🗞 'Wild 24 hours'

G’day Sports Fans,

🗣️ Classic quote: "Sure, on a given day I could beat him. But it would have to be a day he had food poisoning." - Mel Purcell outlining how he would dethrone Ivan Lendl.

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🏏 The 2024 Men's T20 World Cup is being held in the USA and the Caribbean. (Started on Sunday Night)

Twenty teams will compete, including first-timers USA, Canada, and Uganda. Matches will be streamed live on Amazon Prime Video.

Key venues include New York's new cricket stadium, Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas, and several Caribbean locations. The tournament features a group stage, Super Eights, semi-finals, and final.

Marsh's team aims for unprecedented national ICC trophy dominance. Australia already hold the women's ODI and T20 World Cup trophies, while the men won the World Test Championship mace and ODI World Cup last year.

That leaves the men's T20 trophy as the only world title not held by Australia's senior teams. 

Nick Hockley has labeled the next 18 months as critical for Australian cricket, with the country poised to secure all five major ICC trophies.

Australia kicks off their T20 World Cup journey against Oman on Wednesday (Thursday AEST) in Barbados, marking the beginning of a challenging path to the finals.

Following their clash with the 2021 champions, England, the team will compete against Namibia and Scotland in the group stage before progressing to the Super Eight stage.

⛳️ Australian Minjee Lee carded an impressive four-under-par round of 66 to join American Andrea Lee and Thailand's Wichanee Meechai in a three-way tie for the lead after the third round of the US Women's Open.

The 28-year-old former champion, who won her second major title at the 2022 US Open, equalled the best round of the week at Lancaster Country Club in Pennsylvania to move up to five under.

AFL News

Match Report: The Fremantle Dockers defeated the Melbourne Demons in a commanding 92-point victory. The final score 141-49, marking Melbourne's largest losing margin under coach Simon Goodwin.

Key players for Fremantle included Michael Walters, who scored three goals, and Caleb Serong, who executed a remarkable banana kick goal.

Match Report: The Gold Coast Suns edged out Essendon with an 11-point victory, 14.7 (91) to 11.14 (80). The Suns' strong performance was highlighted by crucial plays, including Ben Ainsworth's impressive goal and Nick Hind's super snap, which withstood a goal review.

Despite a late surge from Essendon, which included a 50m penalty that helped close the gap, the Suns managed to hold on and secure their place in the top eight.

Essendon coach Brad Scott will seek clarification from the umpiring department after two crucial decisions went against the Bombers late on. (AFL.com) 

Promising forward Mykelti Lefau has become Richmond's fifth victim of the dreaded ACL injury this season.

The 25-year-old rugby league convert will miss the rest of his debut AFL campaign after landing awkwardly when flying for a mark in the last quarter of the Tigers' 30-point defeat to Geelong on Saturday night.

NRL News

Match Report: The North Queensland Cowboys secured a thrilling 18-16 comeback victory over the Sydney Roosters. Scott Drinkwater was instrumental, scoring a try, assisting another, and making a crucial late save. The Roosters, missing several players due to Origin duties, struggled with cohesion and committed multiple errors after going out to a 16-4 lead.

icmyi: James Tedesco will make a remarkable return to the Origin arena after Dylan Edwards was ruled out by the Blues on Sunday morning with a quad injury.

Edwards injured his quad while training with the Blues on Saturday, with the injury ruling him out of what would have been his Origin debut.

“It’s been a bit of a wild 24 hours after ‘Madge’ (Maguire) called me yesterday after our (Roosters) Captain’s Run and said I could be a chance,”

“…I’m obviously disappointed for Dylan with how it’s happened. But it’s a good opportunity for me.” - Tedesco said after joining Blues camp on Sunday.

⚽️ Kylian Mbappe has signed a contract to join Real Madrid on a free transfer when his Paris St-Germain deal expires on 30 June.

The France striker verbally agreed to move to the Bernabeu in February and then announced in May he would leave PSG at the end of the season.

Mbappe, 25, has now signed terms with Real Madrid and will move to Spain when the La Liga transfer window opens on 1 July.

Reports; He has agreed a deal with Real until 2029, earning 15m euros a season, plus a 150m euro signing-on bonus to be paid over five years, and he will keep a percentage of his image rights.

Mbappe, a World Cup winner in 2018, is PSG's record goalscorer with 256 goals since he joined them from Monaco on an initial loan in 2017.

🎾 Spanish third seed Carlos Alcaraz made another statement of intent by sweeping past Felix Auger-Aliassime to reach the French Open quarter-finals.

Alcaraz, 21, won 6-3 6-3 6-1 against the Canadian 21st seed on a rare rain-free day in Paris.

The reigning Wimbledon champion will face Greek ninth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the last eight.

🏏 Co-hosts West Indies survived a scare to start their Men's T20 World Cup campaign with a five-wicket victory over Papua New Guinea in Guyana.

They needed 37 to win off the final 19 balls, but the Windies, who are two-time champions, won with six balls to spare.

👊🏻 UFC legend Dustin ‘The Diamond’ Poirier (35) revealed he could be calling it quits after a gutsy performance that ended in defeat against UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev. Poirier is widely recognized as the greatest UFC fighter to never hold an undisputed championship.

Makhachev extended his UFC winning streak to 13, passing his mentor Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson for the longest in lightweight history.

🏀 One of the top players in the NBA 2025 draft class, French guard Nolan Traore, has spurned offers from around the world to remain in his home country.

Traore, a 6-foot-5, 17-year-old playmaker who matriculated from famed Parisian sports academy INSEP, will sign a two-year contract with Saint-Quentin in the French first division.

❤️ Leeds Rhinos and Great Britain rugby league great Rob Burrow has died. Burrow, who was 41, had lived with motor neurone disease (MND) since being diagnosed in late 2019.

The diagnosis came just two years after he retired from playing, following a stellar 17-year career that included winning eight Super League Grand Finals, three World Club Challenges and two Challenge Cups.

Burrow and his great friend Kevin Sinfield were both made CBEs in the 2024 New Year Honours. The pair have helped to raise more than AU$30m for MND charities since Burrow's diagnosis.

🥊 The upcoming boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson on July 20 has been postponed. Tyson has been told to rest up ‘for a few weeks’ to let an ulcer settle down.

⛳️ C.T. Pan enlists a fan to step in to caddie at the Canadian Open after Mike "Fluff" Cowan was injured after a fall during the final round.

🏆 Carlo Ancelotti said Real Madrid achieved a "10 out of 10" season after winning the Champions League for a record-extending 15th time with a 2-0 victory Saturday against Borussia Dortmund at Wembley. Real, who also won the LaLiga title in Spain.

🏍️ Francesco Bagnaia won the Italian Motorcycle Grand Prix for a third successive year, Ducati’s reigning MotoGP world champion dominating round seven of the season at Mugello to slash his world championship deficit to Jorge Martin to 18 points. 

TODAY 

09:10 - MLB - Philadelphia Phillies v St. Louis Cardinals (ESPN 2)

10:00 - NHL Conference Finals - Edmonton Oilers v Dallas Stars (ESPN)

10:30 - T20 World Cup - Namibia v Oman (Amazon Prime)

19:40 - Women's Friendly - Australia v China (Paramount+, Channel 10)

TUESDAY

00:30 - T20 World Cup - Sri Lanka v South Africa (Amazon Prime)

10:30 - T20 World Cup - Afghanistan v Uganda (Amazon Prime)

11:38 - MLB - Los Angeles Angels v San Diego Padres (ESPN 2)