🏉 Buddy's Bombshell

Good morning, it's Tuesday, 20 September. Last night, not long after dinner and a cup of tea, Lance 'Buddy' Franklin loaded up from beyond 50 and launched a torpedo carrying the news of his future plans right when nobody was expecting it. The surprise decision shocked some fans, delighted others and confused many. But like most of Buddy's shots, it found the mark and now we know what he's gonna be up to next year. Spoiler alert: it's launching more torpedos.

⏱ 1,418 words = 7 minutes

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THE MAIN GAME

🏉 One more time

Lance Franklin went full Michael Jordan in announcing he's gonna run around for one more season with the Swans next year.

Golden points: While the world tuned into the Queen's funeral, Buddy, via the Swans, sent out a statement at 8pm AEST last night confirming he'll wear the red and the white in his 19th AFL season in 2023.

• Here's the statement in full: The following statement was released by Lance Franklin, via the Sydney Swans football club located in Sydney, NSW, Australia, in response to questions about his future career plans: "One more".

• As we said earlier, it's pretty much a direct copy of what Michael Jordan did when he came out of retirement to play with the Chicago Bulls again in 1995. Jordan went with "I'm back". That's much more definitive than "One more" which left fans confused as to whether it was one more game, one more season, or one more decade!

• There's been speculation around Franklin's future all year. He's 35yo, achieved pretty much everything there is in the game and this season was the last of his mega 9-year, $10 million contract.

• He was reportedly upset at the Swans' offer of $500,000 for next season and reportedly considered playing for another club or retiring. As you can see, there's nothing concrete there from the man himself.

• But now we know he'll be going around for season #19 and if he stays fit he'll play his 350th match and move up to 4th spot on the list of most VFL/AFL goals.

What's next: We'll finally get some clarity on the decision today when Franklin fronts the media at 9:15am this morning at the SCG. Then it's head down to focus on his 6th grand final this weekend against the Cats.

QUICK SINGLES:

🏉 Rugby league: League legend Mario Fenech's battle with CTE is revealed. Seven News Spotlight featured Fenech, one of the toughest players of his generation through the 80s and 90s and a popular member of the NRL Footy Show. But Fenech's cognitive skills have rapidly deteriorated since 2013 when he was diagnosed with CTE, the degenerative brain disease caused by repeated head knocks. Fenech is 60yo but specialists say his brain resembles an 80yo with CTE. Head safety is a huge focus point for contact sports and dozens of former footballers are donating their brains to further research.

⛳️ Golf: Cameron Smith LIVes again: Smith won the LIV-Chicago event yesterday morning and is taking home $6 million, which is the biggest paycheck of his career, more than what he got for winning the Players Championship and the British Open this year. Smith reportedly signed on with the breakaway tour for $140 million so the prize money might not be a huge motivator for him, but he said he wanted to win to prove to himself and some other people that he was still a great player. He started the 3rd and final round 2 shots clear and by the end won by 3 shots for his 1st win on the LIV tour in only his 2nd start.

🏉 AFL: One box left to be ticked for Tassie's AFL team. AFL CEO Gil McLachlan said yesterday that 10 of the 11 items that needed to be addressed for the Tasmanian team have been sorted, all that's left now is guaranteeing the new stadium in Hobart. The 18 clubs were presented with the Tasmania business case yesterday, with only 3 or 4 clubs reportedly being opposed to granting Tassie the 19th AFL licence. McLachlan says the clubs must all be in together for the bid to get over the line, with a vote expected in the next 2 or 3 weeks.

🏀 Basketball: Las Vegas Aces win their 1st WNBA title. The Aces beat the Connecticut Sun 78-71 in Game 4 to win the Finals series 3-1 and Las Vegas' 1st major professional sporting championship. The franchise was originally the Utah Starzz in 1997 and moved around until it landed in Las Vegas in 2018. A'ja Wilson was named the league's MVP and Chelsea Gray won the finals MVP. So big is the win, the Las Vegas Raiders NFL team showed the final moments on its stadium's big screen during yesterday's game. The Raiders blew a 20-point lead, so at least there was one thing to cheer about.

⚾️ MLB: Aaron Judge is rising to a new baseball home run record. Judge hit his 58th and 59th home runs of the Major League Baseball season yesterday to put him 2 home runs behind the American League record held by former Yankee Roger Maris from the 1961 season. Judge is averaging a home run every 2.4 games and with 16 games left he's on track to get to 65 or 66, so Maris' record is in his sights. In pretty much any other season he'd be the automatic MVP, but there's this guy named Shohei Ohtani who is doing stuff not seen since Babe Ruth.

LEFT OF FIELD

🚴‍♀️ Cycling: If the riders at the UCI road cycling world championship don't have enough on their plate, they've got some very protective local residents coming after them - swooping magpies. There is a sign warning the riders about the swooping magpies but it's still caught some of the best riders off guard. Belgian rider Remco Evenepoel is one of the best in the world (proof: he won the Tour of Spain this year) and he said he's been swooped and it's terrifying. It's not just the visiting riders either - Aussie Grace Brown says she's been swooped twice and she's pretty scared of them. Why didn't we train these birds to attack the internationals only?

📽 Highlight reel: If you want an example of the highs and lows of golf in 3 minutes, watch this video of Max Homa winning the Fortinet Championship from almost nowhere as former Master champion Danny Willett had a meltdown on the final hole.

THE POLLING BOOTH

Monday's result: 57.53% would not have lined up to see the Queen's coffin, even with Becks standing in the queue.

WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

• 🏉 9:15am - NFL - Bills v Titans - Ralph Wilson Stadium, Orchard Park, New York - Foxtel, Kayo

• 🏉 10:30am - NFL - Eagles v Vikings - Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia - Foxtel, Kayo

• 🏏 12:00am (Wednesday) - Cricket - India v Australia, 1st T20 - Mohali, India - Foxtel, Kayo

All times AEST

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