🗞 Out for Revenge

Melbourne will be without live wire forward Kysaiah Pickett for their bumper clash with the Brisbane Lions after failing to overturn a one-match suspension.

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Sport Journal
April 09, 2024

G’day Sports Fans,

🗣️ “I’m the best. I just haven’t played yet.” — Muhammed Ali, on golf.

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🇦🇺 Melbourne will be without live wire forward Kysaiah Pickett for their bumper clash with the Brisbane Lions after failing to overturn a one-match suspension.

The Demons fronted the AFL Tribunal on Tuesday night failed in a bid to reduce Pickett's rough conduct charge for his challenge on Adelaide's Jake Soligo from medium contact to low.

"The contact had the potential to cause injury. A concussion or facial injury was a realistically possible outcome," - Tribunal Chairman Jeff Gleeson said on Tuesday.

🏉 The NRL season heads into Round 6 with injuries starting to take a serious toll on some teams, while others continue to struggle with their form. (NRL.com)

Roosters: With James Tedesco and Sam Walker both out under the concussion protocol, Joey Manu moves into the fullback role and Connor Watson becomes the five-eighth, with Luke Keary shifting into the No.7 jersey.

Bulldogs: Skipper Stephen Crichton shifts to fullback to replace Blake Taaffe (concussion).

Broncos: Fullback Reece Walsh is named to return from a facial fracture and has trained this week.

Raiders: Jordan Rapana has been ruled out for 6-8 weeks, the club confirmed.

🏀 The salary cap for the 2024-25 NBL season has been set at $1,947,662.58, sources told ESPN, ahead of the official opening of free agency.

The new figure is a 7 percent rise from last season's salary cap; the maximum it was able to increase, according to the league's Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The opening of NBL Free Agency is at 9am (AEDT) on April 15, with teams officially permitted to begin negotiations with off-contract players from that point onwards.

🏉 Debate is swirling that Wayne Bennett could be set for a reunion at South Sydney as part of a new look coaching dream team with his former skipper and assistant Sam Burgess. 

Bennett has shown he is a man for succession plans with Jason Demetriou succeeding him at Souths and Kristian Woolf will take over at the Dolphins next year. 

Souths sit last on the ladder three years after Bennett took them to a Grand Final, but Dean Ritchie isn’t sure Bennett wants to come back to Sydney.

🇦🇺 Collingwood have confirmed the extent of Scott Pendlebury's rib injury, with the club confirming a fracture following a heavy collision with Hawthorn's Josh Weddle on Sunday.

Fortunately for the Pies, they enter the first of their two byes (due to their Opening Round participation), which will give the 36-year-old 12 days to recover before they face Port Adelaide in Round 6. (Zerohanger)

🏅 Penrith fullback Dylan Edwards has been voted by his peers as the RLPA Player of the Month for March.

In a press release from the RLPA (Rugby League Players Association), Edwards was announced as the winner ahead of fellow nominees Tom Dearden, James Tedesco, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Nicho Hynes.

⚽️ Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola believes Real Madrid will be determined to get revenge after they thrashed the Spanish giants on their way to winning last season's Champions League.

City beat Real 5-1 on aggregate in the semi-finals.

However, Guardiola has no doubt the 14-time winners will pose a tough test in this morning’s quarter-final first leg in Madrid.

⚽️ Arsenal may have thought they had seen the back of nemesis Harry Kane when he left Tottenham for Bayern Munich in the summer, but he returns to north London looking to dump Mikel Arteta's side out of the Champions League.

The Gunners host Bayern in today’s quarter-final first leg.

The 30-year-old has scored more Premier League goals against Arsenal than anybody else - with 14 strikes. Five of those came at the Emirates, which is the joint most for a non-Arsenal player.

MASTERS GOLF PREVIEW

The US Masters is the first opportunity of the year for the LIV golfers (including defending champion Jon Rahm) to play alongside the rest of the world's elite so it's the first time in 2024 that last year's front three will tee it up alongside their peers.

Current Champion: Jon Rahm

Last three winners, and starting prices (Betfair);

  • 2023 - Jon Rahm -12 (11.5)

  • 2022 - Scottie Scheffler -10 (19.0)

  • 2021 - Hideki Matsuyama -10 (70.0)

📊 Important Stats: The last three winners have ranked third, fifth and seventh for Greens In Regulation and the two winners before them both ranked number one for GIR.

Here are the total scores to par for the last 15 winners on the par threes, fours and fives.

Par threes -13
Par fours -12
Par fives -136 (very important)

⛳️ Similar course? Having won the Genesis Invitational at Riviera back in February, Matsuyama is now the fifth player in the last 12 years to win both the Genesis and the US Masters and following his victory two months ago, as many as 14 different US Masters winners have won 24 of the 61 renewals of the Genesis Invitational at Riviera.

PICKS:

We'll disregard the favourite Scottie Sheffler; he's too short in the market to support. However, he’s an obvious favourite on form, and we expect him to feature.

Big Name: Jon Rahm ($13.0) has had the luxury of preparing himself for this for about six months now. There's no reason why he won't be there or thereabouts, other than the lack of real competition week to week.

Newcomer: Ludvig Aberg ($26.0) hasn't been on the tour for a full year yet, and he's already won twice, entering the World's Top 10. He has a complete game and a swing you'd trade your granny for.

Aussie: Cameron Smith as top 10s in four of the past six years at Augusta National, including a runner-up finish in 2020 when he became the first in Masters history to record four rounds in the 60s in a single Tournament. Like Rahm above, he would have had an eye on this for months. I don't think he should be at $41.0 or ($2.10 Top Australian).

👊🏻 UFC 300 Preview (Sunday): The first title fight on the UFC 300 pay-per-view card is a symbolic one, as Justin Gaethje puts the BMF title on the line against Max Holloway.

Gaethje, a former interim lightweight titleholder, earned the BMF belt in July 2023 when he knocked out Dustin Poirier, another former interim UFC 155-pound champion, in the second round of their UFC 291 main event matchup. Holloway, an ex-UFC featherweight champion with three title defences, moves up to 155 pounds for UFC 300.

After Gaethje and Holloway meet for the BMF title, Zhang Weili puts her UFC women’s straw weight belt on the line against Yan Xiaonan. Then, in the main event of UFC 300, Alex Pereira looks to make the first defence of his UFC light heavyweight title against ex-205-pound kingpin Jamahal Hill.

⚽️ Al-Nassr forward Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off for elbowing an opponent during his side's 2-1 Saudi Super Cup semi-final defeat by Al-Hilal.

Ronaldo, 39, was shown a straight red card on 86 minutes after appearing to swing his elbow twice into the chest of Ali Al Bulayhi, who fell to the floor.

🏏 Mayank Yadav is turning heads almost as quickly as he's turning up the dial on speed guns in this year’s IPL.

The 21-year-old lanky Indian bowler from Delhi made his IPL debut for Lucknow Super Giants against Punjab Kings and set pulses racing with a terrific spell of fast bowling. He bowled a delivery at 155.8 km/h (96 mph) and won the man-of-the-match award on debut.

In the next game Yadav went one better with a 156.7 km/h (96 mph) scorcher - the season's quickest delivery so far.

🏀 Caitlin Clark says the impact she has had on women's sport has been "the coolest part" of her journey as her record-breaking collegiate basketball career came to a close.

American Clark, 22, has scored over 3,900 points, more than any male or female college athlete in history.

Her performances for the Iowa Hawkeyes this season have also led to record-breaking viewing figures in America.

"We started the season playing in front of 55,000 people, now we're ending it in front of 15 million people on TV. It just continues to get better and better and that's never going to stop.”

🏆 Plans for a rugby Club World Cup where the best northern and southern hemisphere club sides will compete against each other are in the offing, sources have told ESPN, with the tournament set to launch in 2028.

The top eight sides from the European Rugby Champions Cup - which includes South African teams - as well as six Super Rugby teams plus two others, likely from Japan, will compete in the competition.

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TODAY 

05:00 - UEFA Champions Lge Quarter-Final - Arsenal v Bayern Munich (Stan Sport)

05:00 - UEFA Champions Lge Quarter-Final - Real Madrid v Manchester City (Stan Sport)

09:00 - NHL - Detroit Red Wings v Washington Capitals (ESPN 2)

09:30 - NBA - Milwaukee Bucks v Boston Celtics (ESPN)

10:00 - Women's Friendly - Mexico v Australia (Channel 10 or Paramount+)

11:30 - NHL - Colorado Avalanche v Minnesota Wild (ESPN 2)

12:00 - NBA - Los Angeles Lakers v Golden State Warriors (ESPN)

00:00 - Indian Premier League - Rajasthan Royals v Gujarat Titans (Fox Cricket)

THURSDAY

05:00 - UEFA Champions Lge Quarter-Final - Atletico Madrid v Borussia Dortmund (Stan Sport)

05:00 - UEFA Champions Lge Quarter-Final - Paris Saint-Germain v Barcelona (Stan Sport)

08:40 - MLB - San Diego Padres v Chicago Cubs (ESPN 2)

09:30 - NBA - Miami Heat v Dallas Mavericks (ESPN)

12:00 - NBA - Denver Nuggets v Minnesota Timberwolves (ESPN)

12:30 - NHL - Vancouver Canucks v Arizona Coyotes (ESPN 2)

19:30 - AFL - Melbourne Demons v Brisbane Lions (Fox Footy or 7mate)

19:50 - NRL - Newcastle Knights v Sydney Roosters (Fox League or Channel 9)