🏉 Salaries Soar For Female Footballers

Good morning, it's Friday, 20 May

☝️ Hold up a min...

Enjoying Sport Today? Like winning? Keep reading to find out how you can win some cool stuff by helping us out. Okay, let's get into it.

🔊 Sport Today Podcast

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

Today's listen time: 10 minutes.

Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

📺  What we're watching this weekend

🏀 Friday, 10.30am - NBA Eastern Conference Finals - Heat v Celtics - FTX Arena, Miami - Foxtel, Kayo

🏉 Friday 7.50pm - AFL - Blues v Swans - Marvel Stadium, Melbourne - Channel 7, Foxtel, Kayo 

🏐 Saturday, 7.00pm - Super Netball - Vixens v Swifts - John Cain Arena, Melbourne - Foxtel, Kayo 

🏉 Saturday, 7.35pm - NRL - Roosters v Panthers - SCG, Sydney - Foxtel, Kayo 

🏉 Saturday, 7.45pm - Super Rugby Pacific - Brumbies v Blues - GIO Stadium, Canberra - 9Gem, Stan Sport

⚽ Sunday, 12.00am - Scottish FA Cup Final - Rangers v Hearts - Hampden Park, Glasgow - Foxtel, Kayo 

🏁 Sunday, 11.00pm - Formula One - Spanish Grand Prix - Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Barcelona - Foxtel, Kayo 

⚽ Monday, 1.00am - English Premier League - Manchester City v Aston Villa - Etihad Stadium, Manchester - Optus Sport 

All times are in AEST

🏉 Show me the money 

There’s been a lot of talk during this election period about cash rates and wages and other technical jargon. But the bottom line is that AFLW players are about to get PAID.

Golden points: A new collective bargaining agreement was announced yesterday, and it’s a big win for players. 

• The minimum wage has nearly doubled from about $20,000 to roughly $40,000, while the top salaries are now $72,000.

• That’s a huge increase and it’s part of the AFL’s push to have AFLW players become full-time athletes by the 2026 season.

• The news flowed thick and fast with the next AFLW season locked in to start on the last weekend in August. 

They said it: "... achieving our vision of ensuring AFLW players are the best paid female athletes in any local professional competition by 2030." - Outgoing AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan has grand plans for the competition. 

Key click: Here are all the facts and figures for the CBA and the new season.

What are the chances… other sports increase wages for female athletes? We’ve already seen it in the States. The US national women’s football team will be paid the same as the men’s squad in a deal that lasts until 2028.

🏊‍♀️ Great name, better swimmer 

Zac Stubblety-Cook has all the ingredients to become one of the best swimmers we’ve ever seen.

Golden points: The 23yo had us all cheering when he won gold in Tokyo last year, and his rivals should be terrified after what he did at the Australian Swimming Championships in Adelaide last night.

• Stubblety-Cook broke the 200m breaststroke world record, becoming the first man to swim under 2 mins and 6 seconds. That’s 0.17 secs faster than the previous record held by Russia’s Anton Chupkov. 

• So he’s qualified for the World Champs and the Comm Games, but Cody Simpson might not be joining him.

• Huh? Yep, things change quickly in swimming. Kyle Chalmers said he was going to skip the World Champs but he might change his mind. 

• That would rule Simpson out of the event in Budapest because he finished 3rd in the 100m butterfly and only the top 2 qualify. 

Watch it: Here’s that world record. You’d hate to race him at your school swimming carnival.

⚽ Rangers beaten by another Aussie 

First, it was Ange Postecoglou leading Celtic to Scottish success. Now it’s Ajdin Hrustic. Surely Rangers are getting sick of losing to Aussies. 

The score: Eintracht Frankfurt defeated Rangers 5-4 on penalties (1-1 at full-time).

Golden points: It’s been 17 years since Harry Kewell played in Liverpool's Champions League win. We now have another male champion in Europe.

• The UEFA Europa League is Europe’s 2nd-tier club comp, and it’s massive over there. Need proof? Barcelona was in it this year.

• Yesterday’s game was tense. That’s probably an understatement. It went to penalties and Hrustic played his part, converting Frankfurt’s 2nd goal.

• Former Arsenal player Aaron Ramsey was the only player to miss from the spot. 

Key click: Check out the fantastic stats from yesterday’s game. This was a biggie because Frankfurt are now into next year’s Champions League even though they finished 11th in the German league.

Watch it: Here are the highlights from the final.

⚽ City hope former Liverpool hero isn't the Villain 

It’s literally a 2 horse race in the English Premier League. Well, there are no horses. But it is down to 2 teams and there’s one thrilling race coming up.

Golden points: Be kind to your colleagues if they happen to support Manchester City or Liverpool. They’ve got a lot on their mind right now.

• This is all really simple. Manchester City just has to beat Aston Villa and the trophy is theirs. That’s because they lead Liverpool by a point.

• Unless the rules change and Liverpool get double points, they have to beat Wolverhampton and hope City lose.

• There is a little twist to the tale. Former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard coaches Villa. Surely he’ll be plotting something.

Watch it: All 10 games on matchday 38 will kick-off at 1.00am (AEST) to keep everything fair. You can watch every game on Optus Sport with a Champions League spot and relegation also on the line.

🏁 Dan's the man for now 

Daniel Ricciardo will become Australia's most capped F1 driver in Spain this weekend, but he could be saying adios to his team sooner than expected.

Golden points: The Aussie with the biggest smile in the sport is getting ready for his 216th Grand Prix. That’ll see him move past Mark Webber into top spot.

• Ricciardo has been racing in F1 for 11 years now and has won 8 races. But he’s only finished in the top 10 once in 5 starts in 2022 and his team isn’t thrilled.

• He’s under contract with McLaren until the end of next season so he has job security, but every team is keen on American driver Colton Herta.

• That’s because the sport is getting bigger and bigger in the States, so every team is trying to get an American driver to build the brand.

What’s next: Ricciardo can bounce back in Barcelona this weekend. The race is on at 11.00pm (AEST) and you can watch it on Foxtel and Kayo.

👀 Quick singles

⛳ Tiger Woods shot an opening round +4 at the PGA Championship in his 2nd event back from last year’s serious car crash. Playing partner Rory McIlroy shot straight to the top of the leaderboard with a score of -5. 

🏉 Magic Round may be over but the good times keep rolling for the Broncos. They’re into the NRL top four after they beat Newcastle last night, but Knights fans aren’t happy about a couple of crucial decisions. 

🏏 Glenn Maxwell has done his best to lead the Royal Challengers Bangalore to the Indian Premier League finals. He smashed 40 not out off 18 balls in their win over Gujarat this morning, but they now have to wait for other results to see if they finish 4th.  

🎾 The French Open draw has been released, and we could get an epic quarter-final. Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are on the same side of the draw and will play in the final 8 if they get there. 

🤸‍♀️ Russian gymnast Ivan Kuliak has paid the price for wearing a pro-war symbol next to a Ukrainian athlete. Kuliak has been banned for a year after he displayed the letter ‘Z’ on the podium at an event in Qatar. 

🏉 Australia’s rugby union pathway system is about to get a lot better for emerging players with an Australia A team set to be included in the Pacific Nations Cup. They’ll play Samoa, Tonga and Fiji in July. 

🏀 Aussie basketballer Josh Giddey could only laugh on social media after he missed out on the NBA’s All-Rookie first team. He wasn’t too happy about making the second team, which basically means he wasn’t in the top 5 rookies this season. 

🙃 Left of field...

We don’t know if Alex Twal has 99 problems, but scoring a try is definitely one.

Golden points: So many NRL players are scoring on debut these days and getting heaps of love on social media. And then there’s poor old Twal who has gone 99 games without a try.

• At least he's well short of the record. Jason Lowrie waited 139 games for his first try. 

• Imagine if Twal breaks it tonight against the Bulldogs. Well, nearly 2500 people want it to happen. They’ve signed a petition to run onto Leichhardt Oval if he scores. It’ll be just like when Lance Franklin kicked his 1000th goal, except heaps different. 

Watch it: Twal has had plenty of time to work on a celebration if he scores, so it better be good. Maybe he should check out this effort from the Sharks for some inspiration.

📽 The highlight reel

We love the vicious dunks and clutch buckets in the NBA, but it's time we showed some love to the defence. The Warriors are 1-0 up in the Western Conference Finals thanks to what guys like Draymond Green did without the ball. Check this out. 

📸 Photo finish

This is a good sign. Roger Federer is grinding away ahead of his return later in the year. 

🏃‍♀️ The finish line

🏆 Today's trivia answer

Mo Salah leads the way with 22 goals, one clear of Tottenham's Son Heung-min.

🎁 Feedback is a gift

The team here at Sport Today has loved putting together this newsletter for you, but we want to get bigger and better. To do that, we'd love to hear from you about what we're doing right, what we can improve and what else you'd like to see from us. You can help us out by filling out this quick survey and by doing so you could win a $200 Dan Murphy's Gift Card. Click here to fill out the survey and we'll announce the winner soon!