda cool. She had a magical run on her way to winning the US Open last year but says there was no wizardry in her 1st-round win at the Citi Open in Washington.

📽 Highlight reel: This'll probably be the shortest highlight reel we'll bring you. It's the final of the men's 100m sprint at the Comm Games. Aussie Rohan Browning was right in it!

📸 Photo finish: It was a good day for Aussie middle-distance runner Catriona Bisset. She made the final of the women's 800m (and didn't take a tumble as she did at the World Champs), played with some police puppies and finished with a Milo and massage. We'll have one of those days, please.

THE POLLING BOOTH

Wednesday's result: 42.64% voted Friday is by far the best weekday there is.

WHAT WE'RE WATCHING (THAT'S NOT THE COMM GAMES)

• ⚾️ 11:30am - MLB - Giants v Dodgers - Oracle Park, San Francisco - Foxtel, Kayo

• 🎯 6:00pm - Darts - Australian Open, Day 1 - Foxtel, Kayo

• 🏉 7:50pm - NRL - Roosters v Broncos - SCG - Channel 9, Foxtel, Kayo

THE MANAGER'S OFFICE

A quick note from us to say the Sport Today team has been dragged into the Manager's Office for a mid-season review that's expected to last days. So, if all things go well, we'll be back on Wednesday, 10 August. While we're away, feel free to let your mates know about the newsletter by passing it on. It helps us grow and gives us brownie points with the manager. We need them...