G'day sports fans,

Classic Quote: "If you can walk, you can play" - Former Cowboys and Broncos winger, Antonio Winterstein

Make sure get involved in our NRL score prediction game further down in the mail.

In today's edition of Sport Journal:

🏉 Round 3 gets underway on Thursday

⚽️ A-League players in limbo over contracts

🎾 Tennis Australia optimistic over future

🏉 NRL

NRL has lift off

Two of the NRL's undefeated teams will go head-to-head to relaunch the season on May 28.

Parramatta head north of the border to Suncorp Stadium for the first match-up between the teams since their finals clash last year.

The Broncos have their first opportunity to exact revenge for their 58-0 thrashing at the hands of the Eels in the playoffs.

With over 11,000 votes on nrl.com - The most popular (33%) margin is for Broncos to win 1-10pts ($2.95)

📈 Stats:

• The home team has won each of the last four matches between Brisbane and Parramatta.

• Kotoni Staggs has been the first try-scorer in 3 of Brisbane's last 6 home matches. ($12.0)

• Make Sivo has scored at least one try in each of Parramatta's last 3 matches against Brisbane. ($2.10)

Friday Night Football

Cowboys ($1.30) v Titans ($3.45)

• Head to Head - Cowboys 15 wins, Titans 8 wins, since 1998

• Last time out: Titans 4 Cowboys 6

• Form: Cowboys WWLLW, Titans LLLLL

• This season: Cowboys 1/2, Titans 0/2

We'll have previews of all the weekend's games in Friday edition.

🏉 NRL Tipping Comp

Predict the winning margin in the two Friday games to win.

How to play: It’s FREE to play, have a go at picking the winning margin in the Cowboys v Titans and Roosters v Rabbitohs matches, win Sport Journal merch. simple. It’s free to enter and a bit of fun.

How to play: 

• Click HERE to open the form

• Enter your email and name (so we can contact you when you win)

• Pick a winning margin in Cowboys v Titans > hit next

• Pick a winning margin in Roosters v Rabbitohs > hit next

• Have a guess at the time the first try will be scored in each match > make sure you hit submit

If we have a good number of players, we’ll look to build out the comps and increase the prize fund. Play HERE

Xerri fails ASADA drugs test, stood down immediately

Cronulla centre Bronson Xerri is facing a possible multi-year suspension after he was alleged to have tested positive to several banned performance-enhancing substances, including steroids, late last year.

Xerri was provisionally suspended under the NRL's Anti-Doping Policy on Tuesday, just hours before he was to be named for a return from injury for the Sharks against Wests Tigers in round 3.

Not helping his cause, just 24 hours earlier Bronson Xerri declared he would return to the field “a lot faster” than what he was last year.

Three weeks earlier, his sprint coach Roger Fabri said the 19-year-old Sharks star had “gone from regular to being lit.”

An NRL statement confirmed Xerri is alleged to have returned a positive A-sample "for exogenous Testosterone, Androsterone, Etiocholanolone and 5b-androstane-3a,17b-diol" when tested on November 25, 2019.

He will now have the opportunity to have his B-sample analysed by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority, and is unable to play any form of rugby league while provisionally suspended. (NRL)

⚽️ Football

Anxious A-League players 'in limbo' over contracts

A-League players are demanding certainty for their futures with more than 100 contracts set to expire at the end of the week.

Almost half of the contracted players in the competition are due to become free agents after May 31, leaving them without a job but also able to move to other clubs in Australia or overseas.

League stakeholders including FFA are attempting to broker a solution, most likely involving a short-term extension of deals until the 2019-20 season can be completed but time is running out.

"Without some certainty, we risk losing them to the game as well as compromising a fair end to the season," Sydney FC captain Alex Wilkinson, president of Professional Footballers' Australia (PFA), told AAP, adding those players with contracts set to expire were "in limbo". (SMH)

🌎 International

The Match II: Most-watched golf event in cable history

Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning beating Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady on Sunday afternoon drew an average of 5.8 million viewers, Turner Sports announced Monday.

The golf may have been sloppy at times, but it hardly mattered, as the event became the most-watched golf telecast in the history of cable television, beating the first round of the 2010 Masters on ESPN (4.9M).

The record audience saw Brady looking like a mortal before sinking a wedge shot from more than 100 yards for a birdie out on the seventh hole, ripping his pants while he was at it.

He and Mickelson fell behind early before rallying on the back nine to make it close, but an impressive Manning and clutch Woods held them off.

The Match raised $20 million for coronavirus relief, with donations coming in throughout the event.

Audi suspend driver Daniel Abt for esports cheating

Following on from the story in SJ on Monday.

Audi have suspended Formula E racer Daniel Abt after he got a professional gamer to play under his name in an esports version of the series.

Abt, 27, had admitted the deception in Saturday's Formula E Race at Home Challenge Series, saying he had not taken it "as seriously as I should".

Abt has also been fined 10,000 euros.

👟 Not strictly sports but people are buying Ben and Jerry Nike shoes for $6.5k, and I thought you should know. 

‘F—k you’: Lance Armstrong documentary gets off to quite the start

Serial doper Lance Armstrong admits some fans will always be “p—d” with him for his Tour de France cheating.

In Episode 1 of “Lance,” the two-part ESPN documentary released Sunday, the disgraced Texas cyclist flaunted the middle finger in the opening scene and recounted an X-rated story when he was approached outside a bar after being stripped of his seven Tour titles for taking performance-enhancing drugs.

“I was staying in this rental house. I called an Uber. He pulls up on the street right in front of the bar. We cross the street and this guy stands up and shouts, ‘Hey, Lance.’ I’m like, ‘What’s up, man?’ He goes, ‘F—k you! F—k you!’

“The next thing you know, he’s with six or seven people and they all stand up and start going, ‘F—k you! You f—king cheater.’ (NYP)

🏀 Basketball

Andrew Bogut quits Sydney Kings, leaves future up in the air

then takes aim at ‘bush league’ NBL 

The 35-year-old's two year deal with Sydney expired at the completion of the 2019-20 season, which was cancelled with the Kings trailing Perth 2-1 in the best-of-five finals series, as COVID-19 restrictions kicked in.

Bogut had planned to retire after representing Australia at the Tokyo Olympics this year. With the Games delayed until 2021, it's left his future up in the air. (nine)

Bogut on Twitter: "I have decided not to sign with the Sydney Kings, or any professional sporting team for that matter, for the time being,"

Later also on his Twitter "Would you see the @NBA or even @EuroLeague have someone who officially works for their brand/league act and rant and rave like @chomicide ? Of course not. But in @KestelmanLarry @NBL , perfectly ok. #bushleague"

🎾 Tennis

Tennis Australia CEO, is very optimistic for the future of sport.

Djokovic starts own tournament as world tennis remains suspended

Novak Djokovic marked his return to Serbia, after being 'stranded' in the Spanish resort of Marbella for two months (how did he cope?) due to the coronavirus lockdown, by announcing that he has organised an event which will be contested across the Balkans.

"Unlike many other players, I was able to train almost every day because we resided in a house with a tennis court," Djokovic told a news conference at his private tennis complex in downtown Belgrade by the Danube river. (SMH)

Back on Friday!

📺 Live sport

Wednesday

⚽️ 04:30 - Bundesliga - Bayer Leverkusen v VfL Wolfsburg (BeIN Sports 1)

 ⚽️ 04:30 - Bundesliga - Eintracht Frankfurt v SC Freiburg (BeIN Sports 3)

 ⚽️ 04:30 - Bundesliga - Werder Bremen v Borussia Monchengladbach (BeIN Sports 2)

 🎯 04:30 Darts- PDC Home Tour, Night 33 (Fox Sports)

🎮 09:00 Esports - Basketball, NBA 2K League (ESPN 1)

🎮 19:00 Esports - Supercars, All Stars Eseries, Round 8 (Fox Sports or Kayo Sports)

Thursday

 ⚽️ 04:30 - Bundesliga - TSG Hoffenheim v FC Koln (BeIN Sports 2)

 ⚽️ 04:30 - Bundesliga - Fortuna Dusseldorf v Schalke 04 (BeIN Sports1)

 ⚽️ 04:30 - Bundesliga - FC Union Berlin v Mainz 05 (BeIN Sports 3) 

 ⚽️ 04:30 - Darts - PDC Home Tour, Night 34 (Fox Sports)

🚘 10:00 - NASCAR Cup Series, Charlotte 500 (Fox Sports)

🐕 19:42 - Greyhounds, Group 1Sandown Cup, 715m (Sky Racing 1) 

🏉 19:50 - NRL Regular Season - Brisbane Broncos v Parramatta Eels (Fox League or Nine)