Fremantle should make a play for retired West Coast Eagles great Josh Kennedy to fill a whole in their forward-line as they chase a maiden premiership, according to Kane Cornes.
The former Port Adelaide player and media commentator wrote in his exclusive column for The West Australian that the Dockers should sound out the legendary Eagle in a bid to lure him across town.
The Dockers are finals-bound for the first time since 2015 this year, but are preparing for the widely tipped departure of talisman Rory Lobb to the Western Bulldogs.
READ KANE CORNES’ FULL COLUMN ON WHY FREMANTLE SHOULD CHASE WEST COAST LEGEND JOSH KENNEDY HERE
The durability of fellow key forward Matt Taberner has also come under question in recent weeks as the Dockers put the tall on ice until finals.
Cornes said Fremantle should plead with Kennedy to back-flip on his recent retirement decision on a set of generous terms which would see him not train before Christmas and be rested for a number of games, particularly away from home.
Kennedy kicked 723 goals across a 17-year career at Carlton and West Coast, eight of which came during a moving farewell to Eagles fans against Adelaide on Sunday.
Kennedy kicked eight goals in his final game for West Coast on Sunday. Credit: simon santi/The West Australian
“West Coast’s all-time greatest goal-kickers still has plenty of petrol in his tank,” Cornes wrote.
“His stunning eight-goal display against Adelaide in his final game on Sunday proved it.
“Fremantle needs Kennedy. The Dockers must pitch him an offer he cannot refuse so that he ignores the option of retirement to become a critical part of Fremantle’s premiership push.
Cornes ruled the Dockers out of premiership contention, despite them circling a top-four finish, but said they could put themselves well and truly in the mix next season with the recruitment of a big key forward.
“Unfortunately, Fremantle is not good enough to win this year’s flag,” he wrote.
“However, the Dockers are capable of saluting next season if they address the big, critical need to find a match-winning forward.
“Lobb will not be at Fremantle next season. He is joining the Western Bulldogs.”
Hawthorn captain Ben McEvoy retires despite making courageous return after breaking his NECK as former St Kilda star admits ‘the tank is empty’
Hawthorn captain Ben McEvoy has announced his retirement from the AFL
The 33-year-old returned after suffering a broken neck earlier this season
However, he says that ‘the petrol tank is just empty’ and will quit this year
By Ollie Lewis For Daily Mail Australia
Published: | Updated:
After making a stunning comeback from a broken neck, Hawthorn captain Ben McEvoy has made the call to retire at the end of the AFL season.
The 33-year-old spent more than three months on the sidelines after a horror training accident this year and has played five matches since returning in July.
McEvoy ran out for his 250th game last round against Gold Coast and will feature in the Hawks’ final two games of the year, against Richmond on Sunday and the Western Bulldogs in round 23.
Hawthorn captain Ben McEvoy has announced he will retire from footy at the end of the season
The courageous ruckman has been a fan favorite at Hawthorn and St Kilda, where he began his AFL career, and feels the time is right to step away.
‘It’s not like my body’s completely given out on me,’ McEvoy said at a press conference on Wednesday.
‘It’s always been slow – it’s getting slower – but it hasn’t actually broken down.
‘But physically, mentally and emotionally the oil tank’s just empty.’
McEvoy admitted he briefly thought his football career might be over – or worse – after suffering the neck injury in late March.
The 33-year-old made a courageous return to the AFL three months on from breaking his neck
On Saturday, McEvoy made his 250th AFL appearance as the Hawks beat Gold Coast Suns
‘I did have to consider that maybe I wouldn’t be able to play again but that was never really an option for me if there was anything I could do about it,’ McEvoy said.
‘We worked really hard and did a great rehab program with all the team here and I’m really proud of the way I’ve been able to get back and so pleased to be able to pull on the brown and gold jumper a few more times and sing the song again.
‘With a little bit of luck, maybe I can do that two more times.’
McEvoy was named Ben Stratton’s successor at captain ahead of the 2021 season and spent two years in the role, with Jaeger O’Meara and James Sicily filling in while the ruckman was injured.
Despite this year’s injury battle, McEvoy said his first season as skipper was the toughest of his career as Hawthorn went through a period of upheaval, with Alastair Clarkson replaced by Sam Mitchell as coach.
McEvoy admitted that the tank had run empty as he bid an emotional farewell on Wednesday
‘Being out for such a significant period of time is challenging in a different way but you’re not dealing with the rigors of AFL footy and backing up week to week,’ McEvoy said.
‘Last year might’ve been the most challenging year, first year as captain, I played every game and going into a coach handover there was some challenging times there.
‘That was probably the hardest at just finding the mental and physical energy to back up.
‘I feel like this year having such a significant period of time out of the game has maybe smoothed over some cracks that would’ve otherwise appeared, as far as performance (goes) and the ability to get my body to back up week to week .
‘I’ve felt pretty good in recent weeks but it’s not often you feel this good going into the end of the season.’
McEvoy will leave the game a dual-premiership player, having played in Hawthorn’s 2014 and 2015 grand final wins.
A record low rental vacancy rate is driving up property prices in Broome, with WA’s North West town becoming the top performing regional center for median house sale price growth in the most recent industry figures.
Real Estate Institute of WA data for the June quarter shows median house prices in the holiday hot spot increased by 4.7 per cent to $649,000 and shot up by 18 per cent in the 12 months to June.
The town was behind only Port Hedland which saw a 28.2 per cent growth in the same period.
Broome’s dire rental vacancy rate was recorded as zero by REIWA in March, appears to be forcing would-be tenants to buy instead.
Ray White Broome sales consultant Giles Tipping said real estate agents in the region could foresee the trend, even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“The supply of rental properties available for all the Government departments and the like to lease was drying up every year, so we got to a point, I think it was in about July 2019, where there was probably only about approximately 40 houses available to rent in the whole of Broome,” he revealed.
“With that low supply of rental housing obviously rentals were climbing higher and higher and there was less choice for tenants so more tenants were sort of filtering into the sales market and as rent were climbing as well, it was becoming better value to buy.”
The trent was further compounded by the pandemic, with closed borders exposing Broome to a new wave of buyers from across the country, as well as a lagging building industry placing further pressure on supply issues.
“Those influences are coming together and creating this pressure for the sales market,” Mr Tipping added.
In Busselton, which was the second highest regional performer for the June quarter with a 4.5 per cent growth in its median house sales price, the opportunity to work remotely is drawing in a new wave of Perth buyers looking for a lifestyle change.
The Busselton Jetty. Credit: Supplied/Supplied
Busselton’s house median, which now sits at $610,000, is also being pushed up by interstate investors and buyers with the airport and direct flights to Melbourne a major drawcard.
First National Real Estate Busselton general manager Matthew Snaddon said these factors were fueling the market, with the popular coastal town bucking the national trend of increasing supply.
“We are having conversations with buyers and they’re making the comments that they’ve got the opportunity to work remotely so lifestyle following COVID is one of the primary factors that buyers are looking at when choosing property now,” he said.
While Broome and Busselton were the standouts, the REIWA data showed a total of eight regional centers recorded median house sale price growth during the quarter.
Additionally, all nine regional centers experienced median house sale price growth on an annual basis.
Meanwhile, in Perth, the stock of properties listed for sale in July was 4.6 per cent higher than a year ago but new listings last month were down 15.7 per cent compared to June, according to the PropTrack Listings Report July 2022.
“The stock of properties listed for sale in Perth is still down around 15 per cent compared to the average over the past 10 years. While that means options are somewhat limited, it is an improvement compared to recent conditions and the stock of properties listed for sale is up 4.6 per cent compared to a year ago,” PropTrack Economist and report author Angus Moore said.
“Even so, buyers in Perth are facing fewer options than is the case for buyers in Melbourne, Sydney, and Canberra, where the total stock listed for sale is back around, or even above, the decade averages.
“By comparison, buyers in Adelaide and Brisbane have even fewer options, with the total number of properties listed for sale in both those cities down more than a third compared to the decade average.”
Two separate but intertwining careers began their journey to an end last week.
I was in primary school when David Mundy played his first game for Fremantle and high school when Josh Kennedy first stepped out on to Subiaco Oval for the West Coast Eagles.
You can measure the impact of a footballer in the wake of their leave, in the flowing tributes and flowery obituaries for their playing careers.
Your local paper, whenever you want it.
In Kennedy and Mundy, both West Coast and Fremantle fans are losing people who represented their teams with grace and brilliance, but also perfectly reflected the ethos supporters clung to.
The Eagles have prided themselves on their big name players and they have not had many bigger than the generational key forward with an iconic beard, who ended his career as a member of the 700-goal club.
Kennedy arrived as the consolation prize in the Chris Judd trade but as it turned out, the three-time All-Australian helped West Coast win an unwinnable trade.
West Coast’s Josh Kennedy waves goodbye after his final game. Credit: simon santi/The West Australian
It is rare a club trades away a generational midfielder and winds up happier in the long-run but Kennedy, who kicked 429 goals between 2011 and 2017 and kicked three crucial majors in their 2018 grand final, became the Eagles’ greatest forward of all time .
Kennedy may not have actively sought out the limelight, but like so many bullet passes inside 50, fame found him as he became one of the AFL’s star forwards.
If West Coast are kings of the big game, Kennedy was football royalty and even among a plethora of fellow stars — Nic Naitanui, Luke Shuey, Jeremy McGovern — he stood and head and shoulders above them.
Throughout his spell at West Coast, the club have been driven by a pursuit of excellence and sustained success and no Eagle has personified those traits more than Kennedy.
His final bow was a fitting finale, an eight-goal avalanche showcasing his prodigious talents one final time to drag West Coast kicking and screaming into a close contest, his star shining brightest among the on-field mire that has plagued the side this season.
If Kennedy was the perfect West Coast servant — a loyal clubman with a star profile and elite ability in spades — the reliable and understated Munday was an equally excellent representative of Fremantle.
When Mundy had the ball, the sense of relief among Fremantle fans was palpable; the level of comfort was akin to settling on to the coach with a bucket of popcorn to watch your favorite film.
David Mundy following Fremantle’s win over the Western Bulldogs. Daniel Pockett/Getty Images Credit: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images
You could count on your hand the amount of times Mundy, the epitome of the savvy veteran, made the wrong decision and even when he did turn the ball over, the intent was right.
Part of the allure of Mundy for Fremantle fans was not just his dependability, but also how underrated he was around AFL circles.
Mundy won his lone All-Australian jersey in 2015 as a 30 year-old, but Fremantle fans had known how good and consistent Mundy was long before then.
He was understated around the league, never getting the headlines his more famous teammates Nat Fyfe and Matthew Pavlich earned, even though he was almost as deserving.
In many ways, Mundy reflected the Purple Haze, and Fremantle fans saw so many of the traits they revere and have bought into Mundy.
He has always been a hard-working, passionate battler who has gone about his work to the nth degree, despite perhaps not always getting the wider plaudits he has served.
The Dockers’ history book devotes many a page to their identity as an industrious outfit who may not always have been the star attraction in a footy-mad town, but will always be honest in their performance and Mundy fits the bill to a T.
For all of Pavlich’s goals and Fyfe’s game-breaking ability, Mundy’s steady hand and unerring consistency made him the Docker’s Docker, a player best equipped to embody the anchor.
In Kennedy and Mundy’s retirement, Perth has lost two icons who served their club to perfection not just on the field, but off it too.
The most clutch moments of AFL history are among the most memorable. From “Leo Barry, you star” to Barry Breen’s match-winning behind, those who step up in the biggest moments are remembered through history.
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Footy is often a game of millimeters despite being played in a glorified paddock.
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Whether it’s the luck of the bouncing oval ball or brilliantly executed skill, the ability to pull through when the going gets tough is critical for teams with September dreams.
Just look at Collingwood this year — their 15 wins this year have been underpinned by 10 wins in their 11 games decided by less than two goals.
About a quarter of all games are decided by two straight kicks or less.
Some believe that teams do well late because of good coaching, on-field leadership and training. Others believe it’s a little more down to luck.
How do games change when they heat up late, and who has stood up the most in close games recently?
Clock is ticking
Winning possession is at the core of football. This year, for every 100 times a team wins the ball in a game they score about 71 points. That rises to 91 points from 100 won center clearances, and drops to 30 points from kick-ins.
Where a team wins the ball matters a lot as well. Teams score three times as many points from the ball won in the front half of the ground compared with the defensive half.
Time also matters. Teams generally score more heavily early in quarters — with the exception of the first 10 minutes of a game.
In the fourth quarter of games where the margin is two goals, teams score at just 67 points for every 100 times they win possession. In time-on in the last quarter, that drops to just 65 points per 100.
The potential reasons for this are many: Teams with a lead late in close games tend to try to shut up shop, and try to take time off the clock.
Late game fatigue also plays a role, along with the mental weight of late game football and the weight of the footballing world sitting on the shoulders of 44, mostly young, players.
However, some players thrive when their team needs it the most.
circle of trust
Taylor Walker’s last-minute sealer against the Bulldogs was the Crows’ spearhead’s sixth clutch-time goal in two seasons.(Getty Images: AFL Photos/Dylan Burns)
Clutch time is hard to define. Just 333 minutes of football — shy of two minutes per game — have been played this year where the margin was less than 12 and the clock had passed the 20-minute mark in the last quarter.
Given the large number of players on the field, it’s often hard to stand up late, when it counts. No player has scored more than three goals in clutch time across either of the past two seasons. Taylor Walker’s six goals over the two seasons is the most of any player.
A bit more can be gained from looking at games where the margin was less than 12 points any time in the last quarter.
One name, at a club near the bottom of their rebuilding cycle, has shouldered the biggest burden in late games in the past two years.
Cameron Zurhaar is an imposing beast of a player — not quite the height of a key forward, but with speed and power to burn. His ability to compete both in the air and on the deck makes him more dangerous as the going gets tough.
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North Melbourne may not be in contention right now, but if they continue to develop, Zurhaar has the potential to be a matchwinner in big games.
Cameron Zurhaar showed against Richmond that he can be a match-winner for the Kangaroos.(Getty Images: AFL Photos/Michael Willson)
To score, you have to have the ball, and certain players rise to the occasion. More skilful users and experienced players tend to shine in late game situations as teams look to their most-dangerous players.
There appears to be a subtle shift in dynamics in most teams, such as from Jarryd Lyons to Lachie Neale, or Tom Mitchell to Jaeger O’Meara. In raw terms, Patrick Cripps steps up the most for his team late in games, signaling his importance to him for the Blues.
The player who wins more stoppages at the death, compared to the rest of the game, is a less-heralded name: Liam Baker.
Liam Baker’s speed and agility make him a key asset for the Tigers.(Getty Images: Quinn Rooney)
The young Tiger isn’t an imposing player but he is quick and agile, finding momentary creases in the opposition’s defence.
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When games become stagnant late it is often those with the most speed and initiative who can break through them, such as Baker can.
Zurhaar and Baker, just like Barry and Breen, aren’t their clubs’ biggest stars but they are making a name late in the game, when the nailbiters are won.
scared of skill
Collingwood’s run of wins in close games has been exciting for fans. (Getty Images: Darrian Traynor)
Collingwood’s rise up the ladder from bottom to top two in has been exhilarating to watch.
The Pies’ run is reminiscent of Port Adelaide last year. Port rode a 5-0 record in close games to second place on the ladder and snag a Preliminary Final appearance.
At the time, the club, its players and supporters put down the success down to the hard work undertaken to prepare for the year.
“We have done a lot of work across a lot of sessions — watching a lot of vision — to put ourselves in the best possible positions to win those close games,” Butters told the Port Adelaide club website last year.
Port Adelaide seem to have lost the knack of winning the close games in 2022.(Getty Images: Daniel Pockett)
This year, Port have won just two of their nine close games. It is the opposite journey taken to that of Collingwood, who won just one of six close games last year.
Collingwood have also stated that they have put a lot of work into how to win in close games.
It’s likely true that all 18 teams use a disproportionate amount of time to work on late game scenarios — and with good reason: All wins are worth four points, and close games are the easiest to flip over.
There’s undoubtedly some skill and strategy to how teams approach tight games. However, when looking at how these results shake out over a long period of time, the pattern is harder to discern.
That’s not to say that the hard work put in at training doesn’t help — it could help tilt the coin slightly in favor of the team that prepares better.
However, just like a coin can land on heads 10 times in a row, a team can win 10 close games in a row.
It’s also true that a coin that lands on heads 10 times in a row is no more or less likely to land on heads at the 11th toss.
For Collingwood fans, it shouldn’t matter if it’s skill, luck or a combination of both.
Collingwood is in the thick of the premiership race, one year after finishing second-last.
They are the most exciting team in the league to watch, coming off an off-season with minimal expectations.
Luck, skill, magic or otherwise — it’s thrilling to watch.
Eighty-two per cent of people sampled in a study conducted by Victoria University have reported experiencing at least one form of interpersonal violence when participating in community sport as a child.
Key points:
Three-quarters of respondents said they had experienced psychological violence or neglect in children’s sport
Seventy-three per cent experienced violence from their peers, and 66 per cent said they had from a coach
Women experienced higher rates of sexual and psychological violence, as well as neglect
The survey, which is the most comprehensive of its kind in Australia, asked 886 adults whether they had experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence, as well as neglect, from either coaches, peers or parents during childhood.
Seventy-six per cent said they had experienced psychological violence or neglect, 66 per cent reported physical violence and 38 per cent reported sexual violence.
One in three respondents, meanwhile, said they had experienced all four forms of violence.
The respondents had participated in a large variety of sports, with nearly 70 represented.
Seventy per cent of respondents experienced physical and psychological violence from a peer. (Designed by The Infologist for Victoria University)
While such large numbers may come as a surprise to some, study co-author Mary Woessner said she was not shocked.
“From the literature, and knowing what’s happening internationally, I would say that’s right about what we were expecting,” Dr Woessner told the ABC.
“One of the first things you need to create change, positive change, is generate understanding that there’s a problem.
“We just want people to know it exists, so we can make evidence-based decisions to change it.”
Dr Woessner’s co-author, Aurélie Pankowiak, explained that the survey asked participants about explicit examples of violence they may have experienced in a sporting context.
Aurélie Pankowiak co-authored the study with Mary Woessner.(ABC News: Andie Noonan)
For neglect, for example, participants were asked if they had experienced being refused time off for medical injuries.
For psychological, participants were asked whether they had been insulted, threatened or humiliated (for example by being bullied, given an unwanted nickname violence or otherwise ostracised).
“We had very concrete examples of different types of violence, so we did not leave it up to the person’s interpretation of whether or not what they experienced was violent,” Dr Pankowiak said.
One reason for this, the authors say, is that it can take victims a long time to recognize that what they experienced constituted violence.
“The average reporting time for sexual abuse can be 20 years or longer,” Dr Woessner said.
“At the moment we have a system that relies on children telling us what happened while knowing that the vast majority of literature says they won’t [come forward] for years to come.
“That’s why in this study, the easiest and safest way of collecting this data was to do it retrospectively. [by asking adults].”
Most children experience violence from peers
In a first, the study sought to break down children’s experiences of violence by who perpetrated it, including peers and parents as well as coaches.
This breakdown showed that 73 per cent of respondents experienced violence from their peers, followed by coaches (60 per cent) and parents (35 per cent).
Most respondents had experienced violence from a peer. A coach was the next most common.(Designed by The Infologist for Victoria University)
Dr Woessner said distinguishing who was perpetrating violence was important because most academic literature, as well as media coverage, has focused on violence perpetrated by coaches, usually at the elite level.
This includes high-profile cases like that of Larry Nassar, the former US Olympic gymnastics team doctor who is serving an effective life sentence for sexually abusing at least 40 girls and women.
Australian swimmer Maddie Groves also recently came forward with the allegation that she was sexually abused by a former coach who is still working in the sport.
“You can distance yourself from an Olympic athlete experiencing abuse and start to think that it only happens at the elite level,” Dr Woessner said.
“There’s a mentality, ‘well that’s not my child, it’s not happening in my sport, or at my club’ … but I think with this data we can show that it might be.”
Data collected by Dr Pankowiak and Dr Woessner also showed significant gendered differences in the types of violence being experienced by men, women and gender-diverse people in childhood.
Women were more likely to experience sexual violence compared to men, while they were also more likely to experience psychological violence and neglect.
Men, on the other hand, were more likely to experience physical violence from a peer.
“When you talk about a gendered experience, we sometimes focus only on women,” Dr Woessner said.
“But it’s not that men aren’t experiencing violence, they’re just experiencing different types.”
Women experienced higher rates of sexual and psychological violence, as well as neglect.
The authors also analyzed a third category, gender-diverse people, encompassing those who identified as non-binary, gender questioning or selected “don’t know” for their gender identity.
While the sample size was small, at 17 people total, the authors found gender-diverse people experienced higher rates of many types of violence compared to cisgender men and women.
“We know from the literature broadly that marginalized communities experience institutionalized violence,” Dr Pankowiak said.
What was less clear, Dr Pankowiak said, was how the experience of systemic marginalization translated into interpersonal violence in a sporting context.
“We need an understanding of what’s driving those rates,” Dr Woessner said.
“We are talking about gender diversity here, but we know that the LGBTQI+ community broadly, people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities, they all have higher risks. We just don’t fully understand why and how that’s happening.”
A wake-up call with ‘no quick fix’
While this particular study did not look at the impacts of the childhood experience of violence, the authors said there was clear evidence that it could have lifelong detrimental effects.
“We do know that there are long-term impacts,” Dr Woessner said.
“Often they [victim survivors] leave sport. They might only leave the team they’re on, but there are some people who leave sport entirely.
Co-author Mary Woessner hopes the study will be a call to action for Australian sport.(ABC News: Andie Noonan)
“Beyond the individual, you see families torn apart, you see communities torn apart.
“Community sport is led by volunteers, and when something like this happens, it impacts not just the individual but their friends, their family, and by default the community.”
Moving forward, the authors argued it was essential to intervene early so that children and adults could continue to enjoy the many benefits sport provides.
“What we’re seeing in the data is that we have a cultural normalization of violence in sport,” Dr Woessner said.
“It’s systemic, there’s not one type of violence or only one type of perpetrator and it’s happening across all sports.”
Dr Woessner added that while there was no “quick fix”, there were clear steps sports could take to safeguard children.
“When we’re thinking about changing culture, we need to go a step further than just education and policies,” Dr Woessner said.
“We need to go from the ground up and work with clubs on initiatives that are long-lasting and can create behavioral change.
“I would hope that this data starts to change public perception on the prevalence of these experiences in community sport and that it calls sports to action.”
If you believe you have experienced violence during your childhood participation in sport, you can lodge a complaint through Sport Integrity Australia’s online portal.
After winning a seventh-straight gold medal in the men’s hockey at the Commonwealth Games, it must be asked: are the Kookaburras the greatest team to ever perform on this stage?
Put nationalism and individual events to the side for a moment. For sheer excellence and dominance sustained over the history of the Commonwealth Games, it’s hard to argue that any other team across any sport, comes close.
In Birmingham, the Kookas’ juggernaut rolled on with a thumping 7-0 win over India in the gold medal match.
The Kookaburras stand triumphant with their gold medals.(Getty Images: Elsa)
It all started in Kuala Lumpur 1998, when hockey was brought into the Games. There, the Kookaburras dropped a pool stage match to South Africa.
It remains the only game they’ve ever lost.
That’s a total of 41 out of 42 matches won over 24 years, scoring 33 goals and conceding two in the seven gold medal deciders.
“It’s a great team dynasty, really proud of the history that we have,” co-captain Aran Zalewski said.
“Every team that comes is a different team, new venue, new players, a lot of first time Commonwealth Games guys here, second time Commonwealth Games guys, so we know that we have to come out and perform, and we pride ourselves on performing well here.”
But the Kookas are more than just a series of impressive stats.
With such a crowded sporting scene in Australia, we sometimes don’t appreciate the full spectrum of talent we have across a whole range of sports, including hockey, which only tends to attract mainstream attention at the Olympics or Commonwealth Games.
But it’s time we actually sit back and fully appreciate what the Kookaburras have brought to men’s hockey, and Australian sport, over the last two decades – and the path this current generation is forging.
“We really just enjoy being on tour and spending time together, and I think that’s the best thing about this team,” Zalewski said.
“Good harmony, and we all want to challenge each other. It’s not all roses, we have to get the best out of each other and raise the tension at times.
“And we do that, and we’ve got a level of respect and trust and value that allows us to do that.”
Near flawless final caps off seventh heaven
The casual observer could look at the 7-0 score line in the final and think it was an easy romp.
But India is one of the best teams in the world – having won bronze at last year’s Tokyo Olympics – while the Kookas memorably claimed silver in a penalty shootout heartbreaker.
The reality is the Australians didn’t let India get into any flow, stifling them from the opening whistle in a masterful performance. It was an emphatic statement after they were nearly knocked out in the semis by England.
The crowning moment was the second goal – perfection for purists, as the Kookaburras whizzed out of danger on the edge of their circle, with six players involved in beautiful interplay, finished off by a Nathan Ephraums tap in.
The Aussies responded to their slim semi-final win over England by putting five past India in the opening two quarters.(Getty Images: Elsa)
The defense was just as entertaining to watch as the goal fest. When caught in their quarter, which wasn’t often, they played patiently, backing their skills to slip through a crowd of Indian players, and getting out of trouble.
Even while leading 5-0 and the game already won, Matt Dawson thrust himself in the line of fire to block an Indian shot.
It was characteristic of every player’s effort in the decider: they play hard, they play every ball, and they play to win every single moment, no matter the score.
Ockenden wins his fourth gold medal
It may sometimes seem unfair to single out individuals after any performance in a team sport, but when it comes to the Kookaburras for the past 16 years co-captain Eddie Ockenden has been at the center of it all.
He now joins former skipper Mark Knowles with four Commonwealth Games golds.
Ockenden made his international debut for the Kookaburras in 2006.(AAP: Brendon Thorne)
“I’m really proud to have that, and it’s really good part of our history but it’s our team now, it’s our time,” Ockenden said.
“I’m just incredibly proud to have played with some of the guys I played with across all those four and just incredible friends, great teammates, great players.”
Zalewski says Ockenden is a much-loved member of the team.
“The best thing about Eddie we can draw on so many experiences. And just having someone that’s so calm under pressure, such a humble guy and just such a good fella, really.”
In Birmingham, he remained a bedrock in defence, the cool head needed in all situations, and at these Games he was not only a leader of the Kookas, but the unofficial captain of the entire Australian team, as the opening ceremony flag-bearer.
Ockenden (right) was Australia’s flag-bearer alongside Rachael Grinham at the Birmingham Opening Ceremony.(ABC News: West Matteussen)
He’s not comfortable with the spotlight remaining solely on him though, preferring to praise the players who have come in, particularly in the wake of major changes following the Rio 2016 Olympics where they finished sixth.
“The way we didn’t stagnate or drop even when we had new guys, we really improved surprisingly quickly and got to that amazing level, and I even think Tokyo last year, that was just the start.”
Australia’s all-time games record holder continues to rack up the caps: he’s now just a few shy of 400, and at 35, he doesn’t look like stopping any time soon.
“I’m feeling really good and fit, I’m just going to give myself a chance to make the squads and push for the team because it’s really tight for spots and it’s an incredible squad that we’ve got,” he said.
“There’s a lot of guys back in Perth [where the team is based] that could be here today, so it’s a really tight squad and I’ll just keep putting my name forward and doing my best.”
While Comm Games are nice, the Olympics are the ultimate prize for hockey players, and Ockenden hasn’t managed gold on that stage yet.
Paris is only two years away – so will he be there?
“Now you say ‘yeah, I’d like to go’, but it’s a bit more into it than that,” he said.
“It’s hard leaving my family all the time. You have to make sure your body is good, and your form is good, and then I think we’ll just see how it goes.”
And if the Kookaburras can continue building to gold in Paris, with Ockenden at the helm, that could take them from Commonwealth Games legends to Australian sporting immortality.
North Melbourne champion Wayne Carey has broken his silence after a fresh stoush with Anthony Stevens reportedly renewed the pair’s feud.
The pair reportedly stunned teammates with a heated bust-up at the Kangaroo’s 1996 premiership reunion on Saturday.
However, two-time premiership star Carey was quick to cool the incident, denying claims the argument became physical, and they needed to be separated.
“There was a firm conversation,” he said on Triple M.
“Altercation is, I think, too firm to say that that occurred—firm conversation.
“I think everyone knows that Stevo and I aren’t best mates. That’s not a puzzle. Why this keeps coming up, I don’t know.”
Carey said the conversation was about him expressing concerns about Stevens and that while it got tense, they had “a couple of beers together” and “did not come to blows” before they left the Yarraville Railway Hotel in Melbourne.
“It sounds like we’ve had this massive blow-up and an altercation … which was factually incorrect,” he said.
“I wanted to have a conversation about Stevo. I was worried about him. I said, ‘I’m worried about you,’ and he obviously took a bit of umbrage to me, saying I was worried about him.
Wayne Carey and Craig Sholl chat during the 2022 AFL Round 21 match between the North Melbourne Kangaroos and the Sydney Swans at Marvel Stadium on August 7, 2022 in Melbourne, Australia. Credit: michael willson/AFL Pictures
“I said I want him to look after himself, just like people want me to look after myself.”
Stevens missed the club’s motorcade around Marvel Stadium ahead of the North Melbourne and Swans clash the next day.
The pair’s history dates back to 2002, when Carey and Steven’s wife were caught in the bathroom together at a party.
It resulted in then captain Carey sitting out the season and ultimately leaving the club for Adelaide.
Former Fremantle Dockers ruck Zac Clarke has been slapped with a ban for a scary on-field incident which left a fellow former AFL player with a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain.
Clarke was playing for Doncaster East in Melbourne’s Eastern Football Netball League when chased St Kilda player Eli Templeton towards the boundary-line, before pushing him in the back and sending him into a water container and over a wire fence.
Templeton hit his head on a footpath just outside the fence with some force. Spectators and players appeared visibly distressed by the incident as trainers rushed to help.
Clarke was given a two-week ban but the league’s tribunal on Tuesday night, but Templeton’s club, the Balwyn Tigers are reportedly set to appeal the decision, believing the sanction to be inadequate.
The match was abandoned after an ambulance was called in the third-quarter, with the Tigers handed the win because they led at the time.
Zac Clarke pushed Eli Templeton over the fence in this incident; Credit: The Leader/Twitter
Balwyn president Richard Wilson said Tempelton’s condition had improved and he was expected to make a full recovery.
“He spoke on the phone last night (Saturday), he’s cognitive and speaking and passing all the tests, which means he’s basically going to be OK,” he said.
Clarke played 101 games for Fremantle between 2009 and 2016, including all three of the club’s finals appearance in its only grand final season in 2013.
He then spent time at WAFL club Subiaco, before being thrown an AFL lifeline for one season by Essendon in 2019.
There are two matches remaining in the EFNL’s regular season, but Doncaster are set to play finals, which means Clarke would be available if the Tigers’ appeal fails.
They currently have an 11-5 record and it will be the club’s first finals appearance in the league’s top division.
Templeton spent three years at St Kilda for a total of 14 games before being de-listed. He is currently listed at VFL club Port Melbourne.
On Sunday, the Saints posted a message for the former player on their social media.
“Our thoughts are with former Saint Eli Templeton,” the post read.
As Serena Williams prepares to farewell the sport she dominated for two decades, an Australian coach has revealed the lengths young players on the women’s tennis tour are going to so they can have long careers without interruption.
Key points:
Serena Williams said one of the reasons she will be retiring soon is because she wants another child
Williams used 45-year-old NFL quarterback and father of three Tom Brady as an example of men who do not have to make that choice
Australian coach Rennae Stubbs says some young women on tour are freezing their eggs to have kids after their careers
Williams flagged in a Vogue article titled Serena’s Farewell that she was not far away from ending her tennis career, hinting that it may be after the US Open, which starts at the end of the month.
The 23-time major winner said “something’s got to give” for a number of reasons; partly because she turns 41 at the end of September, partly because of her many business interests that are a full-time job in their own right, and partly because she wants to have a second child.
Williams, who was two months pregnant with daughter Olympia when she won her last major, the 2017 Australian Open, pointed out that while she “loved every second of being pregnant” it was unfair that she had to choose one or the other while most male athletes do not.
“I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family. I don’t think it’s fair,” she said, pointing to 45-year-old father of three Tom Brady, who retired as an NFL quarterback and then un-retired last off-season.
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Rennae Stubbs on the choice women have to make around tennis careers and parenthood
“If I were a guy, I wouldn’t be writing this because I’d be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labor of expanding our family.”
Former doubles world number one Rennae Stubbs told Radio National Breakfast that many players on the WTA tour were exploring fertility options early in their careers so they could play tennis for a decade or more without missing their window to have kids.
“I know players who want to have children, who want to have a family, have [frozen] their eggs, because they want to play until their mid-30s or 40s,” Stubbs, who coached stars Sam Stosur, Karolína Plíšková and Eugenie Bouchard, said.
“And there’s so much money in tennis now, they want to keep going and they can sustain themselves and their families.
Rennae Stubbs (left) has coached a number of players on the women’s tour, including former world number one Karolína Plíšková (right).(Getty: Chris Hyde)
“So they freeze eggs so they can have kids later on in life. But think about Tom Brady or Roger Federer or Rafa [Nadal] now; you can have children and keep playing because you’re not the one birthing it and taking nine months to have the child and then the recovery after the child.
“There’s no question that it’s way more difficult for women. No question about it.”
It is not only globe-trotting tennis players who have made the decision, with WNBA stars Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart, English Super Netball player Geva Mentor and USWNT forward Sydney Leroux speaking openly about their egg retrieval processes.
In a post on the Reproductive Health and Wellness Center’s website about UFC fighter Carla Esparza freezing her eggs, the Orange County-based IVF and fertility experts wrote that the procedure is becoming increasingly “popular with young professional women who lead busy, active lifestyles and don ‘t want to run the risk of waiting too long before starting their family for fear of egg viability.”
“Women in the professional athletic field often face the risk of fertility issues frequently, as the nature of intense athletic professions may put women at a higher likelihood of irregular ovulation,” the website reads.
“Women who exercise frequently and/or are athletes are often at risk for irregular ovulation and fertility issues later in life due to the intense physicality their bodies are put through. When their bodies are physically strained, the brain will not stimulate the ovaries in a normal way.
“For those who have a passion for intense exercise or make it their primary job, having to keep fertility in mind while also keeping one’s body as fit as possible is a difficult balance.”
Returning to sport after having a baby
AFLW superstar Erin Phillips and Australian fast bowler Megan Schutt have both continued playing while their partners gave birth to their children in recent years.
But tennis and other sports are full of women who sat out long periods of their athletic prime to start a family, with comebacks sometimes yielding further success and sometimes not.
Belgian great Kim Clijsters stepped away while ranked in the top five in 2007, had her first child the next year and made a triumphant return, winning three more major titles from 2009 to 2011.
Williams herself has been strong but not her usual dominant self since coming back in early 2018, having endured a difficult birth with Olympia, including a pulmonary embolism and postpartum depression.
Having played in all but two of the 10 major finals leading up to her break from tennis, winning six titles in the process, Williams has reached four deciders since her comeback and has been unable to win one to reach the record 24 singles titles won by Margaret Court across the amateur and Open eras.
Coincidentally, on the same day Williams’s Vogue article was released, 41-year-old Australian basketball legend Lauren Jackson was named in the Opals’ squad for the World Cup, which starts in September.
Jackson stepped away from the game in 2016 and raised her two sons, before making a comeback earlier this year.
Basketball Australia (BA) has had a spotty record with working mothers at times, engaging in a childcare dispute with Abby Bishop, who has custody of her sister’s child.
BA initially said Bishop would have to pay for flights, care and accommodation for Zala, leading to Bishop taking time away from the national set-up until the dispute was resolved in 2015.
