G'day sports fans,

Weird World Champs: Swamp Football - Originally developed as an exercise for athletes and soldiers. The world and the championship is played in, you guessed it, Finland.

In today's edition of Sport Journal:

⚽️ Scrappy win for Victory

🏏 Cricketer of the year & tri-series final

🐴 Inglis Sprint million

🏉 NRL

Confirmed NRL Nines squads

A host of representative stars, exciting young guns and some greats from yesteryear will compete at this weekend's Perth Nines tournament.

Strong teams have been named across the league featuring the likes of Shaun Johnson, Anthony Milford, Cameron Munster, Jason Taumalolo, Mitch Moses, Viliame Kikau and Ben Hunt.

More than 60 international players and 18 Origin guns will showcase their ability at HBF Park from February 14-15, starting on Friday. (NRL)

#FightForFine: Sharks dedicate Nines campaign to stricken prop

The Sharks will feel they have a 10th player on the field at the Perth Nines: popular prop Fine Kula, who is battling brain cancer.

The back of Cronulla's Nines jerseys features the slogan #FightForFine, the title of a fundraising campaign the club has launched to support the New Zealand-born 21-year-old. (NRL)

⚽️ Football

Misfiring Victory get the job done...just

Ola Toivonen’s first-half penalty helped an unconvincing Melbourne Victory see off Chiangrai United in AFC Champions League.

🔁 Juventus are planning a move for Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola and will allow the 49-year-old Spaniard to name his terms. (Sun)

🔁 Brazil midfielder Philippe Coutinho, 27, has been told he can leave Barcelona for a cut-price £77m this summer, with Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City, Tottenham and former club Liverpool all interested. (Express)

🔁 Manchester City are considering Borussia Dortmund and Norway striker Erling Braut Haaland, 19, as a long-term replacement for Argentina striker Sergio Aguero, 31. (90min.com)

Think the A-League has poor crowds? Think again

The big cause for concern is the overall average for the league, which sits at just 9,816 at present. This figure is bad by itself, but it looks utterly abysmal compared to the sort of crowds that the AFL and NRL can attract. It’s easy to see why it raises so much concern.

But here’s the thing. We shouldn’t compare the A-League to the other codes, we should compare it to its global peers. If you look at the A-League compared to other top flight competitions it was actually the 19th highest attended league in the world last season.

It isn’t that the A-League gets bad attendances, (the roar's, Nick Symonds argues) they’re actually respectable by global standards, it’s that they only look bad because the stadiums that matches are played in are too large. (theroar)

🏏 Cricket

David Warner, Ellyse Perry win top honours at Australian Cricket Awards

Less than a year after completing the ban for his role in the ball-tampering scandal, David Warner was crowned the Allan Border medalist despite his horror Ashes series while Ellyse Perry took the Belinda Clark medal at the annual Australian Cricket Awards in Melbourne.

Warner, who became clearly emotional during his acceptance speech, pipped Steven Smith by one vote (194 to 193) and Pat Cummins to the main men's award.

The awards for international cricket are based on votes from players, umpires and the media on a 3-2-1 basis from each match for the period January 8, 2019 to January 9, 2020. (Cricinfo)

Allan Border believes the scoring system for the medal named in his honour to recognise the best Australian male cricketer may be require an overhaul after David Warner’s contentious win. (Fox)

🐴 Racing

Jockey to ride in both Sydney and Melbourne on Wednesday

Jockey Billy Egan will make the mad dash from Melbourne to Sydney and back again in a bid to claim a slice of the $1 million Inglis Sprint and a well-earned city win back across the border on Wednesday.

Egan will arrive in Sydney from Victoria on Tuesday night to pilot the Patrick Payne-trained Rubisaki in the $1 million Inglis Sprint at Warwick Farm before hitting the road for the airport to return to Melbourne to participate in Sandown's twilight card.

Egan is to take the steer on Keymaster in the final race on the card in Melbourne. Egan was all too willing to make to journey with what he believes are a pair of top chances at both meetings. (racenet)

🎮 E-sports

The nation's best FIFA 20 gamers will descend on Sydney on Saturday, 15 February as E-League 2020 powers up for Match Day 1.

The revamped format for this year’s EA SPORTS FIFA 20 Global Series event means the stakes are even higher as 11 rounds will be crunched into two intense match days at ESL Studios in Auburn, Sydney (tickets $15). (A-League). The match-day will be streamed live on Twitch.

I'm only starting to get my head around e-sports, if you're into the e-sports scene, feel free to give me a shout, I'm keen to learn. Just reply to this mail and we can chat.

🏁 Motorsport

The Formula One season officially starts in Melbourne at the Australian Grand Prix over the weekend of March 14-15, but to many, it unofficially gets underway when the new cars are unveiled to the public. (ESPN)

Walkinshaw Andretti United has taken the covers off high-profile recruit Chaz Mostert’s first Holden Supercar.

Mostert made the defection from Tickford Racing to the Holden squad shortly after the 2019 season finale and has been joined by Super2 champion Bryce Fullwood in an all-new driver line-up. (SuperCars)

🇺🇸 USA

🇦🇺 AFL

Major Bombers blow as McKenna heads home indefinitely

Essendon has suffered a blow a month before Round 1, with defender Conor McKenna returning home to Ireland indefinitely.

Foxfooty.com.au understands McKenna returned due to homesickness and family-related reasons.

Essendon will continue to support him and remain in contact with the player and his family. (Fox)

🏌🏻‍♂️ Golf

The PGA Tour has arrived on the outskirts of Los Angeles for this week's Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club.

This week's new-look event means a reduction in field size from 144 to 120, not to mention a massive increase in prize money from $7.4m to $9.3m, as well as an exemption list more in keeping with World Golf Championship tournaments.

Nine of the worlds top 10 will be teeing-up on Thursday, as well as 19 of the leading 25.

Greens in Regulation is a good marker here and Patrick Cantlay, topped GIR when finishing tied-fourth in 2018, is hitting plenty of fairways and greens during the current season.

2 players' form on this course over the last 10 years stand out:

Dustin Johnson ($15) (2019 first) - 9, 1, 6, 1, 4, 2, 2, MC, 4, MC, 3

Bubba Watson ($23) - 15, 1, Wd, 1, 14, 1, MC, 13, Wd, MC

📺 Live Sport

Wednesday

🐴 Inglis Millennium, Warwick Farm Racecourse, Sydney (12pm)

🐴 Inglis Sprint, Warwick Farm Racecourse, Sydney (12:35pm)

🏏 Women's Twenty20 Series, Final - Australia v India (1:40pm)

🎾 WTA Thailand Open, Round 2 (7pm)

🎾 ATP Rotterdam Open, Rounds 1&2 (9pm)

Thursday

⚽️ Copa del Rey Semi-Final - Athletic Bilbao v Granada (7am)

⚽️ Coupe de France Quarter-Final - Lyon v Marseille (7:05am)

🏀 NBA Regular season matches (from 11am)

🏌🏼‍♀️ ALPG Tour Women's Australian Open, Royal Adelaide Golf Club (3pm)

🎾 ATP New York Open, Round 2 (5pm)

🎾 WTA Thailand Open, Round 2 (7pm)

🏀 NBL Regular Season - Melbourne United v Cairns Taipans (7:30pm)

⚽️ AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying - China v Australia (7:30pm)

Back on Friday!