G'day sports fans,

Classic Quote: "If you even dream of beating me, you better wake up and apologise" - Muhammed Ali

In today's edition of Sport Journal:

🏉 NRL back with a bang

🐴 An incredible trainer report for you to listen to

⚽️ Greatest EPL game ever?

🏉 NRL

Rugby league back in all its glory

Broncos 6-34 Eels (Thursday) - Eels bust Broncos as footy returns with a bang (match report)

Cowboys 36-6 Titans (Friday): Holmes, Drinkwater, Taumalolo star as Cowboys run wild. Holmes racked up three try-assists in a match in which Ben Hampton and Reece Robson both crossed for doubles. (match report)

Roosters 28-12 Rabbitohs (Friday): The brute force of Boyd Cordner and the sublime skills of James Tedesco steered the Roosters to a win over arch-rivals Souths, putting paid to the premiers' slow start to the season. (match report)

Warriors 18-0 Dragons: The two winless teams were desperate to get on the board. Impressive stints from a pair of rookie Warriors helped New Zealand down a disappointing Dragons outfit. Warriors made history for 'most completed sets in NRL history 45/47 (95.7%) (match report)

Sharks 16-28 Tigers: After trailing by six at half-time, Michael Maguire's men held the Sharks scoreless in the second stanza to collect their second victory in three rounds. (match report)

Storm 6-22 Raiders: It was the Raiders' third win of the season and the third time in a row they have beaten the Storm at AAMI Park. The Canberra Raiders have sent an ominous warning to the rest of the competition and maintained their unbeaten start to the season (match report)

Panthers 14-14 Knights: Newcastle overcame the loss of star halfback Mitchell Pearce and hooker Connor Watson in the opening minutes against Penrith to snatch an unlikely 14-14 draw. (match report)

Sea Eagles 32-6 Bulldogs: Tom Trbojevic was a one-man points machine for the Sea Eagles in their 32-6 romp over the Bulldogs, finishing with two tries and three try assists at Central Coast Stadium. (match report)

NRL Tipping Comp: Surprisingly, despite having a huge uptake on the comp (great to see 👏🏻), no one predicted the winning margin in both games!

We'll bring back the comp for Round 4 and roll over the prizes.

🇦🇺 AFL

Fixture revamp including bye weeks may push Grand Final into November

The question of when to end the quarantine hubs is causing the AFL problems.

The Herald Sun reports it all depends on Western Australia’s border restrictions, which remain extremely tight for other states.

If they have not been lifted by the time West Coast and Fremantle finish their currently scheduled hub stint - the Eagles play there on July 2, while the Dockers play on July 5 - it may become an issue.

The WA clubs aren’t keen to spend more than six weeks in the hubs, but under current restrictions, when they return home they would need a 14-day quarantine period - which would mean they couldn’t play a game the weekend after returning.

Therefore the AFL may need to introduce bye weeks, so that teams can play a game, fly to Perth and quarantine for two weeks - spending their week on bye in the west - before playing either West Coast or Fremantle and then flying home.

In turn the 2020 Grand Final could be pushed back from its currently pencilled-in date of October 24 to some time in November. That would at least allow it to be played in the day time, as is traditional.

Mick Malthouse says only six teams are capable of winning the 2020 AFL premiership

Coaching legend Mick Malthouse says only half a dozen teams are capable of winning the AFL premiership in the coronavirus-hit 2020 season.

Some experts have suggested the shortened and disrupted season, which restarts on June 11, could open the door for teams to "pinch" an unexpected flag.

But VFL/AFL coaching games record-holder Malthouse believes the 17-round campaign will heavily favour bigger, stronger and more "ballistic" teams.

He also says versatile and explosive midfield-forward players like Dustin Martin, Jordan De Goey and Patrick Dangerfield will be influential during shortened quarters, with each period trimmed to 16 minutes plus time-on this season.

Malthouse said reigning premiers Richmond, beaten grand finalists Greater Western Sydney, West Coast and Collingwood were the most serious flag contenders. (nine)

🐴 Racing

'Please release me from my pain'

After Tugcoat Cliffy finished last by just the 26.4L on Friday at Geelong. The Trainer, Mick Price had this (um) 'honest' assessment for the owners. This is priceless. 🤣

NZ newspaper formguides chopped for restart

Old school Kiwi punters will have to do without formguides in daily newspapers when racing resumes in New Zealand on Thursday.

Harsh cost-cutting measures from New Zealand’s Racing Industry Transition Agency have caused the NZ TAB to stop funding formguides in newspapers for the first time in decades.

“Those with an interest in form, fields and results will hopefully know the alternatives for finding those” - editorial director Mark Stevens said.

The NZ TAB has shed hundreds of jobs despite being granted $NZ50 million out of a $NZ72 million government handout to the racing industry. (racenet)

🐴 The Sport Journal Horse Racing Tipping Comp will return on Friday!

⚽️ Football

And the best ever Premier League game is...

That was the huge task facing the pundits on the latest edition of the Match of The Day: Top 10 podcast (Alan Shearer and Ian Wright)

#1. Liverpool 4-3 Newcastle (3 April 1996)

Alan Shearer: "Newcastle had that 12-point lead over Manchester United in January but they were chipping away at it. It was a game Newcastle had to get something from and it had everything. It was so significant because Kevin Keegan was never going to change the way he wanted his team to play football. It was all-out attack, and I wasn't at the club, but I could understand that philosophy. He wanted to entertain the fans."

A-League Hub will be in NSW

Dates and venues remain unknown but FFA chief executive James Johnson has revealed the A-League's isolation hub will be based in NSW.

The final matches of the 2019-20 A-League season will be played in NSW, FFA chief executive James Johnson has confirmed.

A day after it was confirmed the competition was seeking to wrap up the season with 32 games in 36 days, Johnson said the majority of the matches will be played in NSW in an isolation hub.

The sole exception will be fixtures between the three Victorian clubs - Melbourne Victory, Melbourne City and Western United - which may be played in that state before the trio head north to join the hub.

"Will there be a hub? Yes there will. Where will that hub be? It will be in NSW," Johnson told Fox Sports. (ftbl)

⚽️ Bundesliga Roundup

• Sancho scores hat-trick on first Dortmund start since Bundesliga resumed, Dortmund winning 6-1.

• Dortmund 10 points adrift of leaders Bayern, Paderborn bottom

• Bayern Munich 5-0 Fortuna Düsseldorf

• Monchengladbach beat Union Berlin 4-1 and into CL spots

🌎 International

👊🏻 UFC

Brazilian welterweight Gilbert Burns upset former world champion Tyron Woodley with a unanimous points win at UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas.

Burns, 33, moved to six-straight wins with a 50-45, 50-44, 50-44 decision after five rounds with the American.

In the opening round Burns bloodied his rival and he went on to take Woodley to the floor in rounds two and four, ensuring he was dominant throughout.

"I was calling these guys out for a reason," said Burns. "I'm ready."

Woodley told his Instagram followers: "I have no excuses, felt good and trained hard. He did a good job of keeping the distance. I have a weird peace for someone who just lost."

In the night's co-main event, Brazil's Augusto Sakai remained undefeated in the heavyweight division by overcoming Bulgaria's Blagoy Ivanov via split decision after three rounds.

🎮 It's in the game

The NFL and NFL Players Union have agreed a 5 year extension with EA Sports, for the Madden video game. The deal will be worth $1 Billion for NFL owners and $500 for players.

🏏 More viewers than their population

Guernsey is one of the Islands in the English Channel near the French coast, an associate member of the International Cricket Council and therefore eligible to play T20 international fixtures.

On Saturday they hosted the first Cricket in Europe since lockdown

Social distancing had to be observed before, during and after the game, with payers saying "it hadn't made much difference"

The exhibition game raised money for the Covid-19 appeal and a live stream attracted desperate cricket fans with over 84,000 viewers on YouTube.

The game achieved two things...it proved it can be easily be done safely and gave cricket fans hope of plenty more to come.

Back on Wednesday!