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🎉 100th Edition of Sport Journal!

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In today's edition of Sport Journal:

🏉 Who gains the most metres per run

🇦🇺 AFL's growing fan base

🏈 Washington to change name, one guy buys up all the trademarks

⚽️ Live scores

EFL Championship: Wigan scored 7 (SEVEN) first-half goals against struggling Hull City. They only won 8-nil, boring!

(ht) Chelsea 1-0 Norwich

• Diving header from Giroud (45+3mins)

• Chelsea in third place with three games left

• Norwich are already relegated

🏉 NRL

Pay Out

Dean Pay has put an end to his two-and-a-half-year stint as coach of the Canterbury Bulldogs.

The last couple of months have seen Pay under immense pressure, leading the Bulldogs to just 19 wins in 57 matches. They are bottom of the ladder, with just the one win in 2020.

Former Manly coach and current Penrith assistant Trent Barrett is a clear front-runner to take over the club in the long-term. (NRL)

Covid-19 update statement from the NRL

The Australian Rugby League Commission (ARLC) today met and agreed all clubs operating outside of Queensland must revert to original Apollo biosecurity protocols.

Players and staff within team bubbles will not be allowed to attend venues including cafes, restaurants, pubs, beaches and golf courses to avoid community contact during the current spike in COVID-19 cases. Restrictions on home visitors will also return. (NRL)

🚑 Injury Update: Valentine Holmes out for 8-10 weeks (Fox)

NRL’s Best Metre-Eaters of 2020

The guys at nozebleeds.com have released tables of the NRL’s highest quality ball-runners, taking into account Run Metres per Run (RM/R) – an underrated statistic that indicates which players get the most bang for their buck when the carrying the footy.

🇦🇺 AFL

North Melbourne tagger Luke McDonald has apologised

to Essendon's Conor McKenna for his on-field COVID-19 taunt, but coach Rhyce Shaw does not expect any sanction from the AFL. (abc)

Key points:

• Luke McDonald made a gesture to Conor McKenna where he pretended to cover his face

• McKenna was playing his first match since leaving quarantine following a coronavirus scare

• The Kangaroos said McDonald's actions were "a bad look"

McKenna is still confused about some of the test findings.

“On the Friday it’s called a false positive…so I had to get retested on the Saturday and that came up positive,” McKenna said on the Teamtalkmag Tyrone Facebook page.

“And then I got retested on the Tuesday and I got negative". (Fox)

Australian sports are findings new audiences all over the world

A nice spread in a Swedish newspaper this weekend.

Favourite comment on Reddit: Are we sure this isn’t Swedish for ‘Tall man with no hands, drops ball often’

Bad luck, Bombers

Dylan Shiel appeal fails in dramatic Tribunal hearing, Ben Long gets 3 weeks. Essendon has failed in its AFL Tribunal appeal, with Dylan Shiel remaining suspended for two matches following a dramatic hearing lasting almost two and a half hours.

The Bombers argued Shiel’s charge should have been graded as medium impact rather than high impact, which would have instead resulted in a one-game ban.

The jury rejected that and agreed there was the potential to cause serious injury, with Tribunal chairman Geoffrey Giudice stating it was “fortunate the consequences were not greater for Curtis Taylor”. (Fox)

Apparently Essendon were so convinced that Shiel's ban would be downgraded that they sent an email to members stating that his initial two game ban had been downgraded. (Reddit)

⛳️ Golf

Tiger Woods eyes Memorial tournament win

For the second consecutive week, Muirfield Village will host a PGA Tour event.

Notables in this week’s field who didn’t play last week include Bryson DeChambeau, Rory McIlroy, Webb Simpson … and of course, Tiger Woods, making his first start since the resumption of play.

Tiger Woods says there is "no reason" why he cannot make PGA Tour history this week with a win at his first competitive event since February.

The 44-year-old goes into the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio chasing an 83rd PGA Tour win that would eclipse Sam Snead's mark of 82, set in 1965.

"I would like to say that I'm going to win the event," said Woods, who has won the tournament a record five times.

"That's my intent coming in, that's my intent going into every event."

"There's no reason why I can't do it again this week."

Masters champion Woods missed tournaments prior to golf's coronavirus shutdown in order to deal with back issues.

Would you bet against him? Here he is after being asked about the guy that backed him for the Masters last year.

🎾 Tennis

Federer v Nadal 2008 voted favourite men's final of all-time

Nadal won 6-4 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 6-7 (8-10) 9-7

Star names, quality, drama, suspense... the final part of the 'Fedal' trilogy had the all ingredients of a blockbuster.

Federer and Nadal were ranked as the world's best two players, with the Spanish second seed trying to end the Swiss's five-year reign at the All England Club after losing the previous two finals.

After almost seven hours - because of rain delays - 22-year-old Nadal finally dethroned Federer as darkness descended on an enraptured Centre Court.

It lived up to the hype and it lives long in the memory. With 39% of the vote, it is the favourite Wimbledon men's final.

⚽️ Football

Cult hero gives all-time post-match interview

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp sent Adebayo Akinfenwa a congratulatory video message, after the forward helped Wycombe secure promotion to the Championship.

La Liga: Madrid one victory away

Real Madrid are just one victory away from winning their 34th La Liga, after defeating Granada 2-1 away from home and their 9th consecutive victory. Benzema scored his 19th goal in the league (3 behind Messi).

UEFA Ban Overturned = Shopping spree

Monday’s overturned ban should make City at least £200m if they can go far in the Champions League in the coming seasons. Plus the £389m arrived via private equity firm Silver Lake’s November investment.

This means one thing...shopping spree!

Top of the list are:

• Ben Chilwell (Leicester City)

• Kalidou Koulibaly (Napoli)

Among the other names touted for City are Caglar Soyuncu, Nathan Ake, Benfica’s Ruben Dias, Inter Milan star Milan Skriniar, Borussia Dortmund’s Dan-Axel Zagadou and Pau Torres of Villarreal.

Why is Gareth Bale behaving like he is at Real Madrid?

Simply put, Zidane and Bale have never had a relationship and Zidane could not get too Bale, even publicly stating he didn't want him at the club.

Bale, (on AU$630k a week) was pictured entertaining himself in the stands while real Madrid played Granada on Monday, three days after pretending to be asleep against Alaves.

🇺🇸 'Merica

🏈 NFL's Washington Redskins will change name and logo

The announcement comes just days after the team said that a "thorough review" of the name would be conducted.

The new name was not revealed.

The name has long been denounced by Native American groups as an ethnic slur. The franchise had been under increasing pressure form major sponsors, such as Nike and Fedex to change the name.

Martin McCaulay, from Virginia has apparently trademarked a load of potential names, including; Washington Red Wolves, Washington Redtails, Washington Monuments, Washington Americans and Washington Veterans.

The idea, presumably, would be to sell the name should Washington choose one of the registered names.

🏀 Why NBA Players, Coaches Are Confident the Bubble Is Working

Negatives: Houston Rockets superstar Russell Westbrook, who didn't travel with the team to Orlando, announced via social media that he tested positive for COVID-19 before the team's departure. Two players, Houston's Bruno Caboclo and Sacramento's Richaun Holmes, were revealed to have broken the mandatory quarantine, with Holmes explaining that he accidentally crossed the campus boundary to pick up a delivery order. Both of them must now quarantine again.

Positives: Just two out of the 322 players tested positive for the coronavirus. The league revealed that those two players' positive tests showed up while they were still in quarantine.

The "Bubble" season starts 30th July.

📺 Live sport

Wednesday

⚽️ 05:15 - Premier League - Chelsea v Norwich City (Optus Sport 1)

⚽️ 05:45 - Serie A - Atalanta v Brescia Calcio (BeIN Sports 1)

🏀 09:00 - The Basketball Tournament Final (ESPN 1)

⚽️ 12:30 - MLS Group Game - Philadelphia Union v Inter Miami CF (BeIN Sports 1)

Thursday

⚽️ 03:00 - Premier League - Burnley v Wolverhampton Wanderers (Optus Sport 2)

⚽️ 03:00 - - Premier League - Manchester City v Bournemouth (Optus Sport 4)

⚽️ 03:00- Premier League - Newcastle United v Tottenham (Optus Sport 3)

⚽️ 03:30 - Serie A - Bologna v Napoli (BeIN Sports 3)

⚽️ 03:30 - Serie A - Milan v Parma (BeIN Sports 1)

⚽️ 05:15- Premier League - Arsenal v Liverpool (Optus Sport 1)

⚽️ 05:45 - Serie A - Roma v Hellas Verona (BeIN Sports 3)

⚽️ 05:45 - Serie A - Sassuolo v Juventus (BeIN Sports 1)

⚽️ 05:45 - Serie A - Udinese v Lazio (BeIN Sports 2)

🚘 09:00 - NASCAR All-Star Open (Fox Sports)

👊🏻 09:00 - UFC Fight Night Prelims (ESPN 1)

🚘 10:30 - NASCAR All-Star Race (Fox Sports)

👊🏻 12:00 - UFC Fight Night Main Card - Calvin Kattar v Dan Ige (ESPN 1)

⚽️ 12:30 - MLS Group Game - Vancouver Whitecaps v San Jose Earthquakes (BeIN Sports 1)

🏉 19:50 - NRL - Sydney Roosters v Canberra Raiders (Fox League or Nine)

🏏 20:00 - Test Match - England v West Indies (Fox Cricket)

🇦🇺 20:10 - AFL - Geelong Cats v Collingwood Magpies (Fox Footy or 7mate)

⚽️ 23:00 - MLS Group Game - Atlanta United v FC Cincinnati (ESPN 1)