G'day sports fans,

Friday thought: Is the Epping Pingers, the best team name in Australian sport? 🤔 any better ones, hit reply and I'll list them on Monday?

In today's edition of Sport Journal:

⚽️ Olyroos stun the football world

🏉 Australia and New Zealand have pulled out of the Rugby League World Cup

🤬 Rip up the track

🇦🇺 AFL

📃 Teams: Bevo's BIG gamble, Eagle in from the cold, gun Bomber named. Check out all the line-ups for round 19

👊🏻 Former Brisbane-listed player Daniel Murray has received a life ban in local footy after pleading guilty to striking an umpire and two players, and will face court next month in WA. (Fox)

🙋🏻‍♂️ Former North Melbourne coach Brad Scott has emerged as a frontrunner for the vacant Collingwood coaching job, according to veteran football journalist Caroline Wilson. (Fox)

🏉 NRL

🏆 Australia and New Zealand have pulled out of the Rugby League World Cup because of "player welfare and safety concerns" related to Covid-19.

The men's, women's and wheelchair events are scheduled to take place in England this autumn.

New Zealand Rugby League (NZRL) chief Greg Peters said it was "simply too unsafe" to take part.

Rugby Football League (RFL) chairman Simon Johnson is not a happy bunny, and called it a "selfish, parochial and cowardly decision".

"Of course it's possible to postpone but by the time rugby league is playing next year we will be competing with the Commonwealth Games and the Fifa World Cup in Qatar.

To put it off till next year will lead to huge costs and possibly intangible organisational problems. A third option is to cancel altogether.

🏉 Weekend Try Scorer Stats (Triple J):

• James Tedesco (Roosters) has been the first try-scorer in three of his nine appliances against Newcastle.

• Josh Addo-Carr (Storm) has been the first try-scorer in four of his last eight appearances.

• Jake Trbojevic (Manly) has scored at least one try in three of Manly's last four matches at Suncorp Stadium.

🥇 Rugby League could feature at the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane, with discussions having already been held with the Queensland Government about the inclusion of the code’s Nines and wheelchair formats.

Brisbane was awarded the 2032 Games on Wednesday night in Tokyo, but officials have been working for some time to have rugby league recognised as an Olympic sport in anticipation of the Queensland Government’s bid being successful. (NRL)

🥇 Tokyo Olympics

Olyroos stun Argentina 2-0 to kick off Tokyo Olympics campaign

Two-time Olympic men's football champion Argentina has been stunned 2-0 by Australia in their opening game at the Tokyo Games.

In its first Olympic game since 2008, Australia took the lead through Lachlan Wales' tap-in the 14th minute at the Sapporo Dome.

Teen sensation Marco Tilio secured the victory in the 80th, just a minute after coming off the bench, with a sensational pearler from the edge of the box.

The win rockets Australia to the top of Group C ahead of Egypt and Spain, who drew 0-0 in the other game.

🗣 Both Olyroo goalscorers currently play in the A-League as do seven of the starting XI. 10 of the those 11 began their professional careers in the A-League (3 of the 4 subs are current A-Leaguers too). What a win! What an endorsement for the A-League! - @DamirKulas (Twitter)

⚽️ In the other matches: Mexico shocked France (4-1). Brazil's Richarlison scored a first half hat trick, as they beat Germany (4-2). New Zealand battled past South Korea (1-0). While an extremely talented Spain side drew (0-0) with Egypt.

🏊🏼‍♀️ Australian swimmer and Olympic medal hopeful Kaylee McKeown has withdrawn from the 200m medley.

McKeown, 20, was tipped to perform strongly in the 200m medley, but will instead put her focus into the 100m backstroke and 200m backstroke races.

⛹🏻‍♀️ Opals legend Michele Timms believes Elizabeth Cambage's exit from the Tokyo Olympics may be for the best, claiming the WNBA All-Star has "tarnished" the reputation of the Australian women's national basketball team. (nine)

🎾 Barty Draw: Barty cannot face Osaka until the gold medal match but things could get tricky, fast, with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova lying in wait in the third round and a potential quarter-final reunion with 11th seed Barbora Krejcikova, who Barty beat in the fourth round at Wimbledon.

🌍 World Sport

🏀 Champagne, cigars and a 50-piece chicken nugget order: they've all featured amongst the Milwaukee Bucks' title celebrations.

🔁 Chelsea have spoken to the agent of Bayern Munich and Poland striker Robert Lewandowski, 32, about a possible move to Stamford Bridge. (Bild, via Sun)

😷 Tokyo hit another six-month high in new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, one day before the Olympics begin, as worries grow of a worsening of infections during the Games.

Thursday's 1979 new cases are the highest since 2044 were recorded on January 15.

🐴 Racing

🤬 A growing number of trainers believe the troubled Eagle Farm track must be ripped up again, as it emerged the Brisbane Racing Club will refuse to take back the management of the track from Racing Queensland next month.

The flint-hard Eagle Farm surface has again flared into a major drama and it was an embarrassment to the Queensland racing industry when horse numbers were so limited at Wednesday’s meeting that there were only 47 starters in total across six races. (racenet)

🙋🏼‍♀️ Louise Day enjoyed a ‘career defining’ partnership with tough sprinter Man Of Peace as an apprentice and the pair will look to combine to break new ground again at Rosehill on Saturday.

Man Of Peace helped put Day on the map in Sydney last year after she booted home the Matthew Dale-trained galloper four times from as many starts in wet winter tracks.

Now a full fledged jockey as of this month, Day and Man Of Peace will link up for the first time in 2021 when the rising nine-year-old makes his return in the Hyland Race Colours July Sprint (1100m).

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