‘Dangerous and deluded’: advocates and MPs criticise sporting codes for pushback on gambling reform

Leading campaigner Tim Costello ‘laughed out loud in disbelief’ at peak body claim existing restrictions ‘had the balance right’

Gambling reform advocates and those harmed by online betting say it is “dangerous and deluded” for Australia’s biggest sporting codes to oppose greater regulation.

Support for tougher restrictions is growing, with Allegra Spender, a federal independent MP, the latest politician to voice concerns about young people being exposed to gambling via advertising.

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Graham Arnold likely to sign new Socceroos deal after ‘best coach’ rating at 2022 World Cup

Arnold to meet Football Australia chiefs in early January as L’Equipe puts him in top spot following last-16 achievement

Graham Arnold will sit down with Football Australia chiefs in early January to thrash out a new deal that is expected to see him remain in charge of the Socceroos, with the coach’s bargaining power having received a fillip after he was named the best coach of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Highly regarded sports newspaper L’Equipe put the out-of-contract Australian in top spot on its rankings, above the likes of Lionel Scaloni of Argentina and France’s Didier Deschamps.

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Football Australia issues lifetime bans to Melbourne Victory fans after pitch invasion

Two Melbourne Victory fans involved in the AAMI Park pitch invasion that resulted in Melbourne City goalkeeper Thomas Glover being injured have received life bans from Football Australia.

Saturday night’s violence forced the abandonment of the A-League Men derby.

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Wong urged to raise human rights concerns on Beijing trip – as it happened

This blog is now closed

It’s officially a week before Christmas, which means the forecasters at the Bureau of Meteorology are fairly confident they can tell us what whether we can set up for an al fresco Christmas lunch or not.

For some parts of the country, there is a chance of showers:

Particularly in the south, we can get some volatile weather but all the patterns really starting to change as we move into later part of this week.

So we’ll see a weather system move through southern parts of the country, Thursday and Friday. Then a big high-pressure system behind it will quickly move into the Tasman Sea and then kind of sit there over the Christmas weekend into early the following week and normally that drives a lot of warm weather across much of southern parts of the country and our guidance is showing a similar pattern with that as well.

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Three men charged over mass pitch invasion at A-League Men Melbourne derby

Melbourne Victory could be hit with heavy sanctions for the behaviour of their fans

Victoria Police have charged three men in relation to the mass pitch invasion at the A-League Men Melbourne derby on Saturday.

All three of the men, aged 23, 19 and 18, presented at police stations on Monday, Victoria Police said in a statement.

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Police vow to prosecute A-League pitch invaders as FA pledges to ‘weed’ them out of game

Victoria police is reviewing footage of the pitch invasion during Saturday’s A-League Men’s Melbourne derby and has vowed officers will be “knocking on doors very soon”.

Three alleged assaults are under investigation – to City’s goalkeeper, Thomas Glover, a referee and a Channel Ten camera operator.

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Victoria police to prosecute pitch invaders; more contaminated spinach cases in Queensland – as it happened

Sport governing body says ‘such behaviour has no place in Australian football’. This blog is now closed

‘We will look at the facts’

James Johnson is asked whether Melbourne Victory has any outstanding sanctions for past incidents. He says he is not aware of any but past events may be considered as an “aggravating factor” as an investigation into the incident unfolds:

There is no other suspended disciplinary action that I’m aware of, but what I will say is that we will be working through that today. We have already started working on the show cause process as of late last night, and we will be moving forward as quickly and swiftly as possible to finalise it, because it is important we get ahead of this issue as a sport.

What I can say is that we will look at the facts, we’ll look at it objectively and we will take a decision that we believe is in the overall best interest of the game but I prefer not to comment on the specifics of the outcome because we have to go through that process first.

What happened during the game last night and what happens with the result;

A “show cause letter” to Melbourne Victory;

An attempt to identify individuals involved in the pitch invasion.

This is an element that … infiltrates our game and tries to ruin it for the people who love us was in. We’ll be looking to weed out those people from the sport.

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‘Our game is in tatters’: Australian football reacts with shock to Melbourne derby violence

Australian football has reacted with a mixture of shock, anger, sadness and disbelief to the chaotic and violent scenes that resulted in the abandonment of the A-League men’s Melbourne derby on Saturday night.

City’s goalkeeper, Thomas Glover, was left bloodied after he was hit by a metal bucket allegedly thrown by a Victory fan as supporters stormed the pitch midway through the first half of the match at Aami Park.

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Australian denied gold at world short course swimming after bizarre re-run of final following technical error

  • Isaac Cooper swam initial 50m backstroke in junior world record
  • US’s Ryan Murphy took gold in re-run in slower time

A shattered Isaac Cooper fought back tears after he was cruelly denied a backstroke world short course swimming gold medal in bizarre circumstances after the final had to be re-run.

Cooper was first home in the 50m final in Melbourne on Friday night but less than half the field completed the race after an alarm sounded due to a “technical error”.

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Former NSW premier Mike Baird appointed chair of Cricket Australia

Baird will take over from February with his predecessor stepping down and taking the chief executive’s job with HBF

Former New South Wales premier Mike Baird has been appointed as the new chair of Cricket Australia.

Baird will take over as the organisation’s new boss from February, with his predecessor Lachlan Henderson stepping down after moving back to Perth.

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Nathan Lyon’s landmark wicket helps Australia tighten grip on second Test

  • West Indies reduced to 109-4 after career-best 175 by Travis Head
  • Spinner surpasses Shane Warne’s wicket tally for Adelaide Oval

Travis Head registered a career-best 175 at Adelaide Oval on Friday, run out just as his home crowd began to anticipate a Test double century. Nonetheless, he was the major contributor to a score of 511 for seven, the declaration coming shortly before the end of the second session in order to give Australia’s bowlers the evening portion of play with a new ball. They made good use of it, having West Indies four wickets down with 102 on the board by stumps, adrift by 409 runs.

The bowling performance with the pink ball was the big point of interest for the home side, with Patrick Cummins and Josh Hazlewood missing with minor injuries. That brought in two different fan favourites. Michael Neser’s first and only Test appearance to date had come in Adelaide a year ago, after he had long been the subject of the online #NeserMustPlay campaign. After that breakthrough he was unlucky to slip from his perch as Australia’s first reserve when Scott Boland did even better, 18 Ashes wickets at 9.55 after being picked in Melbourne.

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Cricket Australia boss criticises David Warner for outburst on captaincy ban

  • Nick Hockley unhappy Warner made comments on social media
  • Boss rejects claim review would have hurt batter’s reputation

Cricket Australia boss Nick Hockley advised David Warner against his social media bombshell on Test match eve, adamant a review of ball-tampering sanctions could go ahead without reopening old wounds.

Warner’s lengthy Instagram post on Wednesday evening set the scene for a dramatic week in Adelaide, with the opener lashing out at the process an independent panel appointed by CA’s integrity commission wanted to take.

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David Warner withdraws bid to have lifetime captaincy ban revoked

In a lengthy Instagram post, Warner claimed the review panel wanted to ‘conduct a public trial of me and what occurred during the third Test’

David Warner will withdraw his bid to have his lifetime captaincy ban lifted, accusing the independent panel conducting the review of wanting to publicly lynch him.

In a bombshell development on the eve of the Adelaide Test, Warner also claimed counsel assisting the review had made offensive and unhelpful comments about him during the initial process.

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Australia cricket great Ricky Ponting in hospital after heart scare

  • Former captain was commentating on West Indies Test
  • Ponting left Optus Stadium after feeling unwell

Ricky Ponting was taken to hospital on Friday after the former Australia captain suffered a heart problem while commentating during day three of Australia’s first Test against West Indies in Perth.

According to the reports, Ponting left Optus Stadium around lunchtime after feeling unwell. The 47-year-old is part of the Seven Network’s commentary team for Australia’s two-Test home series against West Indies.

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‘It’s awakened a consciousness in me’: Collingwood urges AFL clubs to conduct racism reviews

Magpies implement 14 recommendations of Do Better review with four in progress as president Jeff Browne says new systems will build inclusive club

Collingwood says it is making strides to remove the stain of racism and wants other AFL teams to learn from its lessons, two years after an external review found systemic racism within the club.

The Do Better report, the result of an independent review in 2020 by the Jumbunna Institute, outlined 18 recommendations for Collingwood to transform its processes, values and culture to become a more inclusive workplace – all of which were adopted by the club.

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Socceroos to face Argentina in World Cup knockouts after Australia’s famous win over Denmark – live reaction

Australia’s 1-0 win sends them through for first time since 2006, as Mat Leckie’s 60th-minute goal proves decisive in Qatar

Calls for public holiday

Admittedly these calls are coming from the football establishment, but still, surely something for Anthony Albanese to consider.

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Concussion and head trauma in contact sports to be examined by parliamentary inquiry, Greens say

Lidia Thorpe says Labor and Coalition back hearings while ‘sports organisations need to be transparent about evidence that informs concussion policies’

A federal parliamentary committee will examine concussion and repeated head trauma in contact sports, with the Greens saying they have the support of Labor and the Coalition to establish the inquiry.

The push follows growing concern about chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, the neurodegenerative disease associated with repeated head trauma and concussion that has been increasingly linked to contact and collision sports.

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‘A magnificent win’: Australia’s World Cup victory sparks wild celebrations back home

PM Anthony Albanese leads the applause for the Socceroos, who were also cheered on by huge crowds in Melbourne and Sydney

Australia’s historic World Cup win over Denmark sparked wild celebrations across the country in the early hours of the morning as the team progressed to the knockout stages of the finals for only the second time.

Thousands of fans had gathered in Melbourne’s Federation Square to watch the match in the middle of the night and erupted in ecstasy when Mathew Leckie scored to put them into the lead after an hour.

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Australia into first Davis Cup final in 19 years as Lleyton Hewitt’s team defeat Croatia

  • Jordan Thompson and Max Purcell beat Olympic doubles champions
  • The Australians will face either Canada or Italy in the final

Australia’s tennis men have defied all the odds with a makeshift doubles pairing steering them to victory over Croatia and into their first Davis Cup final in 19 years on a nerve-shredding evening in Malaga.

After more heroics from Alex de Minaur had pulled Lleyton Hewitt’s team back from the brink with his consummate tie-levelling singles win over Marin Cilic, Jordan Thompson and Max Purcell beat the Olympic doubles champions to seal Friday’s exhilarating 2-1 semi-final win.

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Police allege Sydney woman was choked, sexually assaulted by Sri Lankan cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka after meeting on Tinder

NSW police facts sheet filed with Downing Centre local court alleges woman feared for her life during alleged attack in Rose Bay home

A Sydney woman has said she feared for her life on a date after meeting Sri Lankan cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka on Tinder.

The woman, who cannot be identified, was allegedly sexually assaulted four times in her Rose Bay home on 2 November after going out for drinks and pizza with the international sports star.

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