G'day sport fans,

There are uncertain times ahead for everyone.

In the meantime, we'll do our best to keep you all informed on the sport front and hopefully bring a smile to your face!

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In today's edition of Sport Journal:

🏅 Olympics postponed until 2021

💰 The financial impact on sport

⛳️ Tough time to be a caddy

Isolation hitting us like...

🏅 Olympics

Tokyo 2020 Olympics officially postponed until 2021

The United States Olympic Committee had last night joined the British Olympic Association, and the Olympic Committees in Germany, Australia, Brazil and Norway in calling for a postponement.

Never before have the Olympic games been postponed or canceled for something other than war, but never before has the world come to a grinding halt the way it has over the novel coronavirus.

The Olympics have previously only been cancelled completely during periods of World War - in 1916, 1940 and 1944 - but never suspended or postponed. 

Crisis talks were held over the phone this morning between Bach and the Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, who formally sought what is the first ever postponement in the 124-year history of the competition, for "Bout a year."

Tokyo Olympic organisers have previously put the cost of staging the Olympics at $12.6 billion (£10.95 billion) and must now consider a myriad of logistical nightmares associated with a delay, including the availability of key venues and accommodation. (Fox)

🐴 Racing

NSW trots off pending COVID-19 test & Queensland participants tested

Harness racing in NSW has been suspended pending a coronavirus test on a participant that attended a meeting at Penrith earlier this month.

The unnamed participant had been in direct contact with a confirmed carrier of the COVID-19 virus before going to the Penrith meeting on March 19.

All people that have had direct contact with the participant have been notified.

Harness Racing NSW announced that meetings from Tuesday until Thursday have been abandoned.

Harness racing in that state will not resume until the participant’s test results come back at the earliest. (racenet)

Outsiders now banned from Victorian race meetings

Anybody arriving from interstate will be banned from attending a Victorian race meeting for at least a fortnight under Racing Victoria’s latest coronavirus measures.

The ban applies to all participants and raceday staff, including jockeys, trainers, vets, farriers or officials and club staff in a bid to comply with a likely tightening of government restrictions.

Racing Victoria will enforce the rules from 6pm on Thursday and they will apply whether or not the individual has their principal residence in Victoria.

The current 14-day exclusion period still applies to any jockey that travelled on a commercial flight after March 17.

The jockeys that travelled to Sydney and back on a private plane last weekend are exempt from the 14-day lockout. (Racenet)

Jockeys in NSW have been segregated into three geographical areas as authorities rally to keep the sport going during the coronavirus crisis.

Race meetings continue behind closed gates with no spectators and only essential personnel on course.

🏉 NRL

Clubs start telling players and staff to take time off

Clubs met with the NRL at 9am on Tuesday in a bid to map out how they will survive what league bosses have described as a “catastrophic” blow to the game.

Coaches have been forced to take annual leave as clubs look to cut costs amid the NRL’s coronavirus shutdown.

The Panthers are facing upwards of a $40 million loss due to the closure of five leagues clubs and Panthers Group chairman Brian Fletcher said now was the best time for Cleary to take leave.

“Rather than take leave at the end of October, he’ll take it now while there’s nothing on. It makes sense with all the players away,’’ Fletcher said.

The Daily Telegraph reports Pay and the rest of the Bulldogs’ coaching staff have been stood down without pay.

The Bulldogs are now operating on skeleton staff in the office.

Players:

The Sharks players have been told they will have six weeks off from training and the situation will be reassessed after then.

It’s understood the players will also be encouraged to continue training as best as they can while self-isolating.

Melbourne has also sent their players on leave with many of their Queensland players to return home to their families in a bid to beat the border lockdown.

With the competition indefinitely suspended, Storm coach Craig Bellamy has allowed his players to return to their home states.

Sam Burgess and other Rabbitohs staff face two weeks left of pay.

Suncorp Stadium to the rescue?

Suncorp Stadium has offered to host all 16 NRL teams on a week to week basis when the game returns.

The offer comes after it emerged that the Queensland government was considering giving the NRL a free pass to travel inter-state following the decision to close its borders, effective Wednesday.

Suncorp hosted the Magic Round last year when all clubs played against each other over the one weekend in a concept borrowed from the Super League.

And stadium bosses would be willing to welcome every team there once again, be it behind closed doors or otherwise.

🇦🇺 AFL

The AFL is so keen to get a 2020 season in

it would consider playing less than 17 rounds and declaring a premier without a finals series, according to Herald Sun reporter Jon Ralph

Foxfooty.com.au has previously reported the league is willing to play games every night of the week in order to catch up and squeeze in a season.

“Even if they got to a starting point of November or late October - this doesn’t come from the AFL - but they might play 12 weeks with a minor premier (winning the flag),” he said.

“That is how desperate they are to get some games away for TV revenue, and to get some fans in some aisles at some point in the season supporting their players.

While the NRL has declared the season would be abandoned if it doesn’t start before September 1, the AFL has not set a “point of no return”.

Ex-NFL player and Podcaster Pat McFee is missing his new found love, AFL

⚽️ Football

A-League bows to inevitable and suspends season

A-League has been suspended indefinitely due to the coronavirus.

Administrators said travel curbs to contain the outbreak had made it untenable for the country's top-flight soccer competition to continue.

Almost half of A-League’s contracted players could be unemployed by June

More than half of the A-League's players will come off contract in just over two months – and they are sweating on their futures as clubs look to slash costs, trim numbers and tighten their belts just to survive.

More than 120 players come off contract on May 31 with little or no fallback option due to the impact on football competitions in Australia and across the globe.

“It’s definitely a time of unprecedented uncertainty for a large group of players,” he said. “It’s going to be a massive upheaval for a lot of those guys.” (smh)

Coronavirus cost Europe’s top leagues $7.5 billion in three weeks. Half of French clubs could go broke within 6 months.

Half of France’s professional football clubs could go bankrupt due to the coronavirus crisis, a top official insisted.

“Without state aid, within six months, half of the professional clubs will file for bankruptcy,” Caiazzo, who also sits on the board of St Etienne, told France Bleu Loire.

“The five major European championships have already lost four billion euros ($A7.5bn); the French championship between 500 to 600 million ($A930m to $A1.12bn).”

📱 When Footballers found Twitter

💰 American billionaire Michael Dell, 55, who is said to have a net worth of $31.2bn (£26.9bn), is discussing investment in Championship club Derby County.

🏟 Players accept that matches will have to be held behind closed doors when the football season resumes.

💍 Brazil footballer Hulk has reportedly married his ex-wife’s niece in a “sudden marriage” after only confirming their relationship last December. (Fox)

⛳️ Golf

Coronavirus: Golf's shutdown leads to tough times for caddies

With the coronavirus shutdown, touring golf caddies are unable to take advantage of a ground-breaking deal that should have made their largely unstable jobs a little more lucrative.

Donaghy (Tyrell Hatton's caddy, who has just come off a big win), "won't put up with" any of Hatton's nonsense. "That's what he needs. That's why I'm employed - to threaten him and kill him."

And lug a 25kg golf bag for around a dozen kilometres a day, not to mention contribute to tactical decisions on an array of crucial shots.

Donaghy picked up around £135,000 from Hatton's victory, assuming he was paid the usual 10% of the winner's cheque. His situation should be more comfortable than many of his counterparts.

"The guy who worked for the seventh-ranked player last year [on the European Tour] is doing all right and earned quite a bit of money," said Russell. "The guy who worked for the player who finished 157th probably isn't.

Most caddies are paid a weekly fee, probably around £1,000. "You negotiate that with the player and that covers your expenses. And then you get a percentage of what the player wins," Russell explained.

"It sounds a lot, but take into account air fares, six to seven nights in a hotel, and you usually eat out every night, so it soon mounts up.

"A caddie's true earnings come out of the bonus. But if the player is winning nothing, either because he's missing cuts or not playing, the bonus is zero." (BBC)

📺 🏉 'The Season' on YouTube

Watch: The premiere of new series of The Season with Brisbane Boys College 1st XV 

Brisbane Boys College has an enviable reputation of excellence across the academic, cultural and sporting fields of endeavour.

The ‘Green-White-Black’ war cry has echoed across many competitive arenas, guiding BBC to premierships in tennis, athletics, rowing, cross country, robotics and volleyball over recent years.

The First XV rugby team has only achieved a single GPS title - a shared premiership in 1954.

The Season returns to the GPS as Brisbane Boys College aim to be the greatest team in their 117 year history.

You can dive straight into EP1 on YouTube

We'll be back (at an appropriate distance) on Friday!

📺 Live sport

*Correct at time of writing

Wednesday

🐴 Coffs Harbour (Heavy) from 12:15

🐴 Geelong (Soft) from 12:30

🐴 Rockhampton (Good) from 13:10

Thursday

🐴 Hawkesbury from 12:15

🐴 Narromine (Good) from 12:35

🐴 Pinjarra Park (Good)

🐴 Racing com Park (Soft)

🐴 Toowoomba (Good)

🐴 bet365 Park Kilmore (Good)