🏉 Loose Lips Sink Ships

Footy is back, it's Thursday, 17 March

🔊 Sport Today Podcast

This morning, Sam Ferris and Lucy Watkin are at the mic. 

Today's listen time: 9 minutes.

Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

📺  What we're watching today

⚽ 7.00am - UEFA Champions League - Juventus v Villareal - Allianz Stadium, Turin - Stan Sport

🏉 7.25pm - AFL - Blues v Tigers - MCG, Melbourne - Channel 7, Foxtel, Kayo

🏉 8.05pm - NRL - Storm v Rabbitohs - AAMI Park, Melbourne - Channel 9, Foxtel, Kayo

All times are in AEDT

🏉 Gotta fix that leak

If you thought the AFL Grand Final rematch would be a tasty treat then you were right. But footy fans were served up a delicious dessert when Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge exploded in the press conference. Not literally, he’s fine.

The score: Demons 14.13 (97) beat Bulldogs 11.5 (71)

Golden points: History repeated as the Demons went on a couple of goal-scoring streaks to down the Dogs, but the focus quickly shifted to the press conference. 

• Beveridge called out a reporter for breaking news that Lachie Hunter wouldn’t be picked, although he was eventually a late inclusion into the side.

• He didn’t hold back. Beveridge said it was “gutter journalism” and that it was killing the Dogs behind the scenes.

• But Beveridge might need a plumber. He admitted someone was leaking this info because it’s happened before.

Watch it: Check out the press conference here.

What’s next: Round 1 continues when the Blues play Carlton tonight, before the AFLW finals start on Saturday. But hang on, there’s a problem. The game between the Lions and Magpies has been postponed because Collingwood has been hit hard by Covid. 

🏏 Back to the drawing board

There was no rest for the wicked if you stayed up last night to watch the final day of the 2nd Test between Pakistan and Australia. And you probably went to bed wondering what happened to the rest of the wickets after the match ended in a draw.

Golden points: It could have been one of the all-time great results in Karachi. The Aussies fell 3 wickets short of a huge win on the road. But Pakistan only needed another 63 runs to produce the greatest 4th innings run chase in Test history.

• Take a bow, Babar Azam. Pakistan’s skipper kept his side in the game with 196, which is the best 4th innings total ever against Australia.

• Spinner Nathan Lyon picked went bang, bang, bang, but his 3 wickets weren’t enough to win the game. 

What’s next: Good luck to the physios because there will be some sore shoulders from all that bowling. Problem is there’s not long to recover because the 3rd Test starts in Lahore on Monday.

🎾 No Big Ben if big ban is passed 

Daniil Medvedev got pretty angry this week during his loss to Gael Monfils at the Indian Wells event. But things could get heaps worse if the British government bans him from playing at Wimbledon. 

Golden points: The UK government has spoken to organisers of the tennis grand slam about whether Russian and Belarussian athletes should be allowed to compete.

• Tennis organisations have already banned Russia from teams events. And then there are the sanctions on athletes, like not being able to compete under the Russian or Belarussian flag.

• British Sports Minister Nigel Huddleston says those sanctions don’t go far enough. He reckons athletes from those countries should only be allowed to play if they condemn Vladimir Putin for the Ukrainian invasion.

• Medvedev and other Russian players have already spoken out against the war.  

They said it: “Absolutely nobody flying the flag for Russia should be allowed. Many of us would be willing and able to (allow them to) compete as non-aligned, non-flag-bearing entities. But I think it needs to go beyond that.” Huddleston isn’t backing down.

🏉 We're going to have to reschedule 

There are going to be a lot of uneaten oranges at half-time this weekend because COVID has forced a stack of rugby union games to be called off in New Zealand.

Golden points: All 3 Super Rugby Pacific games in NZ have been postponed because of COVID outbreaks at the Blues, Highlanders and Crusaders. 

• There is some good news because the changes mean Moana Pasifika can finally play a game. They’ve had a rough start to their first season with 3 games postponed because of COVID. They’ll face the Chiefs on Saturday. 

• The NZ government announced some changes to border restrictions which will make it easier for the Aussie teams to travel there for games.

• Smooth travel will be handy because all 12 teams are heading to Melbourne next month for a super round where every game will be played there. 

Watch it: The 3 games in Australia are going ahead as planned. You can watch them all on Stan Sport. 

⚽ Hellish day for the Red Devils 

Old Trafford in Manchester is known by many as the Theatre of Dreams. But yesterday, the stadium played home to another nightmare when Manchester United were knocked out of the UEFA Champions League.

Score: Atletico Madrid 1 beat Manchester United 0 (2-1 on aggregate)

Golden points: Man U is out of the Champions League after they were beaten at home by the team from Spain.

• The Champions League is the most prestigious club comp in the world because you have to be one of the top teams in Europe to qualify.

• The home fans were not happy with how their team played. The loss means they haven’t won a trophy since 2017.

• That’s hard for their fans to cop because they’ve spent around $2.5 billion in the past 10 years on some of the best players in the world. 

What are the chances… they make it back to the Champions League? It’s going to be hard for them to qualify for next season’s comp because they are 5th in the English Premier League, and only the top 4 get in.

👀 Quick singles

⚽ Nearly 20 years after the Socceroos beat Uruguay to qualify for the 2006 World Cup, the Socceroos are turning to a Uruguayan to help them reach this year’s tournament. Bruno Fornaroli has scored heaps of goals since he came here in 2015, and the striker is tipped to make the Socceroos squad thanks to a change in eligibility rules. 

🥅 Ice hockey legend Alex Ovechkin is now 3rd on the all-time scoring list in the NHL. It comes after he scored goal #767 in Washington’s win over the New York Islanders.

🏀 Kyrie Irving played like a wizard to set a franchise record to help the Brooklyn Nets beat the Magic. Irving scored 41 points in the first half and finished with a career-high 60 as he had Orlando under his spell. 

🏁 Formula 1 has made changes to the safety car rules just days out from the season-opening race in Bahrain. The decision was made to ensure we don’t see a repeat of last year’s controversial final race that saw Max Verstappen win the title.

🏏 Shane Warne will have a Stand at the MCG named in his honour, but there could be a slight change to what it’s actually called. The Victorian government announced it would be the S.K. Warne Stand, but his family simply wants it to be called the Shane Warne Stand. 

🎾 It looks like there will be consistency across the board after the 4 tennis grand slams announced a big rule change. All matches that are tied 6-6 in the final set will go to a 10-point tiebreak. Before this, the 4 slams had different ways of sorting out the final set.  

🙃 Left of field…

Football club Barcelona will never have to worry about hiring a DJ for home games again after Spotify came on board as their major sponsor. They’ll be hoping to pump We Are The Champions a fair bit. But if Bad Day by Daniel Powter comes on…yikes. 

Golden points: Barcelona’s home ground will be called Spotify Camp Nou from the 2022/23 season onwards.

• This is the first time the stadium has ever had a sponsor, and Spotify will also appear on the men’s and women’s jerseys. 

• The details are still a secret, but it sounds like it’s worth $420 million over 4 years.

Key click: Here are 50 songs in a Spotify playlist called Barcelona Radio to get you in the mood. 

📽 The highlight reel

It was a good win by Western Sydney in the A-League Men's last night, but check out this wicked free kick by Adelaide's Craig Goodwin to open the scoring. 

📸 Photo finish

No, Craig Bellamy has not joined the Cowboys. He's just rocking a new hat from Storm fan Molly Meldrum ahead of his 500th game as an NRL coach.

🏉 Who you tipping this week?

Don't Forget Your Tips! is a weekly podcast for footy fans who are keen to get an edge in their footy tipping comp. There will be 2 episodes each week - one on NRL and the other AFL - all done in around 10 minutes by 6.00am (AEDT/AEST) on Thursdays. Follow Don't Forget Your Tips! on Apple, Spotify and all podcast apps.

🏃‍♀️ The finish line

🏆 Today's trivia answer

The Brumbies are on 18 points, one clear of the Reds.