Get set for AFL Fantasy Grand Final week with The Traders. If you’re in Melbourne on Saturday 20 August, catch up with Roy, Calvin and Warnie at the London Tavern Hotel, Richmond from midday as they set up to watch the footy that afternoon and cheer on their players in the GF. They’ll present a show from 1pm. Click here to RSVP.
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Episode Guide
1:30 – Warnie and Calvin have made the Grand Finals in the Bacon Cup Classic and Draft competitions.
6 o’clock – Callum Mills‘129 was a great captain score after roy laird‘s first sub-100 score for quite some time.
9:00 – Warnie is unhappy with Roy’s advice to get Sam Walsh and Calvin’s suggestion to make Andrew Brayshaw his captain.
13:50 – sam docherty scored well in Carlton’s midfield.
19:00 – There are some ‘tag flags’ for this weekend with harry perryman and Marcus Windhager doing jobs in recent weeks.
24:10 – Roy names his Rollin’ 22 for the last round.
28:30 – Rowan Marshall is the pick as top ruck, but who sits beside him?
33:25 – Popular players who could trade out this week, led by Tim English in a dual ruck set up.
39:00 – There are just three different players between the top two teams.
42:20 – Roy suggests Matt trades Jack Crisp to Aaron Hall to match James.
45:25 – The Traders reveal their early moves.
47:00 – Questions from social media – follow @AFLFantasy on Twitter and like the Official AFL Fantasy facebook page.
51:50 – How do you feel about trading in bench cover this week?
Geelong superstar Jeremy Cameron has suffered a hamstring injury.
The Cats confirmed late on Monday Cameron would miss the club’s Round 23 game against West Coast and he will now have the next three weeks off ahead of a qualifying final.
The Cats are the only side locked into the top four.
Cameron suffered the strain in the dying minutes of Geelong’s big win over Gold Coast in Round 22, and head of medical and conditioning services Harry Taylor has provided an update.
Jeremy Cameron and Rhys Stanley are expected to be fit for finals after suffering low-grade strains 🚑
“Jeremy came to bench late in the final quarter of Saturday’s game against the Gold Coast after reporting some low-level hamstring symptoms,” Taylor said in a club statement.
“We chose to take a no risk policy and decided not to have him return to the field.
“Jeremy has assessed well, and scans today have confirmed low level fluid consistent with a minor strain.
“We will track his progress through the week and he will be managed according to benchmark measures. We expect Jeremy to be ready for our first ending.”
Breaking – Huge blow for Geelong. Jeremy Cameron has suffered a new hamstring injury. It’s the right side – same side he injured three times last year. Club hopeful he’s OK for first final, given it’s ‘low-grade’. But with his history will remain a big watch@7NewsMelbourne
The news means Charlie Curnow is set to win this year’s Coleman Medal, with the Blue seven goals clear of Tom Hawkins in third.
Meanwhile, Rhys Stanley will also miss the last home and away game with an adductor strain.
“Rhys experienced some adductor tightness during the game against the Gold Coast,” Taylor said.
“He has had a scan post this game which shows a low-grade adductor strain. Rhys will begin a reconditioning program that we expect will have him available for selection for the first final.”
Australian cricketer Marcus Stoinis is copping a hammering after accusing Pakistan quick Muhammad Hasnain of having an illegal bowling action.
As Stoinis made his way from the middle after being dismissed for 37 by Hasnain in The Hundred on Monday (AEST), the all-rounder mimicked a chucking action.
When Stoinis smacked a 142km/h short ball back down the wicket during the Southern Brave’s match against the Oval Invincibles, he gifted Will Jacks an easy catch at mid-off.
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Then came the 32-year-old’s inflammatory gesture—an obvious dig at Hasnain’s recent suspension.
Hasnain was in February found guilty of having an illegal bowling action after a Big Bash League umpire reported him in a match between the Sydney Thunder and Adelaide Strikers.
Marcus Stoinis is copping a beat after accusing Muhammad Hasnain of having an illegal bowling action in The Hundred. (kayo)
Biomechanic tests confirmed his action breached the ICC’s 15-degree limit on elbow extension.
But the 22-year-old’s action has since been declared legal, green-lighting his return to professional cricket.
According to the Pakistan Cricket Board, Hasnain’s technique was reassessed in May at the ICC-accredited testing clinic in Lahore, before the report was verified by Cricket Australia’s independent experts.
Daniel Brettig from The Age is among those to have condemned Stoinis’ antagonizing intimation.
“Yeah, this is poor,” Brettig wrote on Twitter.
“There’s a system in place to regulate bowling actions and it doesn’t include publicly questioning your opponent’s integrity.”
Former Yorkshire cricketer Azeem Rafiq posted on Twitter: “This is shocking! Hasnain has been cleared and it has nothing to do with Stoinis”.
And Elizabeth Ammon from The Times wrote on Twitter: “Wonder if Stoinis will be in trouble for this implication.”
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The backstories and controversies that have ignited feuds involving athletes
Dragons fans will tell you the finish to Sunday’s game against the Raiders was a square-up after what happened in Wollongong earlier in the year, but the NRL is adamant the officials got the call right to not award St George Illawarra a penalty from 15m out which would have sent the match to golden point.
The Dragons were down 24-22 when Mathew Feagai broke into the clear, only to be chopped down close to the line as time was about to expire.
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The winger tried to get to his feet, but was held down by Corey Harawira-Naera and the ball then came free just as the referee blew his whistle, leaving the Red V with virtually no chance of making the finals.
Players were incensed that they weren’t given a penalty, and they were left to rue a shocking captain’s challenge at the start of the second half which meant they couldn’t send the play to the Bunker to have it reviewed.
Put asked to leave toilet cubicle | 00:16
The Dragons’ Jack Bird was furious with the decision. Picture: Mark Nolan/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images
It brought back memories of the farcical finish to the game at WIN Stadium when the Green Machine weren’t given a penalty when down 12-10 because the referee had called full-time.
However, NRL head of football Graham Annesley said the decision on Sunday was the correct one and that the Dragons would’ve been doubly disappointed even if they still had a challenge up their sleeve, because time had expired before the second movement by Harawira-Naera which pushed Feagai off his feet.
“The ball is not in play,” he said.
“There’s no possibility for the ball carrier to get up and play the ball in order to get another tackle.
“Regardless of any infringement that might take place by the defender – other than foul play – it’s irrelevant because the ball hasn’t been brought back into play and the referee can’t extend the play for a technical infringement to award a penalty.
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“They could’ve mounted a challenge had they had one left because the game is not finished at this point, even though time has expired and the referee has blown his whistle to indicate that he’s stopping play.
“He hasn’t at this point blown his whistle to say it’s full-time, so although the game could not have continued because of that technical infringement, it would not have prevented the Dragons from asking for a captain’s challenge.
“However, they would have lost the captain’s challenge because time had expired and we couldn’t restart the game for a technical infringement.
“It’s all very, very precise in terms of what can and can’t happen, and it needs to be that way because you can’t have another tackle after time has expired if the ball’s not already in play.”
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The incident was similar to the wild finish in Townsville a few weeks ago in that the Dragons would have technically been challenging the decision to end the game, just as the Cowboys did to snatch victory from the Wests Tigers.
“Not only could we not have restarted play because the tackle had been complete and hadn’t restarted, but we also couldn’t have restarted play because they’d knocked on in the ruck,” Annesley said.
“They would’ve been challenging the referee’s decision to stop the game in order to call full-time, similar to what happened with the Wests Tigers.
“They would’ve effectively been saying, ‘No, you can’t call full-time because we want to challenge what’s just happened.’
“But had they had a challenge and had it taken place, the Bunker would’ve had no choice but to deny the challenge because of not only the lost ball, but also play had not recommenced before time had expired.”
It was one of those weekends in the NRL, with a number of murky decisions.
Annesley said the Bunker made the right call to award a try to Bradman Best because the contact on Adam Reynolds wasn’t enough to prevent the try.
But he did concede the bunker got it horribly wrong at the SCG when Sam Verrills strolled over even though teammate Matt Lodge clearly held Griffin Neame back in the scrum.
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Sam Verrills celebrates a try which shouldn’t have been awarded. Picture; Cameron Spencer/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images
“The contact caused Neame to do a 360, and Verrills has gone past,” Annesley said.
“It happens very quickly in real time, but I think there’s enough on this in replay that the Bunker had the opportunity to look at.
“There’s enough of a hold after the ball is out of the scrum to say that that would be a breach of the rules, and in normal circumstances, would result in a penalty to the Cowboys.
“However, in this particular case, it wouldn’t have resulted in a penalty to the Cowboys because of the off-side at the scrum, which was the first offence.”
Heavy spenders Chelsea have already been busy during the transfer window, and are almost certainly not finished despite spending €186.59m ($A270m) so far.
According to reports, the club are reportedly prepared to sign both Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Frenkie de Jong from Barcelona, as well as Wesley Fofana from Leicester.
Chelsea have already signed Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly, Gabriel Slonina, Carney Chukwuemeka and Marc Cucurella in their squad overhaul.
World-class striker Aubameyang, a former club captain of London rivals Arsenal, would represent the latest in a long line of superstar strikers to have joined Stamford Bridge – although many have struggled to make their mark.
Indeed, Chelsea’s number nine jersey has been worn by so many flops in recent years that coach Thomas Tuchel revealed that no-one will wear the number this season.
“It’s cursed, it’s cursed, people tell me it’s cursed … nobody wants to touch the No 9,” he said.
But it’s not just the number nine jersey that has been a curse at Chelsea. Dating back to the end of the last century, many of Chelsea’s big-name attacking signings have failed to make their mark.
Here are some of the great Blues flops of the modern era.
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CHRIS SUTTON
Transfer fee: £10m ($17m AUD) from Blackburn in 1999
Playing record: One goal in 28 Premier League games
Chelsea reached deep into their pockets to lure Sutton to Stamford Bridge from relegation stricken Blackburn, for what was then a club record fee.
The striker had signed from the Rovers, where he starred alongside Premier League icon Alan Shearer, after they placed second-last in the 1998-99 season.
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But the former England international had a forgettable debut campaign with the Blues, scoring just one goal from his 28 Premier League appearances.
Sutton’s sole contribution on the scoresheet came in a 5-0 thrashing of English giants Manchester United, which was a highlight in an otherwise quiet tenure in London.
His season went from bad to worse when he failed to make Chelsea’s bench for the 2000 FA Cup Final against Aston Villa, which the Blues won 1-0.
Sutton was a one season flop at Chelsea, though, after securing a transfer to Scottish giants Celtic.
ADRIAN MUTU
Transfer fees: €22.5m ($32m AUD) from Parma in 2003
Playing record: 10 goals from 38 games
Mutu began his Chelsea career in fine form, scoring four goals from his first three appearances for the giants of English football.
Playing in front of new fans for the first time, the Romanian scored the winning goal on his club debut against Leicester City.
But drama ensued as his relationship with Jose Mourinho reportedly reached its boiling point, with Mutu facing backlash from his manager after he claimed to be injured.
Chelsea later fired the striker after he tested positive for cocaine use in 2004, and was suspended for seven months.
Although he was not at the London club anymore, Mutu failed another anti-doping test in January of 2010, as reported by the Guardian.
Mutu, who also wore the number seven jersey at Chelsea, was handed a nine-month ban for that incident.
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ANDRIY SHEVCHENKO
Transfer fees: €43.9m ($63m AUD) from Milan in 2006
Playing record: Nine goals from 48 Premier League games
Chelsea splashed the cash once again to sign Ukrainian Andriy Shevchenko, who became the biggest signing in English football at the time.
Shevchenko, who was 30-year-old when he moved to London from Milan, was handed the number seven jersey under decorated coach Jose Mourinho.
But he failed to live up to the hype, scoring just 14 goals from 51 games during his first season with the famous London club.
Andriy Shevchenko had a forgettable spell with Chelsea.Source: AP
Shevchenko was loaned out to AC Milan, the club he’d signed from, during the 2008/09 season after failing to hit his stride at Stamford Bridge.
As reported by The Guardian, manager Carlo Ancelotti believed that Shevchenko was the fourth best striker at the club, just three years after he secured his record transfer.
Shevchenko was left out of Chelsea’s squad for the 2009/10 Champions League, and later returned to Dynamo Kyiv.
FERNANDO TORRES
Transfer fees: £50m ($85m AUD) from Liverpool in 2011
Playing record: 20 goals in 110 Premier League games for Chelsea
Fernando Torres rose to footballing stardom during a successful stint at Liverpool, where he truly embodied the phrase ‘human highlight reel’.
Torres had already made his name in Spain, after being handed the Atletico Madrid captaincy at just 19 years of age.
The Spaniard left Madrid for Liverpool, although he’d return to the club at the back end of his career, and quickly proved himself to be one of the most exciting players in England.
Fernando Torres struggled to find some form after completing his move to Stamford Bridge. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
But drama struck early in 2011, as Torres completed a sensational transfer to Premier League rivals Chelsea.
The Blues again broke the British transfer record for a reported fee of £50 million, as the striker completed a mid-season move sent shockwaves throughout the league.
Hollywood couldn’t have scripted it better, though, as Torres made his club debut for Chelsea after Liverpool.
The Blues lost that 1-0 and maybe it was a sign of things to come, as Torres went on to score just 20 goals in 110 Premier League appearances for Chelsea.
But while he failed to fire, these big money moves are all about making an impact when it counts, and Torres did that in the biggest competition that world football has to offer.
While he was far from an overwhelming success at Stamford Bridge, Torres did score a game sealing goal against Barcelona in a Champions League semi-final.
Chelsea went on to win their first ever Champions League crown in the 2011-12 campaign, beating German powerhouse Bayern Munich 4-3 on penalties.
MOHAMED SALAH
Transfer fee: £11m ($18m AUD) from Basel in 2014
Playing record: Two goals from 13 games
Mohamed Salah has cemented his legacy as a Premier League legend after a stellar career with Liverpool, but his career in England wasn’t always so successful.
The ‘Egyptian King’ made just 19 appearances for Chelsea, before he was loaned out to Fiorentina just 13-months after moving to London.
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Salah’s two best Premier League games in Blue came in a 6-0 win over rivals Arsenal, where he scored, as well as a promising showing against Stoke.
Salah was later loaned out to Roma, before securing a permanent move to the Italian capital soon after.
But the scintillating winger really took his career to the next Liverpool after he secured a well-known transfer to Liverpool.
Not only has Salah tasted success in both the Champions League and Premier League with the Merseyside club, but he’s widely considered to be one of the best footballers on the planet.
In fact he’s become so popular, the Economist revealed that more than one million Egyptians spoiled their ballots by trying to vote for Salah during the presidential election in 2018.
With many noteworthy individual accolades on the football field to speak of as well, Salah is certainly another gem that Chelsea failed to cherish when they had the chance.
ALVARO MORATA
Transfer fees: Around £60m ($103m AUD) from Real Madrid in 2017
Playing record: 24 goals from about 72 games
After impressive spells with European giants Juventus and Real Madrid, Morata was brought into the club as a replacement for Diego Costa.
Costa, who won two Premier League titles and scored 59 goals for Chelsea, returned to Atletico Madrid after being told he was free to look elsewhere.
Morata was another striker who had the weight of the world on his shoulders when he moved to Stamford Bridge, due to the hype surrounding his arrival.
But the Spaniard failed to make an impression on the scoresheet, scoring just 15 goals in his 48 games.
After initially signing for the club on a five year deal, Morata was eventually loaned out to Atletico Madrid on an 18-month deal.
Atletico signed him on a permanent deal later, although he was loaned out to Juventus soon after in September, 2020.
TIMO WERNER
Transfer fees: €60m ($87m AUD) from RB Leipzig in 2020
playing record 23 goals in 89 appearances
Werner was one of the hottest properties on the football transfer market as European giants came looking to sign the star striker after an incredible spell at RB Leipzig.
During his four years at the German club, Werner scored 90 goals and had 40 assists from 156 competitive games.
Liverpool were also believed to be in the hunt for his signature, before he completed an expensive move to Chelsea on a five-year deal.
But the German quickly fell out of favor at Chelsea, having scored just 23 goals in 89 appearances.
With Chelsea reportedly looking to sign some strikers in the ongoing transfer window, the 26-year-old left the club and returned to RB Leipzig.
ROMELU LUKAKU
Transfer fees: £97.5m ($167m AUD) from Inter Milan in 2021
Playing record: 15 goals in all competitions from 44 games
Belgian Romelu Lukaku may have had a fairly expensive price tag to his name last year, but that didn’t stop Chelsea from making another mind-blowing investment in their future.
Once again, the Blues broke their transfer record to sign the striker from Italian giants Inter Milan.
Romelu Lukaku was a marquee signing for Chelsea, but he failed to make his mark on the scoresheet. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
With their Champions League glory still fresh in the minds of football fans, Chelsea managed to lure the powerful striker back to Stamford Bridge on an incredible transfer.
Despite their European success, Chelsea had come fourth in the Premier League the year before, but this signing was widely considered to be a difference maker.
Many believed that Lukaku could fire for the Blues after a previous stint at the club earlier in his career, before more well-known and successful stints with the likes of Everton and Manchester United.
But it was a disastrous return to the Premier League for Lukaku, who scored just eight goals before completing a loan move back to Inter Milan – and leaving the number nine jersey vacant.
Cricket Australia has targeted the inclusion of the sport at the 2032 Brisbane Olympics as part of a strategic plan to expand participation and maintain the game’s position at the heart of the country’s sporting culture.
The ambitious “Where the Game Grows” plan released on Monday aims to double the number of children aged five to 12 playing the game to 210,000 over the next five years, with girls making up 60,000 of that tally.
Another of the targets is to get cricket back into the Olympics for the first time since 1900 – if that goal has not already been achieved at the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
Cricket has been shortlisted for possible inclusion at the 2028 Olympics along eight other sports and the International Cricket Council (ICC) will make a presentation to organizers later this month.
The host city can include any sport but needs the approval of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Brisbane has plans to rebuild the city’s Gabba cricket ground as a 50,000-seater Olympic Stadium to host the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2032 Games.
The inclusion of cricket in the 2032 Olympics and Paralympics is part of the “sustainable future” strand of the plan, which also aims to improve fan experience, expand the grassroots and continue Australia’s success on the world stage.
CA has set a target of at least three ICC tournament triumphs over the next five years for both the men’s and women’s national teams.
Elsewhere, it has committed to publishing an action plan related to environmental sustainability.
“Cricket is a quintessential part of the Australian summer. However, recent years have shown how vulnerable our game is to a changing climate,” the document said.
There is also a strong focus on the BBL and WBBL with this season labeled the “Rebound” following the impact of Covid, especially on attendance, before a period that has been called “Reimagine”. The challenges are particularly acute for the BBL given the rapid growth of T20 leagues in the January window.
“This strategy contains both a vision and a clear plan for how we can achieve bold, transformative change while also meeting our core responsibilities,” said CA chief executive Nick Hockley.
“I would like to thank everyone across the game for their passion and commitment as we work to unite and inspire everyone to love and play cricket, and in so doing make cricket a sport for all that makes Australians proud.”
A shattered Johnathan Thurston has spoken publicly for the first time since the tragic death of Paul Green, saying he’s “sad” and “angry” and “it just doesn’t make sense.”
Thurston and Green joined forces to lift the Cowboys to their first NRL premiership in 2015, with the legendary halfback slotting a grand final field goal in golden point to clinch the Provan-Summons Trophy for North Queensland.
Last Thursday, Thurston was traveling to Sydney for his Channel Nine duties when he heard the news of Green’s death.
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Paul Green and Johnathan Thurston embrace after winning the 2015 NRL premiership with the Cowboys. (Getty)
The godfather of his children, who was also a close mate of Green, called Thurston to deliver the gut-wrenching news.
Channel Nine bosses gave Thurston the weekend off and booked him an immediate flight back home.
He spoke publicly for the first time since Green’s death on Monday.
“Rollercoaster of emotions. It’s hard… I’m sad, I’m angry,” Thurston told 9News.
“I think of Amanda (Green’s wife) and the kids. It just breaks my heart.”
Thurston revealed 2015 grand final teammate Gavin Cooper had chatted to Green on the phone the night before his death.
Cowboys coach on Paul Green’s death
“He was still like the rock for everyone else,” Thurston said.
“He was saying, ‘Give me a call if you need to chat. You’ve got so much to live for. You’ve got health, family, kids.’
“So it just doesn’t make sense.”
But Thurston is also remembering the good times.
“He’d get a few under his belt and start singing ‘Ice Ice Baby’,” he said with a laugh.
“(That) was his go-to.
“I have loved bringing people together.”
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Paul Green’s life in pictures: From Sharks prodigy to premiership-winning coach
Knights superstar Kalyn Ponga looks set to be stripped of the captaincy after a video emerged of him being kicked out of a toilet cubicle with teammate Kurt Mann.
The video came to light on Monday morning, sparking Ponga’s dad, Andre to claim the 24-year-old was “sick in the toilet and his mate went in to help him” while out celebrating “an exciting house purchase.”
Although, Fox League’s James Hooper suggested that wasn’t the real story, telling NRL 360: “You might have to get Pinocchio out again, we aren’t believing that fairytale are we?”
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Newly signed football manager Peter Parr will front the media on Tuesday and News Corp Journalist Phil Rothfield believes it could be the end of Ponga’s reign as captain.
“I think it’s a really, really bad look and I know the Knights are really concerned about the PR side of it and the culture side of it,” he told NRL 360.
“Do you know how serious I think it is, I think he will be stripped of the captaincy over this.”
Ponga was announced as co-captain alongside Jayden Brailey in February, however with the latter missing for a lot of the season Ponga carried the responsibility himself for the first 16 rounds.
Hooper agreed that “it’s a bad scene” and urged the Knights to come down hard on Ponga given prop David Klemmer was stood down for an on-field incident involving a trainer.
“If he’s had concussions, commonsense tells you he should be (on an alcohol ban), certainly Kurt Mann (who is injured) is supposed to be on an alcohol ban,” he said.
Put asked to leave toilet cubicle | 00:16
“They tore strips off David Klemmer for swearing at a trainer on the field, I’d argue that this is far more detrimental in terms of negative headlines for the club and if they’re fair dinkum they’ll read the Riot Act tomorrow morning , Peter Parr will front the media and he will say ‘enough is enough, this is the line in the sand moment, we’re not going to tolerate this sort of jibber anymore.’
“Off the back of that I think both of them are going to have to be issued breach notices and fines. Because if they’re going to breach David Klemmer and fine him for something that was trivial on the field with a trainer, you can’t cop this.”
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However Paul Kent fears stripping the captaincy could have the opposite effect and believes the club should “demand” Put “lifts his standards.”
“I would say to him ‘you’re the only guy at this club that can lead us out of trouble and we’ve paid you the money you deserve, you’re a senior player and an Origin start…’ and I would oblige him to start leading them out of the woods,” he said.
“If you’re going to spend that money on a player you’ve got to get a return out of him. The way to get the best out of Kalyn is not to banish him, not to sack him from the captaincy.
“I’m not excusing it, I would bring him in and give him the Riot Act but I’d say to him ‘you’re the guy mate’ and I would demand that he starts lifting his standards and he takes his teammates with him.
“If he’s got any sense of decency inside of him as a player from a football point of view he will respond to that.”
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Braith Anasta agreed.
“As much as he’s taken the mickey, this guy holds the key to success… you’ve got to get this blokes in your hip pocket,” he said.
“Kick him in the ass but say ‘this is it mate, this is your last chance.’ They should do some in-house stuff over the next 24 hours, teach him a lesson, scare the you know what out of him and go ‘c’mon mate.’
“If you just sack him as captain you start to lose your key player.”
An analysis of Daniel Ricciardo’s terrible qualifying form adds to the case that McLaren would be right to replace him at the end of the season.
Ricciardo is ranked last and equal-last on the grid in two crucial qualifying metrics against teammate Lando Norris.
Officially, Ricciardo has out-qualified Norris just twice this season – in Spain and Canada – and there were pretty large mitigating factors in both.
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In Canada, Norris watched a soaking wet Q2 from the garage with engine issues.
Ricciardo was four tenths quicker than Norris in Q1, but even in the wet Norris’ engine issues would’ve been crippling.
And in Barcelona, Norris missed out on Q3 after his quickest lap in Q2 was deleted thanks to a track-limits violation.
Daniel Ricciardo aboard the McLaren at this year’s Hungarian Grand Prix (Getty)
The only other head-to-head battle that’s as lopsided as the one at McLaren is the one at Haas between Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher, in favor of the former.
Breaking down the qualifying head-to-head further exposes just how far off the pace Ricciardo is on Saturdays.
F1 tracks are broken down into three sectors. Across all qualifying sessions this season, Ricciardo has been quicker than Norris in just five sectors – and three of them were in Canada.
The other two were the final sector in both Jeddah and Silverstone.
In this metric, his head-to-head against Norris is the worst on the grid.
Even in Austria, where Norris battled brake issues, the young Brit was faster than the Aussie in every sector in Q1. Norris was also quicker in all three sectors in Barcelona, where it’s safe to say he would’ve out-qualified Ricciardo if not for the track limits violation.
Lando Norris leads Daniel Ricciardo during the Austrian Grand Prix. (Getty)
In total, Norris has made seven Q3 appearances to Ricciardo’s five. The Aussie has been knocked out in Q1 twice – in Bahrain and Austria.
As a result of this lopsided qualifying battle, the race battle sits in Norris’ favor 8-3 where both cars have finished the race. They have one DNF each.
When you take off the Aussie-tinted glasses, it’s hard to argue Ricciardo is deserving of the seat.
Yes, he has the Monza win to his name, but even on that day Norris appeared quicker at times and was told to not attack Ricciardo to preserve the team’s 1-2. Ricciardo can only hang his hat on that for so long.
McLaren’s Lando Norris leads teammate Daniel Ricciardo at the start of the Australian Grand Prix. (Getty)
He’s shown flashes of brilliance, like the double overtake of the two Alpines in the above video at the last outing at Hungary, but he followed it up with a clumsy collision with Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin that earned him a five-second penalty.
Ricciardo doesn’t have the confidence in the car he needs to push the limits. When he was at Red Bull, driving a chassis designed by Adrian Newey, he knew the car had his back. He knew he could make those incredible late lunges he became known for, or in qualifying brake just a few meters later, and the car underneath would be stable him.
He simply doesn’t have that in the McLaren.
At Renault – now Alpine – Ricciardo was starting to come good as his tenure at the side ended. He even picked up two podiums late in the year. Despite having publicly committed to the third year of his McLaren contract, Ricciardo could do worse than moving back to his old squad.
Daniel Ricciardo. (Getty)
McLaren has slipped to fifth behind Alpine in the constructors’ championship, and the blame can be put firmly on Ricciardo’s shoulders. While both Alonso and Ocon are consistently scoring points for the French squad, Ricciardo has scored only a quarter of the amount of Norris.
Any way you look at it, Ricciardo has been absolutely trounced by Norris this season, and if McLaren want to move up the grid, they need to start by replacing Daniel Ricciardo.
Having said that, replacing him with Oscar Piastri – who has never driven in an F1 race – presents its own set of problems.
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According to Sydney student Ben Smith, Andrew Tate is exactly the role model his generation needs.
The 19-year-old started following the self-proclaimed “self-help guru” – whose violent and misogynistic videos have amassed more than 11.6 billion views on TikTok – for his takes on relationships and success.
“He just says it like it is. It’s like, he doesn’t worry about what people think about him,” Smith told The Oz.
“He just says what he wants to say.”
Comments under news.com.au’s own coverage of the former big brother contestant and kickboxer’s rise to infamy have echoed a similar sentiment.
“Tate is KING!!! He’s exposing the corrupt, the matrix styled control system and pathetic elite ruling class,” declared one, while another called for “Andrew Tate for PM”.
“Pushing back against all the crazy feminists,” said a third.
“Love him or hate him, he is making bank on leftist outrage. For that he deserves a salute. Not that I would want my son watching or emulating him.”
It seems incomprehensible that the views espoused by Tate – that rape victims “must bear some responsibility” for their attacks; or that women should be choked by their male partners and stopped from going out – could be perceived as anything but vile.
Yet men around the world – especially young ones in western nations – are not just resonating with the content creator, but making TikTok accounts using Tate’s picture and name to further perpetuate his message.
“It’s in the interests of men to return [Tate’s] views, because they serve the status quo power, and reinforces the idea that women are there to serve men,” FullStop Australia CEO Hayley Foster told The Oz.
“Perpetuating these views results in them having more access to power and using women for their own purposes.”
Teachers from an all-boys secondary school shared with New Zealand’s Shit You Should Care About podcast last week that Tate “is becoming an almost poisonous addiction” of their students.
“The majority of our students, especially the juniors, are OBSESSED with him and the outlandish views he portrays,” they wrote.
“What’s more terrifying is they actually see him as a role model. They’re starting to genuinely believe being successful is synonymous with abusing women.”
The school’s 13- to 15-year-old students “are doing speeches at the moment and they all want to do speeches on how inspiring he is”, the teachers added.
While in the playground, and around the classroom, they’d overheard boys parroting Tate’s points of view – that “women who are sexually assaulted are ‘asking for it’ due to ‘what they wear’”, that “some women ‘dress like hookers’”, and that “if a woman has had abortions already she loses the right to use the statement ‘her body her choice’”.
“[We] just wanted to fill you all in on the genuine terror that your young female teachers are most likely facing at the moment. Especially if a school refuses to acknowledge it as a community issue,” they said.
“We know we cannot control what our boys watch but we do want to educate them on moral decisions and viewpoints due to the poignant age they are at.”
Off the back of a segment about Tate on The Project on Sunday night, radio host and former reality TV star Abbie Chatfield said she’d “absolutely” seen evidence of the British-American’s influence in her own experiences online of late.
“I’m getting DMs from what appear to be early-teen boys saying, ‘I hope Andrew Tate destroys you’, or things along that line,” the 27-year-old said.
“I also get comments calling me ‘Abbie Tate’, and comments on TikTok especially. That’s where it’s really, really rife.”
Fellow co-host Rachel Corbett called out the social media platform for failing to remove Tate’s “dangerous” content.
“When kids look at Instagram and TikTok, and the idea of 11.6 billion views as a success, that then says, ‘Well those views must be good, because they look at how famous he is. So I want to emulate that.’ It’s just really dangerous,” she said.
As National Director of White Ribbon Australia, Allan Ball, explained to news.com.au, “the use of gaming, extreme bravado and music [in the videos of Tate] overlays his deplorable actions with a filter of normalcy”.
“Impressionable young minds are drawn in by money, power and unwavering confidence, to become part of a tribe,” he said.
Behavioral scientist Juliette Tobias-Webb agreed, telling The Oz that figures like Tate attract younger audiences specifically because they’re prone to risky behaviour, and are less likely to understand the consequences of their actions.
“It’s a stage when you haven’t had serious relationships or you probably haven’t been held accountable for really poor behaviour,” Dr Tobias-Webb said.
“They haven’t developed the empathy skills and that inhibition to sort of curb some of these urges.”
Mr Ball said that “we need to reframe Tate’s commentary and ask the hard questions to better understand what young men believe are the benefits and drawbacks of having these beliefs”.
“We need to be sharing messages of equality, respect and the ways we can work together to stop violence – hate and abuse don’t have a monopoly on what constitutes viral content,” he added.
“If Tate’s body of hateful, demeaning and misogynistic musings are not sufficient for TikTok to act, then we must work together as a community to provide young men with an alternate lens of respect, compassion and equality.”
