Hawthorn 101-67 Collingwood
Hawthorn get their season off to a flying start with a strong victory over Collingwood.
Hawthorn 15.11 (101) - 9.13 (67)
Melbourne City 3-0 Western Sydney Wanderers
Melbourne City, at least overnight, move ahead of Melbourne Victory to third on the A-League ladder. The loss for the Wanderers means their hold on sixth is now looking precarious, with both Brisbane Roar and Perth Glory just two points behind them and neither side has yet played this round. Roar are away to Wellington Phoenix on Sunday, while Perth host Victory, also on Sunday.
The travelling Wanderers are doing their 80th minute backwards bouncing* thing. And well they might continue. Not much for them to enjoy on the pitch, unless they want to marvel at how the seagulls love their football in Melbourne.
*Yes, I know it’s called the Poznan.
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Final score and updates:
NRL: Eels 4 - 14 Sharks – final score
A-League: Melbourne City 3 - 0 Western Sydney Wanderers – 20 minutes to go
AFL: Hawthorn 11.8 (74) - 7.6 (48) Collingwood – third quarter
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Some score updates:
A-League: Melbourne City 2 - 0 Western Sydney Wanderers
NRL: Eels 4 - 14 Sharks
AFL: Hawthorn 11.8 (74) - 7.5 (47) Collingwood
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The NRL game between the Eels and the Sharks has just over 20 minutes to go and the Sharks are leading 12-4.
And an A-League half-time score: Melbourne City 1-0 Western Sydney Wanderers.
Time for a half-time AFL score: Gold Coast 5.6 (36) - 1.6 (12) North Melbourne.
And this REM cover might be just how the Brisbane Lions feel tonight. Sleepy.
St Kilda’s win over the Lions has put me in mind of my favourite saints – the Saints, from Brisbane, oh the irony.
Let’s shoot the professor, alright
A half-time score from the NRL: Cronulla 12-4 Parramatta.
AFL: lacklustre Saints survive Lions scare
A match-winning performance from Jack Steven has helped St Kilda to survive a major scare from AFL upstarts Brisbane, downing the Lions by 25 points at Etihad Stadium.
The lacklustre Saints went to sleep in the third quarter, giving up three straight goals and the lead before Steven stepped up to secure a 16.11 (107) to 12.10 (82) victory.
Brisbane looked to be on the verge of a famous opening-round victory when Tom Bell, No 1 draft pick Cameron Rayner and star recruit Charlie Cameron hit the scoreboard in quick succession.
But Steven booted two goals in two minutes on the stroke of three-quarter time to snatch back momentum and the lead for the Saints, who ran away with the game in the final term.
Steven finished with 34 disposals, reigning best and fairest Seb Ross was exceptional with his playmaking and Jade Gresham and Josh Bruce each slotted three majors.
“I thought the guys showed a lot of character,” coach Alan Richardson said.
“The Lions probably got the better of us at the clearances. I thought our outside footy was really positive.”
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Souths rack up first win of NRL season
Rookie halfback Adam Doueihi has guided South Sydney to their first win of the NRL season with a 34-6 upset of Manly in the wet at ANZ Stadium.
In just his second game of first grade, the 19-year-old played a deft hand in difficult conditions to ignite his side’s season.
The Souths wingers led the attack with Robert Jennings getting a hat-trick and Richard Kennar crossing for a double.
The Sea Eagles came back to earth with a thud following their 54-0 defeat of Parramatta last Sunday as they failed to adapt to the conditions and continually turned over the ball while on the attack.
Late Simon header gives Sydney Gosford win
An added time Matt Simon header has lifted Sydney FC to a 2-1 win over Central Coast and within one point of a second-successive A-League Premiers’ Plate.
Sydney went ahead via Milos Ninkovic’s first-half header but were pegged back level by Jake McGing eight minutes from time in Gosford.
It looked like Sydney would have to settle for one point, but substitute striker Simon executed a dramatic dive to head home Paulo Retre’s deflected cross in the 93rd minute, ensuring Graham Arnold’s side go eight points clear at the top with three rounds remaining before the finals.
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Port Adelaide sink Fremantle Dockers in AFL
Port Adelaide’s high-profile recruits fired on all cylinders in a 50-point victory against Fremantle.
New teammates Jack Watts, Steven Motlop and Tom Rockliff all scored early in their Port debut in an emphatic 16.14 (110) to 9.6 (60) win.
Power forward Todd Marshall kicked four goals with Watts booting three, and Motlop and Chad Wingard scored two each at Adelaide Oval.
The oft-maligned Watts (20 disposals, seven marks) snapped the first goal of the game and was instantly adopted by Port’s 38,324-strong crowd.
Three minutes later, ex-Cat Motlop (19 touches) sped away to convert a rousing goal on the run.
Five-gamer Riley Bonner (31 touches) and captain Travis Boak were outstanding but Freo rallied with three late goals to sneak within 21-points at half-time.
The Dockers never got that close again as Marshall highlighted his fourth AFL game with four second-half goals, ensuring the visitors were left in Port’s dust.
Sydney FC have one hand on the premiership! They were not the best team, and they had to win ugly, but win they did. They have beaten the Mariners 2-1.
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Matt Simon scores again, and this time it’s allowed. The super sub saves Sydney!
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Matt Simon gets the ball into the net for Sydney, but it’s disallowed as he bundled the Mariners’ keeper Ben Kennedy into the net too. That was never going to stand.
Another NRL full-time score: South Sydney 34-6 Manly
The Mariners have just equalised with a goal from Jake McGing after Andrew Hoole missed a glorious chance a minute earlier. Sydney’s poor form continues, but, from their perspective, at least Newcastle lost to Adelaide last night. About seven minutes to go.
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To the A-League now. There are 10 minutes to go on the NSW central coast and the Marines are trailing Sydney FC 0-1.
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A fine win for Port over the Dockers.
Port Adelaide 110-60 Fremantle Dockers
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Back to the NRL and we are hearing Canberra coach Ricky Stuart is fuming after the Raiders loss today.
Stuart has taken aim at Todd Greenberg and says he is awaiting a call from the NRL chief to clarify the obstruction rule.
He believes the Raiders have been robbed of two victories this season over a misinterpretation of the ruling.
Stuart says he’s “never seen the game in such a state of affairs” after his side lost a third game of the season by a combined total of five points.
All this talk of Grand Prix puts me in mind of Teenage Fanclub’s sublime record of the same name. The best song on it, and indeed one of the greatest songs by anyone ever, is Sparky’s Dream.
Lewis Hamilton claims pole position for Australian Grand Prix
Hamilton claimed pole position with a dominant performance in Melbourne that left his rivals reeling as he and Mercedes proved their car is once again ominously strong over the single lap discipline. Our Formula One correspondent Giles Richard has the full story.
What is your earliest sporting memory? Mine is the Liverpool v Newcastle United FA cup final in 1974. I had just turned seven. What a game to introduce me to a lifelong love of football. And, course, the glorious goals from Kevin Keegan and my countryman Steve Heighway are on YouTube.
We have an AFL full-time score: St Kilda 16.11 (107) beat Brisbane Lions 12.10 (82). First their women’s team lose to the Western Bulldogs in the AFLW grand final, and now the men lost to St Kilda. It is not the Lions’ day, is it?
And this is unlikely to mean much to anyone other than me, but Shelbourne, the team I’ve followed since my students days in Dublin, beat Cobh Ramblers 1-0 last night. They now lie in fifth place in the League of Ireland’s first division (ie the second tier) and all Shels supporters can dare to dream of a run that will take them back to where they belong in the premier division and playing European football.
They are in the third quarter now in the Port Adelaide v Fremantle game. It’s Port 8.7 (55) leading the Dockers 5.4 (34).
Thank you to reader Tom Martin, who noticed I had incorrectly captioned the main picture. It’s fixed now, but suffice it to say that the Bulldogs did not defeat themselves in the AFLW grand final. Some teams do manage to defeat themselves on such occasions, but not western Melbourne’s finest.
NRL: Warriors beat Raiders 20-19 in Canberra.
The visitors won with a stunning final minute field goal from Shaun Johnson.
Down by seven points with four minutes to go, Issac Luke crossed for the Warriors’ third converted try before Johnson’s heroics shattered the Raiders.
After being on the losing end of 30-28 scorelines in the first two rounds, the Raiders led for the whole game until Johnson sunk their hopes of a turnaround.
The Warriors are now 3-0 for the first time in their history, while Canberra are winless before a trip to Manly a week from now.
It was all the Raiders early, with hooker Siliva Havili crossing for the opening try in the seventh minute shortly after Warriors’ Adam Blair was sent to the sin bin.
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And speaking of AFL, in the men’s competition, here are some progress scores:
Port Adelaide 8.5 (55) – Fremantle 5.4 (34), in the second quarter
Fremantle 5.4 (34) – Brisbane Lions 9.10 (64), in the fourth quarter
Kasey Symons has updated her AFLW grand final report with some lovely words about Katie Brennan, who was suspended for the match.
In Super Rugby, the Chiefs have trounced the Sunwolves 61-10. The win was hardly unexpected, but the the extent of it is a touch surprising.
In the NRL the New Zealand Warriors have beaten the Canberra Raiders 20-19 at GIO Stadium in Canberra in front of a crowd of 11,963.
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Bjørge Lillelien was obviously well versed in English history, with his mentions of Lord Nelson, Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Anthony Eden, Clement Attlee, Henry Cooper, Lady Diana and Margaret Thatcher.
If he was still alive today, and was commentating last night, what Australians might be have invoked? If might have gone something like this.
We are the best in the world! We are the best in the world! We have beaten Australia 4-1 in football!! It is completely unbelievable! We have beaten Australia! Australia, birthplace of giants.
Ned Kelly, Sir Don Bradman, Dame Nellie Melba, Dame Joan Sutherland, Olivia Newton John, Pat Cash, Nicole Kidman – we have beaten them all. We have beaten them all.
Malcolm Turnbull can you hear me? Malcolm Turnbull, I have a message for you one year out from the election campaign. I have a message for you: We have beaten Australia before they play in the football World Cup.
The name Bjørge Lillelien may not mean a lot to you, depending on your age an how much you do or don’t love football. If the name is unfamiliar, here’s a quick history. He was the commentator the last time an Anglophone country suffered such a humiliating defeat in Norway: 9 September 1981, Norway 2–1 England in a World Cup qualifier.
Lillelien’s reaction for stunning, and his wise words live on long after his death in 1987, aged just 60.
We are the best in the world! We are the best in the world! We have beaten England 2-1 in football!! It is completely unbelievable! We have beaten England! England, birthplace of giants.
Lord Nelson, Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Anthony Eden, Clement Attlee, Henry Cooper, Lady Diana – we have beaten them all. We have beaten them all.
Maggie Thatcher can you hear me? Maggie Thatcher, I have a message for you in the middle of the election campaign. I have a message for you: We have knocked England out of the football World Cup. Maggie Thatcher, as they say in your language in the boxing bars around Madison Square Garden in New York: Your boys took a hell of a beating! Your boys took a hell of a beating!
Preamble
Good evening (if you’re on the east coast of Australia), good afternoon (if you’re in Perth), and whatever you’re having yourself if you are elsewhere on the continent or the world. And what a packed day of sport we have coming up. The Western Bulldogs have already won the AFLW grand final and the magnificent mare Winx has broken the world record for group one flat wins. We’ve also got NRL, AFL, A-League and formula one qualifying.
And there was also the little manner of a Nordic humiliation in football overnight.
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