Ron Coote named rugby league’s 14th Immortal ending 43-year wait

  • Lock played for Souths and Roosters in 60s and 70s
  • He won six premierships and played in nine grand finals

Ron Coote has been named rugby league’s 14th Immortal, ending one of the longest waits to earn the status.

Coote was officially revealed as the latest Immortal at a gala dinner at the SCG on Wednesday, rewarding him for a career that dominated the 1960s and 1970s.

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USA edge past China with gold in final event of Paris 2024 to top medal table

Plus ça change: after more than two weeks of frenetic competition across 32 sports involving more than 10,000 athletes, the US finished the Paris Olympics top of the medal table once again, although they required victory in the final event of the Games to do so.

The US entered Sunday with 38 golds, one behind China’s tally of 39, although they were heavy favourites for victory in women’s basketball, an event the Americans have won at every Olympics since 1996. The US also had chances for gold in track cycling, wrestling and volleyball, while China could add to their tally in weightlifting.

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Australia news live: Linda Reynolds tells defamation trial she felt like a ‘punching clown on the fairground’ after social media posts by Higgins and Sharaz

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Wong endorses call from Blinken for de-escalation in Middle East

The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said she endorsed Antony Blinken’s call for de-escalation in the Middle East.

We continue to add our voice to the support for the ceasefire outlined by President Biden and endorsed by the security council.

Thank you for an incredibly productive day.

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How Sydney’s endless rain is ruining football seasons and breaking young hearts

As Saturday after Saturday gets wiped out by bad weather, clubs are drowning in a sea of unplayed fixtures

The first thing Jamie Amendolia’s boys ask him when he picks them up from school every afternoon is the same: “Is training on? Is the game on? Has it been called off? Are we playing?”

Both of his sons, Sebastian, 10, and Alexander, eight, play football at Enfield FC in Sydney’s inner west. They’re footy fanatics. Except both have had their season thrown into chaos by the wet weather that has hit and bogged down Sydney’s weekends for months.

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Alex de Minaur lays Wimbledon ghosts to rest to reach last eight for first time

  • Australian No 1 beats France’s Arthur Fils 6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3
  • Win banishes memory of losing two-set lead in 2022

The “Demon” has slain his Wimbledon demon to reach the last eight of the grass court grand slam for the first time. But Alex de Minaur now has another bad memory to exorcise. Two years after blowing a two-set lead and two match points when on the brink of reaching the quarter-finals, the No 9 seed held his nerve as a horror repeat threatened against Arthur Fils.

De Minaur put his fans on No 1 Court – and late-night television viewers back home – through the wringer as he dropped the third set but showed Aussie grit to take the fourth on his second match point. His 6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win, in just shy of three hours, booked a last-eight meeting with Novak Djokovic on Wednesday (late Wednesday or early Thursday AEST).

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Court condemns soccer fans’ Nazi salutes at 2022 Australia Cup final

Three men were convicted and fined $500 for ‘deliberately and intentionally’ performing the salute

Three Croatian men have been convicted and fined after separately making Nazi salutes during the 2022 Australia Cup soccer final.

Nikola Marko Gasparovic, 46, Dominik Sieben, 25, and Marijan Lisica, 45, performed the salute at Parramatta’s CommBank Stadium on October 1 2022, during the match between Sydney United 58 and Macarthur FC.

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‘I could have run faster’: Cathy Freeman expresses regret over gold medal race at Sydney Olympics

Olympian says women’s 400 metres would have reached a whole new level if her main rival Marie-José Pérec had competed in the final

In an extraordinary confession, Olympic legend Cathy Freeman says she never completely fulfilled her potential as an athlete.

Reflecting on her remarkable career as the Paris games approach, Freeman said she could have run even faster in her career-defining 400-metres final at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

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T20 World Cup 2024: Australia beat Oman by 39 runs – as it happened

4th over: Australia 25-1 (Warner 11, Marsh 1) Shakeel Ahmed into the attack with his pacey left arm spin. Gah! His first ball is a drag down that Warner clubs away for four. The bowler is on the button after that though, round the wicket and with a flat trajectory, firing it in at the stumps and pads. He beats Warner’s edge and gets out of the over for just six runs in total.

3rd over: Australia 19-1 (Warner 6, Marsh 0) Mitch Marsh arrives at the crease. Oman have a slip in place and Bilal Khan has his dander up. Marsh blocks back the final two balls of the over. Good stuff this.

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‘Quitting is the devil’s fruit!’: why anime is firing up sports stars

Bournemouth striker Dominic Solanke, NFL stars and Olympic athletes are finding inspiration in the characters’ resilience

The Bournemouth striker Dominic Solanke twice thought he had scored the opening goal against Brentford on 11 May. Each time he wheeled away to celebrate, he put on an orange mask with a spiral pattern and one eyehole before posing in front of the cameras.

The goal was ruled out by VAR but the celebration went viral, as journalists wrote about “masked mayhem” and others wondered what this “bizarre” celebration could mean.

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Swimming boss defends athletes lobbying national gallery to take down Gina Rinehart portraits

Swimming Queensland chief Kevin Hasemann says ‘I’ve never been to a gallery’ and furore has ‘evolved into something I could never have imagined’

The head of Swimming Queensland has defended a campaign that saw Olympic champions lobby the National Gallery of Australia to take down portraits of their patron, Gina Rinehart, because they were deemed “offensive”.

An acrylic colour portrait by Vincent Namatjira of Australia’s richest woman was the target of the campaign along with a second black and white portrait by Namatjira in ink and pencil.

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Melbourne Victory and Wellington Phoenix grind out draw in A-League Men semi-final

  • Victory and Phoenix locked on 0-0 after first leg at AAMI Park
  • Hosts had 20 shots to the Nix’s six but could not break deadlock

Melbourne Victory and Wellington Phoenix have it all to play for after a cagey 0-0 draw in the first leg of their A-League Men semi-final at AAMI Park. In a clash of two styles, the Victory were allowed to control the tempo and territory for much of the contest but were unable to create enough clear-cut chances to unlock a determined Phoenix defence on Sunday.

The hosts were the more positive throughout with 20 to six attempts, and five shots on target, while the Nix were content to sit back and play on the counter without managing a single shot on goal. The Victory pushed hard in the dying stages to find a goal to take to Sky Stadium as the Phoenix all but settled for a stalemate from halfway through the second half, with the return leg to be played in New Zealand on Saturday 18 May.

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Tayla Vlaeminck returns as Australia thrash Bangladesh in opening T20

  • Australia’s quickest bowler has been out more than two years
  • Legspinner Sophie Molineux also impresses

Tayla Vlaeminck celebrated her return to international cricket by taking with a wicket with her fourth ball, as Australia thrashed Bangladesh in their series-opening Twenty20 international.

Playing her first game for Australia since January 2022, the Victorian quick beat Sobhana Mostary for pace, splattering the stumps and finishing with 1-30 as Australia restricted Bangladesh to 4-126, before chasing the target down without loss and with seven overs to spare.

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Former AFL player Eddie Betts shares video of racist abuse hurled at children playing in yard

Victoria police launch investigation after Indigenous star posts CCTV footage on Instagram and states ‘Aboriginal kids deserve to be able to play safely’

Victoria police are investigating after Indigenous AFL great Eddie Betts shared footage of children being racially abused in their own yard while stating “we are not even safe in our own homes”.

Betts shared security camera footage on social media on Thursday night showing a white car driving down a street before slowing down in front of a home. A person then yells out racial slurs.

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Reported plan to move Rosehill racecourse to endangered bell frog habitat surprises conservationists

Horse racing industry insiders said to be pushing for Sydney track to be relocated to former brickpit in Olympic Park – a sanctuary to an unlikely urban survivor

Conservations have expressed surprise at reported plans to move Sydney’s Rosehill racecourse to a historic brickpit at Olympic Park, which is home to a colony of endangered green and golden bell frogs.

The plan has reportedly been devised by racing bosses, alongside the deal between the Australian Turf Club and the New South Wales government to redevelop the famous track into new housing, as well as two additional metro stations.

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Cricket Australia cancels men’s T20 against Afghanistan due to concern over women’s rights

  • Australia postpones a second series in as many years
  • It comes amid fears conditions under Taliban are getting worse

A second Australian men’s cricket series against Afghanistan in as many years has been postponed due to the country’s poor record on human rights for women and girls.

Australia had already cancelled a one-day international series to be played in the United Arab Emirates in March 2023 due to “a marked deterioration” in the treatment of females in the country.

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Rohan Dennis, husband of former Olympic cyclist Melissa Hoskins, faces court charged with causing her death

Former cycling champion Rohan Dennis charged with recklessly striking his wife with his car in Adelaide’s inner north on 30 December

The husband of former Olympic cyclist Melissa Hoskins has faced court for the first time after allegedly striking her with his car and causing her death.

Rohan Dennis, a former world champion cyclist, was arrested in January and charged with causing death by dangerous driving, driving without due care and endangering life.

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Ads for gambling company forced to leave Australia digitally imposed on overseas A-Leagues broadcasts

Digital ads for 8XBet inserted into matches played by clubs that rejected money from gambling companies

An offshore gambling company that breached Australian law and was forced to withdraw from the country has paid the national football league to promote it overseas.

The Australian Professional Leagues has digitally imposed ads for the gambling company, 8XBet, on to international broadcasts of A-Leagues matches. The company’s logo can be seen in 10 locations simultaneously during some games.

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Amy Gillett Foundation for cyclist safety to close after federal funds cut off

Set up to honour the Australian national team cyclist killed by a car, the group was behind the successful A Metre Matters campaign

The Australian cycling safety advocacy body behind the successful A Metre Matters campaign is being wound up after federal government funding was discontinued.

The Amy Gillett Foundation was established in 2006 after the death of Gillett, a former Olympic rower who had switched to track and road cycling. The 29-year-old was training with the Australian national team in Germany when she and her teammates were hit by a car.

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Australia news live: wages rise by 4.2% over 2023 in highest growth since 2009; flight cancellation crackdown

Transport minister Catherine King unveils overhaul to legislation governing Sydney airport, to significantly increase transparency over allocation of take-off and landing slots. Follow the day’s news live

Man dies after electric unicycle crash in Victoria

A man has died after crashing his electric unicycle in Bellfield yesterday evening.

We have concerns for his health. We have been working consistently since coming to government, particularly behind-the-scenes, to say that we believe Mr Assange should be returned … These sort of issues of diplomacy are not always best done through a megaphone, but we will continue to advocate for an end to this and see Mr Assange returned home.

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‘Absolute tragedy’: Murray River waterskiing race called off after death of sixth competitor in 18 years

Man succumbs to serious injury suffered during fall while skiing, with paramedics declaring him dead at the scene

Police say the death of a man while waterskiing at an annual event on the Victoria-NSW border is a tragedy that will affect the community for months to come.

It was the sixth fatal accident at the Southern 80 waterski race since 2006.

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