Almost half a million footy fans lose their minds as one of the AFL's brightest young stars reveals his surprising hidden talent
It comes as the Tigers star might need surgery after re-injuring his left hamstring just moments into his return on Saturday against Geelong.
The Tigers later issued a statement on Monday to confirm that his season was over.
But prior to his side's clash against the Cats, the 18-year-old dropped a video of himself performing a cover of 'Madeline', by US singer Zach Bryan on social media.
The youngster stunned, as he showcased his flawless vocals while playing an acoustic guitar.
It is the first video the footy star has published on his Tik Tok channel, and garnered over 52,000 likes on the clip, while the clip has been played over 561,000 times.
'This is dope,' Collingwood star Isaac Quaynor commented, while others were left shocked by his hidden talent.
'Woah, Sam Lalor can sing,' wrote another TikTok user.
'Sam you're actually amazing,' another said.
It comes after Adelaide star Izak Rankine had dazzled footy fans by showing off his vocals, belting out Maroon 5's 'She Will be Loved' during a live television performance ahead of Gather Round in April, and some fans demanded the Tiger's star and the Crows midfielder.
One added: 'Just waiting on a Sam Lalor x Izak Rankine Collab.'
Iconic social media duo Shepmates commented: 'What can't this man do.'
Lalor has succumbed to a hamstring injury for the third time, previously injuring it before he was drafted last year and then in the May Dreamtime at the 'G match against Essendon.
The Tigers were cautious, holding him back for a week, but he limped off GMHBA Stadium after tackling Tom Atkins early in the first quarter.
Footy fans took to the comments to laud the young Richmond star on his incredible talent
'We are all devastated for the young man, and I am sure our fans are too,' Richmond high-performance manager Ben Serpell said.
'The injury mechanism here for Sam this time was very different to his original injury mechanism.
'He sustained the injury in a tackle. I think anyone who throws their body at the game as he did, and credit to him for doing that, is going to put their body at some risk irrespective of their injury history.'
Given Lalor's terrible injury history, he might undergo surgery on the hamstring.
'We are a bit concerned about the integrity of the hamstring structure,' Serpell said.
'As part of that we will consult a few surgeons over the next little while to see if there is some surgical intervention available for us.'
Elsewhere, Nik Cox's concussion history has also ended his AFL season while two other Bombers will need surgery, with injury-plagued Zach Reid's season cut short again due to last week's hamstring injury.
Jye Caldwell suffered a syndesmosis injury in Saturday's loss to Gold Coast and will be out indefinitely as he goes under the knife.
Sydney also received bad news on Monday, with forward Joel Amartey likely out for the rest of the season with a high-grade adductor strain, and Tom Papley sidelined for two to three weeks with a hamstring injury.
Adelaide forward Josh Rachele has avoided ligament damage, but he will still need knee surgery after landing awkwardly in Sunday's win over Melbourne. The Crows are unsure when he will return.
The AFL's concussion panel, which last month recommended West Coast defender Jeremy McGovern should retire on medical grounds, gave Cox hope he will resume his playing career.
While Cox will not play this year due to his concussion problems, the panel gave him a pathway to make an AFL comeback after meeting him last month.
Cox is, though, upbeat about his future after being told by the concussion panel he can resume his AFL career.
'While I'm disappointed that I won't return to the field for the remainder of the 2025 season, this time away from the game will be used to focus fully on my health, recovery, and building the strongest possible foundation heading into pre-season,' Cox said.
'I've learned a lot about myself over the past few months, and I'm more motivated than ever to get back to doing what I love.
'My focus now is on continuing to work closely with specialists and the club to make sure I'm in the best place physically and mentally to return to football.'
The Swans, who beat Fremantle on Sunday, confirmed their injury news in a brief statement on Monday night, saying Amartey would be out for eight to 12 weeks.
With seven home-and-away rounds left before the pre-finals bye, Amartey could be fit in time for the start of September, but it would take a remarkable run by Sydney to reach the play-offs.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
2 hours ago
- Times
The Zach Bryan effect: Why country music fans are flocking to Nashville
It's 1am on Lower Broadway, Nashville. In a neon-lit, honky-tonk twangy country music fills the room and a cowboy hat tips in my direction. Fried bologna sandwiches sizzle on the grill and pints of Pabst Blue Ribbon line the bar of Robert's Western World, and I am, without a hint of irony, having the time of my life. It's an iconic bar that boasts a sturdy rotation of world-class musicians — Lana Del Rey performed here in 2023 — where you can slow-dance with a wild-haired stranger and maybe fall in love for a song or two. I've crossed over 6,000km and one ocean to be here, but it feels oddly familiar. Last April Aer Lingus launched a direct flight from Dublin to Nashville, a new bridge between Ireland's musical roots and this southern American city that beats with a surprising kind of kinship. It's easy to overlook just how deeply country music resonates in Ireland. Carried across the Atlantic by 18th-century settlers, Irish fiddle tunes, melancholic ballads and raucous jigs found new life in the Appalachian mountains. The storytelling tradition — tales of lost love, exile and hard luck — flourished in isolated communities, blending with African-American blues and frontier gospel. The lilting strains of the Irish reel became the backbone of the American fiddle tune, while barn dances echoed ceili nights. Back home, the Country and Irish music scene emerged from the showband era, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s where we were two-stepping to Big Tom and Philomena Begley at packed dance halls and GAA club fundraisers from Dingle to Dungloe. Then there was Garth Brooks. Blame it all on his (Irish) roots, the Oklahoma showman, with his ten-gallon hat and heart-on-sleeve ballads, struck a chord with Irish audiences in the 1990s. Brooks became a phenomenon and when his planned Croke Park gigs were cancelled in 2014 there was national uproar. Today Ireland's affection for polished country music has swelled even more and just last month Zach Bryan, a 29-year-old also from Oklahoma, performed three sold-out shows at Phoenix Park, with a total attendance of more than 180,000 people. To get underneath the skin of country on home soil, you can leave Dublin mid-afternoon, clear US immigration before you board, and be sipping whiskey by nightfall at the pulsing, sweating, guitar-strumming belly of Tennessee. Dubbed 'Music City' Nashville's identity is steeped in a legacy that sings from every street corner and backroom bar. The moniker's origins trace from 1873, when Queen Victoria allegedly dubbed the Fisk Jubilee Singers' voices as angelic, saying they must be from a 'music city'. The name stuck — and Nashville has made good on the promise. The city's soundtrack hums with a musical heartbeat unlike anywhere else. It's a creative crucible where genres collide — country, bluegrass, gospel, rock, indie and Americana converge in writers' rooms and studios. Everyone, it seems, is a musician or knows one. The result is a city that doesn't just play music; it lives it, breathes it, and, most importantly, writes it. Beyoncé recorded bits of Cowboy Carter here, while Del Rey, who played a sold-out show at Dublin's Aviva stadium last month, has recorded some of her forthcoming country-tinged album in studios in the city. Elvis Presley recorded more than 200 tracks in RCA Studio B, a shadowy temple where legends were made and souls bartered in sweat and song. 'It was late, everyone was getting tired but Elvis wanted to do one more song,' the guide reveals. 'He got the lights turned right down low, went up to the mike, closed his eyes and started singing.' She then turns down those same lights, presses a button and Elvis sounds like he's in the room singing Are You Lonesome Tonight? It's both chilling and exhilarating at the same time. Around the corner is an apartment where, legend has it, Roy Orbison wrote Oh, Pretty Woman when he looked out the window and saw a girl walking past. Your visit to RCA Studio B is included in the same ticket price for the guided tour at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum ( €45.30), which is a must-visit — it is part museum, part shrine. Its sleek, modernist façade belies the raw, storied soul housed within. Hank Williams's handwritten lyrics sit alongside Elvis Presley's flamboyant Cadillac. There's a display featuring key pieces from Taylor Swift's Eras tour. The exhibit includes a sparkly purple ballgown, known as the 'cupcake dress', and a one-of-a-kind koi fish guitar. Among the other gems is Johnny Cash's first black stage suit and Patsy Cline's cowgirl costume, battered acoustic guitars and gilded Grammy awards, each artefact telling a fragment of the larger country music narrative. Just down the road is the Ryman Auditorium — the so-called Mother Church of Country Music. It's hallowed ground. The acoustics are so good you could whisper a Liam Clancy ballad on stage and still make a grown man weep in Row Z. The world-renowned Irish tenor John McCormack performed there in 1916 — cut to 2025 and Dermot Kennedy is performing in October ( €30.65 for a self-guided tour). You can't visit Nashville without a night on Broadway, where the city's image explodes into technicolour spectacle — think Temple Bar crossed with Las Vegas. A strip baptised in bourbon, honky-tonk, rhinestone jumpsuits and more cowboy hats than a John Wayne fever dream. Pedal taverns full of whooping bridesmaids from Indiana, LED signs flashing 'Cold Beer & Country Music', endless variations of the same bar: boots on the wall, fiddle on the stage, deep-fried everything, €12 margarita in a plastic cup and bands belting out tunes from Johnny Cash to Randy Travis. I spotted more than one inflatable horse. It's a glorious riot of fun. Everyone's drinking hard seltzer; Wagon Wheel gets a few airings by girls who queue to take selfies under a neon boot. Pop in for the sheer Americana of it all. In a peculiarly Nashville quirk, many of these bars are owned by country stars. Blake Shelton's Ole Red, Miranda Lambert's Casa Rosa, Luke Bryan's rooftop joint, Jason Aldean's bar and grill, Dierks Bentley's Whiskey Row and Jelly Roll's Goodnight Nashville all line the strip. Even Garth Brooks, Ireland's adopted son, opened his Friends in Low Places honky-tonk last year. 'The walls here have seen more tears and drunken confessions than a thousand confessional booths combined,' a wannabe cowboy, who is on a stag from New York, shouts in my ear. There are also gems such as Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, where you'll hear musicians so good you'll wonder why they're not headlining festivals. Spend any time with locals and you realise that the country clichés are mostly for visitors. Nashville's working musicians aren't all strumming banjos in cowboy hats. They live in neighbourhoods like East Nashville or 12 South, drink craft beers in converted garages, and their wardrobes owe more to vintage denim than western wear. It's Jack White's adopted city. Sheryl Crow, Kacey Musgraves, Keith Urban and his wife, Nicole Kidman, Kings of Leon, and the Black Keys all live here too. Taylor Swift owns an apartment and a mansion in Nashville. Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel also join Oprah Winfrey and the like who have planted roots here. Reese Witherspoon owns the popular Draper James boutique in the 12 South area. Think beards and tattoos, bespoke denims from Imogene + Willie, leather jackets and vinyl records spinning classic outlaw country alongside blistering indie rock. Nobody struts. • 15 of the best things to do in Nashville And, if you still think Nashville's culinary reputation begins and ends with fried chicken and barbecue, you're missing the best part. While hot chicken is indeed a rite of passage — Prince's ( if you want the real deal, Hattie B's ( for a friendlier queue — the city's restaurants are world-class. Locust, run by the Dublin chef Trevor Moran, formerly of Noma, is one of the most exciting places I've eaten. It has received accolades such as Food & Wine magazine's 2022 Restaurant of the Year and was featured on The New York Times' 2022 Restaurant List. Moran's hands have been blessed by the gods of fermentation and fire. Every plate is a manifesto against mediocrity. Feast on exquisite dumplings, beef tartare and delicate kakigori, a Japanese-style shaved ice ( Over in Germantown, Rolf and Daughters does knockout small plates and pasta — scallop crudo, sourdough bread, tomato tart, cecamariti and linguine with mussels have garnered much praise. The cooking is boundary-pushing without being smug and the cocktails are top-notch too ( For all Nashville's modern buzz and indie dive bars, it's worth anchoring yourself in a slice of old-school Southern elegance — and they don't come with more stories than the Hermitage Hotel. Opened in 1910, it's a grand, beaux-arts pile with sweeping staircases, soaring ceilings and a lobby that feels like it belongs in a F Scott Fitzgerald novel. Its history is rich with Tennessee lore: politicians plotted Prohibition here, country stars drank in the Oak Bar, and in recent years it's become a discreet bolt hole for visiting A-listers dodging Broadway's chaos. The rooms are enormous, the bathrooms marble-clad, and the famous art deco men's restroom in the lobby (complete with lime-green glass tiles and original 1930s fixtures) is a listed attraction in itself. Even if you're not staying, pop in for a cocktail at the bar or afternoon tea in the Veranda, beneath glittering chandeliers. It's a serene, old-world contrast to Nashville's grit and neon — and proof that the city knows how to do glamour as well as grit ( Away from the music, Nashville offers more surprises. Centennial Park is home to a full-scale replica of the Parthenon, complete with a towering statue of Athena, and is as bonkers as it sounds. • Nashville grows up but retains its twinkle For the art lovers, check out the Frist Art Museum in a stunning art deco building that used to be the city's main post office (€17; Fancy some whiskey tasting? Located in Marathon Village, the Distillery Tour of Nelson's Green Brier Distillery takes you through the past, present and future of this storied distillery, (€21.40; Nashville is more than its stereotypes. It's cooler, scruffier, grander, funnier and it might just be the best American city you've never really considered. And crucially — unlike over-touristy US cities like New York or Boston — Nashville still feels like it's yours to discover. Yes, there are tourist traps and you might overpay for a pint somewhere. But you could also have a night that ends with a woman named Peggy teaching you how to line dance, and I promise you'll be talking about it for years. Aer Lingus flies direct from Dublin airport to Nashville, with fares starting from €499 return.. The airport can also be used for connecting flights within the US, Demelza de Burca was a guest of
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Former NRL star Cooper Johns mocks Melbourne Storm halfback Jahrome Hughes for his highbrow alcohol preference - 'laughed in his face'
Cooper Johns and Jahrome Hughes were once teammates at the Melbourne Storm - but that didn't stop the KIIS FM radio identity from mocking the decorated halfback for his highbrow alcohol choice. Speaking on the Johns Family podcast this week, Cooper set the scene from a recent night out in Townsville in far north Queensland. 'The Storm boys headed to (notorious local pub) the Mad Cow after beating the Cowboys,' Johns said. 'Everyone was having a good time, ordering drinks. '(At the moment) Jahrome has a bet going with (teammate) Cameron Munster on who can't drink the longest, I think there is a grand ($1000) on the line. 'There is an exception, Hughesy can have a bottle of red (when on a night out) on occasion. 'He calls himself Red Wine Rome, Jahrome is convinced he plays well if he has a little bit of red wine (in the lead-up and after NRL games.) 'Anyway, we were at the Mad Cow, and Jahrome goes up to the bar and asks the lady: 'what bottles of red do you have? 'She looked at him and said: 'this is the Mad don't have red. 'Then she laughed in his then so did all his teammates.' Johns - who was in Townsville visiting other footy players as well as the Storm squad - added that a red-faced Hughes was 'filthy', and then didn't touch a drop of alcohol for the rest of the night. Meanwhile, Hughes will be a key figure on Saturday afternoon when Newcastle host Melbourne at McDonald Jones Stadium. The Storm will be without Cameron Munster - who attended his dad's funeral this week - while fellow Queensland Origin hero Harry Grant is likely to be rested. NSW Blues prop Stefano Utoikamanu will back up for Craig Bellamy's team.
BBC News
3 hours ago
- BBC News
Lord Huron's The Night We Met: The 10-year-old song that keeps getting bigger
The final song on LA band Lord Huron's second album flew well under the mainstream radar when it was released in 2015. A decade on, it's one of the most unlikely success stories in and Dua Lipa may be two of the world's top pop stars, and both put out new albums last year, but their biggest songs of 2024 did not match the popularity of a 10-year-old track by Lord Huron, according to the official Billboard global end-of-year singles Charli XCX may have ruled Brat summer, but her biggest hit still wasn't as big as The Night We Met by Lord Huron in the UK last year.(The Night We Met was 35th on Billboard's global chart for 2024, above Dua's Houdini at 37 and Beyoncé's Texas Hold 'Em at 41; and it was 60th on the UK Official Chart Company's end-of-year rundown, while Charli's Guess was her biggest hit single at 73.)Meanwhile, the Lord Huron song is in the exclusive club of tracks that have racked up three billion Spotify plays - a club even Taylor Swift isn't in featuring The Night We Met have had another three billion views on TikTok, according to music data tracker Chartmetric."It's unbelievable," says Lord Huron frontman Ben Schneider of the popularity of his song, which has snowballed in recent years and shows no signs of slowing down. It's not unusual for old songs to become perennial favourites on streaming and social media (see The Killers, Fleetwood Mac and Tom Odell).What is much rarer is for it to happen to a track that was not a hit the first time around. And The Night We Met was nowhere aching ballad closed Lord Huron's second LP of indie folk, Strange Trails, which was well received by the group's loyal fanbase and critics, but only grazed the US album song was written as "a wistful reflection of a relationship, maybe with a sense of regret of where it's ended up and where it started", Schneider explains."I remember writing that song and feeling like it was a very concise way to end a record. And I remember my wife saying she thought there was something really special to it. But years went by and it wasn't like it was a hit or anything."And then things just started to happen with it." The first thing to happen was for it to be used on the soundtrack of Netflix teen drama 13 Reasons Why in first, Schneider was unsure whether to let it be on the soundtrack, but his wife told him: "Just do it, put it in the show."The couple were away in France at the time. "We were gone for a few months, and when we came back my manager was like, 'Something's happening with this song'," the singer recalls."I figured it'd be a quick spike and then fade away, but it's had this weird and pretty unheard of long tail, where rather than falling off into nothing, it fell off and then slowly ramped back up. And it just seems to keep going."Schneider recorded a duet version with Phoebe Bridgers for another 13 Reasons Why scene in 2018. Most of its subsequent lease of life has come from its popularity on has since defied musical gravity by becoming more popular every year. In 2024, it had almost a billion streams on Spotify - 57% more than the previous year, according to Chartmetric. The song's lyrics hark back to the start of a soured relationship: "I had all and then most of you / Some and now none of you / Take me back to the night we met."The song has been used in various TikTok memes, and Cosmopolitan put it top of its playlist of Sad Songs to Blast When You're Feeling Hella Moody. But it can fit a range of emotions and situations - Molly-Mae Hague used it to soundtrack her pregnancy announcement video in 2022."I think everyone can relate to that sort of story and can insert their own biography into it," Schneider reflects. "It's a vessel that fits a lot of people's personal stories. That's maybe why it's had such a lasting and slow-burning effect on people."The singer says The Night We Met's success came at a good moment in the band's career, "because we had already established ourselves in a lot of ways"."We already had a very devoted fanbase, so we weren't necessarily locked into a one-hit-wonder status by that song."Even though it far outstrips our other songs in terms of streaming and everything, we have enough going on otherwise to not feel like we're known only for that one singular moment, which is great." There is indeed a lot more to the band than one Huron began as a solo project in 2010, before Schneider assembled a full have released four albums of yearning, soulful and haunting Americana - with a fifth coming out on albums show Schneider's skill as a storyteller as well as a songwriter, often containing a running thread of a storyline. Magic jukebox The new LP is titled The Cosmic Selector Vol 1 - about a 1950s-style jukebox that can transport people to alternate universes, where life has turned out differently after small decisions in the past set them on different paths."I guess the past few years, as I've been getting a bit older, I've just been thinking about all the ways my own life could have gone, or could still go, or might have been," Schneider explains."Not with any sense of regret, but more with a sense of wonder at the sheer randomness of it all, and how different things could have been if very little things had gone another way."So I started thinking about a collection of songs representing that randomness - the lottery that one's lot in life is." But the controls of this magic jukebox are "busted", he says."Everything's mislabelled. What you think you're selecting might send you a completely different way, and everything's on the menu - sorrow, joy, horror, love - all the ways a life can go."So various characters, including one voiced by actress Kristen Stewart, are put through this dimension-hopping, life-scrambling retro randomiser. Some are based on Schneider himself, others are just made up, he has their own sliding doors moments when life could have turned out differently. For Schneider, there was the time a jazz combo played in an assembly at grade school."I remember watching the bass player and being like, 'I could be in a band some day', and a lightbulb turned on in my head," he says. "I think there's a myriad of moments like that where I could have chosen one thing and didn't, so it's fascinating to consider that."The moment in France when his wife persuaded him to allow The Night We Met to be used in 13 Reasons Why was another turning hit the jackpot in the lottery of life with that sleeper hit. He now hopes its popularity turns people on to the rest of their music."I want to keep trying to move forward and making new stuff," he says. "And hopefully something that we make will have the same kind of impact that song has had."And I think over time, stuff we have already made will, I hope."
