Sports league

I think it's first versus fifth in the, in the Resi's.

The only thing I would say with that is West Perth have like, they had, I think they've got like 11 guys that have played League Footy this year playing Resi's, so it'll be a tough one.

Yeah.

I think Swans are gonna be too good.

Boys, we appreciate your contribution helping kids play sport.

All right, Skeet, Revo, Good Stuff Only.

This one has come in from the Geelong Football Umpires League.

Mm.

The first is Dame Noeline Todua's reappointment as Silver Ferns coach.

And speaking of our elite women's teams, the Wellington Phoenix women are stacked ahead of the new A-League women's season.

I know we've got a netball voice on the pod today as well.

Yeah,

The overseas contingent look amazing.

We've got some returning players as well in terms of Samba, who we didn't really see much of last year, but she's a super striker.

Honestly, Darce, I know we shouldn't burden them with favouritism, But this team has to be A-League women's favourites.

They are stacked.

So how are they going to balance that? I'm really curious how they're going to manage that.

Well, I think Rui Borges came out this week and he said that their priority, no doubt, is the Liga.

You always hear that from managers to kind of like manage expectations by the fans.

I think even Marco Silva this evening was asked that question.

Let's say one of the big powers in England, let's say a Premier League club, but they're also playing on the weekend.

one of the, you know, big three.

Are you one of those fans that's like, no, you play the best team possible for the Europa League quarterfinals, or you're like, no, let's take it easy, because at the end of the day, we need to worry more about the Liga.

Where do you fall in that as a fan?

So they got married earlier this year.

She will miss the upcoming A-League women's season, but she will remain closely involved with the Sky Blues throughout their campaign.

Coming up on the show tomorrow night on Sports Today, I'll be back in the chair filling in for Horsey, Alana Ferguson to preview the NRLW finals, and of course the great man Mark Bosnich will catch up to chat all things football heading into the weekend.

This has been Sports Today.

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Around the League, and now that we're partnered with DraftKings, should we do a few picks from Around the League?

Yeah.

And funny enough, we're sending a text message.

Uh, so I like the Bucs to cover the spread.

I mean, th- this team, lot of turnovers, which one thing I'd will say is interesting.

I meant to bring this up Around the League.

Every team that won the turnover battle won the game-

Alors, je me fais l'avocate du diable une seconde.

Certains pourraient se dire que la Ligue a pris une grande décision historique puisqu'ils ont interdit le sponsoring des bookmakers sur le devant des maillots à partir de la saison 2026-2027.

On pourrait se dire que ça prouve qu'ils nettoient le système, non ?

Eh bien, le rapport pulvérise littéralement cette idée.

D'un côté, le fan voit le nom du bookmaker douze fois par minute.

C'est omniprésent, ça clignote partout.

Mais de l'autre côté, est-ce qu'il voit jamais les pare-feu de cybersécurité de la Ligue ? Est-ce qu'il voit les procédures d'audit de l'arbitrage ? Ben non.

L'intégrité, elle, est invisible.

But now I've got the stats.

He played in 35 out of 38 possible games for Royal Antwerp in the Belgian League last year, which is about similar to MLS, I would say.

How many minutes...

Of the full 90, did he play on average?

Yeah, pretty much the best we can put out there at this point with all the injuries.

And, you know, maybe I'd put Chara in there, but you've got to rest old man Chara, you know, he can't be using them all up.

he was on a minutes restriction from this game coming back from injury but as we'll find out soon he has to come in early anyway yeah getting into the pre-game I was really disappointed by how empty this was we've got a new manager we had a fantastic 5-4 game entertaining Marty says you know he'd rather win 5-4 than 1-0 you know he's trying to bring entertaining football to the masses in Portland but seems like they're all watching NFL Red Zone because it's the first game of the season in the in the American Football League

Yeah, probably it being Seattle as well, kind of pulled a lot of fans of both teams, right?

And I think last year they can quite plausibly say that's exactly what they did.

Whether or not you think the League's Cup is a big trophy, they they acquitted themselves well throughout the season.

Yes, they did go out in the in the first round of the playoffs, but they didn't lose a game.

They looked, you know, I think they can quite credibly say they were the better team in that playoff series.