It is time for the talking to stop as Aidan O’Brien’s wonder colt returns to race in the first Classic of the season at Newmarket Even in a sport which thrives on optimism and uncertainty, there are few “what ifs?” to match the moment when an exceptional colt from last year’s juvenile crop canters to post for the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket. For months, fans and backers of the “winter favourite” for the Classic will have followed his progress from two to three via market moves, occasional “no news is good news” updates from the stable, and the online rumour-mill, but six months on from his last ..read more

Either Melbourne City or Sydney FC will become the first to win five ALW titles this weekend – both behemoths worthy of the honour The A-League Women is a league that thrives on a sense of chaos. It’s a key tenet of the league’s mythos, earning it a special place in the hearts of devotees. However, when Melbourne City and Sydney FC take the field at AAMI Park on Saturday to contest the grand final, it will be a decider that was widely tipped before the season – two behemoths that fancy themselves the best in the league’s history. At the end of the first full home-and-away season in league hist ..read more

The 22-year-old’s blistering IPL form should have forced a recalculation for the otherwise conventional T20 World Cup squad Let’s be honest, we wanted it. You all did. Short of those actively hostile to 20-over cricket, anyone would have liked to see Fraser-McGurk go crazy berserk, after the boy Jake has spent the past three weeks tearing up bowlers in the Indian Premier League. Instead, he will head from India back home, left out of the T20 World Cup that follows the tournament he’s currently dominating. It takes something special for the IPL to cut through in Australia. Fraser-McGurk produce ..read more

Having played under Benítez, Mourinho and Guardiola, the Spaniard has given his players a structure and identity Football is, fortunately, a game. Victory and defeat are sometimes decided by chance. When the best of the best meet, I reckon it’s 20%. The draw increases the luck factor even more. That’s nice: it makes new winners possible. It brought Manchester City and Real Madrid together in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, the most spectacular game in European football for three years. Once again, it kept all its promises and thrilled with intensity and great goals. In the second l ..read more

No plan and poor communication sealed the coach’s fate, but under the right leadership the Rabbitohs can rise back up the ladder While much goes into coaching at the NRL level, at the end of the day, all coaches are measured on their wins and losses. And at South Sydney it was the quick accumulation of losses and the failure to make the necessary changes to stem the bleeding that resulted in the sacking of head coach Jason Demetriou. Anchored in 17th position following a disastrous 12 months where the team has won just five of its last 20 games, the dismissal had long been on the cards, as Dem ..read more

The former Diamonds captain joins the board of the ailing organisation with considerable knowledge and a clear blueprint to lift the sport Lasting, structural change rarely comes from one person alone. It usually happens through collective efforts that often involve people in power and those on the outside. But often these actions require a spark – and that is where one person can make a difference. For netball in Australia – a sport that has been battling waves of off-court controversy over the past four years – that spark may have arrived in the form of Liz Ellis. A year on from when multipl ..read more

One of the most talented and engagingly quirky chasers of recent years died on Sunday in a tragic stable accident There was a keen and widely shared sense of loss among racing fans on social media on Sunday evening as news emerged that Nicky Henderson’s Shishkin, one of the most talented and engagingly quirky chasers of recent years, had died after fracturing a hind leg having become cast in his box at Henderson’s yard in Lambourn. It was a hugely unfortunate conclusion to a storied career in which the hero’s flaws and foibles only added to his appeal ..read more

Time will tell who got the best haul of players in Detroit, there were promising signs from the Bears, Vikings and Steelers Chicago Bears. Anyone with an internet connection could have drafted Southern California quarterback Caleb Williams with the first pick. But Williams’ arrival is a victory unto itself for the Bears, who have been in the QB wilderness for decades. Chicago fans will expect Williams to be the team’s best quarterback ever, and it won’t even be so unreasonable of them given his sublime talent and the team’s barren history at the position. General manager Ryan Poles has also do ..read more

Memories of a red and black behemoth feel increasingly distant after yet another failed A-League Men campaign Is it better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all? It’s a question the men of Western Sydney Wanderers may be mulling on Monday after their season came to an end at the conclusion of a rollercoaster weekend. Having moved into the finals places after coming from behind, twice, to defeat Melbourne Victory in a manic 4-3 win on the penultimate day of the season, Marko Rudan’s side were then forced to watch on helpless as they slipped back out of contention with Melbourn ..read more

Maybe all things Luton are behind Forest’s difficulties but against Pep Guardiola’s men, they failed to get the basics right There is no better way to rally the base than to insist there is an external conspiracy. Everything would be fine if it weren’t for them. We’re being derailed by – delete as appropriate – the Rosicrucians, the Illuminati, the Masons, giant lizards or, most fearsome of all the shadowy string-pullers, the celebrity Luton fans. Nottingham Forest are threatened with relegation not because they cannot defend set plays, because they do not take their chances or because they bo ..read more