Hawks fight back to take win from Crows
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News.com.au
30 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Keen angler Nash Rawiller was happy to return to Rockhampton for a few rides over the northern carnival
Top Sydney jockey Nash Rawiller's eyes lit up when he watched a couple of fishermen haul in a huge barramundi within a stone's throw from a Rockhampton waterfront pub. Rawiller was sinking a few beers with his manager Liam Prior and local race-caller Russell 'Brolga' Leonard at the Criterion Hotel on the banks of the Fitzroy River on the day after The Archer in early May. Rawiller had ridden the Bjorn Baker -trained Sandpaper to fifth place in the $1 million slot race and was unwinding on the Monday before flying back to Sydney. 'Nash had never been to Rockhampton before and he just wanted a day out on the Monday before going home,' Leonard explained. 'We were just walking down to our local hotel and there was a couple of guys in a tinnie pulling in a barra. 'Nash is a mad fisherman and he said to me 'unbelievable, they catch barra just in here'. 'We got talking and as the afternoon wore on, he said 'do you go out fishing out wide here?' and I said 'yeah we can go out'.' The 50-year-old Rawiller then suggested coming up again to Australia's beef capital for the Rockhampton Cup Racing Carnival. 'I said to him 'it's all good but that's Caloundra Cup Day, you'll be in demand there'. He did say 'I've ridden plenty of winners at Caloundra, I don't need to go there',' Leonard recalled. 'We always try to get a guest rider up here. We even got Willie Pike three years ago and he rode here for the two days.' Rockhampton Jockey Club organised the trip for Rawiller, who was the guest speaker at the Calcutta dinner last Friday night. Rawiller ended up riding in four races at Callaghan Park on Friday, when he won on $1.40 favourite Lone Artist for Liam Birchley, and just once on Saturday (third on Nagamie). He was meant to ride the Chris Waller -trained Caboche in the $150,000 Rockhampton Cup, won by Logan Street Lion, but the gelding was scratched and will now likely head to the $80,000 South Grafton Cup (1600m) next Sunday. 'I love my fishing so I was keen to get back there,' 71-time Group 1 champion Rawiller said about Rockhampton. 'And the track is as good as any I've ridden on. It's got a lovely, sweeping turn and the 600m straight is one of the longest in Australia, I believe. 'It's nice to do these things to refresh the mind so it's a bit of a working holiday for me. Hear him roar! ðŸ¦� Logan Street Lion claims the TAB Rockhampton Cup! ðŸ�† @ParkCallaghan — SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) July 5, 2025 'I've been on a bit of a break already so I'm just giving the body a rest because I was getting a bit rundown. 'I'm already starting to feel better and it doesn't take me long to get the itch back.' Leonard said the two-day fishing expedition would take Rawiller to Port Clinton, Island Head Creek and Pearl Bay, where major joint military exercises are often staged between Australia and the US.
ABC News
38 minutes ago
- ABC News
Tour de France stage 1 chaotic, Ben O'Connor crashes, echelons hit main contenders
The Tour de France cannot be won on the first of its 21 stages — but it sure can be lost. Australian Ben O'Connor was one of several riders caught up in crashes on an incident-filled 184.9-kilometre stage starting and finishing in the northern city of Lille Métropole. After Marijn van den Berg crashed in front of him, O'Connor had nowhere to go except over his handlebars, coming down heavily. Fellow Aussie Kaden Groves, who was riding alongside O'Connor, had a lucky escape, bunny-hopping on his front wheel twice before scooting past the stricken van den Berg. "We expected it to be crazy, particularly when we saw the wind direction," Jayco AlUla directeur sportif Matt Hayman told the team's in-house media after the race. "The first day of the Tour de France is always going to be testing, so it lived up to expectations. "Ben did a good job. He was there in the front with [teammate] Luca Mezgec. "Actually, he was trying to stay out of trouble at that moment and sit at the back of the group … and they crashed in front of him and he went over the top." The Jayco AlUla leader lost no time as the crash happened inside the final 5km, and the 29-year-old appeared relaxed in footage showing him warming down after the finish. However, the long-term impacts of losing some skin so early in the race may yet hamper his chances. Official reports stated O'Connor suffered trauma to his right knee. "You never want to crash in the Tour de France," Hayman said. "It could have been a lot worse. He's got some skin off. He's obviously banged up, but he gets the same time as that lead group, so not a bad time for him on GC." The commissaires also fined Jayco AlUla 1,200 Swiss francs ($2,300) for various faux pars during the race: 700 francs for "sticky bottles" — dragging a rider along while holding a bottle from the team car — and 500 francs for Hayman not respecting the instructions of the commissaires on the route. Jasper Philipsen won the stage in a reduced bunch sprint to claim the first yellow jersey of the race, with Aussie lead-out man Groves playing a vital role in the Alpecin-Deceuninck sprint train. Raced at a break-neck speed throughout (the average speed was 47.5 kilometres per hour), the race was split late on after two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard's Visma-Lease a Bike squad put the power down to split the main bunch. "There were echelons and the race split with about 25km to go," Groves told SBS. "That's what we expected actually, and we had numbers in the front [group] who could dictate the race." Favourites Tadej Pogačar and Vingegaard both finished in that lead group, gaining 39 seconds over the group containing other hopefuls Remco Evenepoel and Primož Roglič. "We fell asleep a bit and, I must say, we were a bit too relaxed," Evenepoel told media at the finish. "We kind of believed that the race was just going to be a sprint. "[A] big mistake by us, and it's a pretty unfortunate situation." Olympic champion Evenepoel was perhaps fortunate to stay on his bike. The frantic chase saw plenty of rough and tumble in the peloton which briefly forced the Belgian off the road. The nerves were clear from early in the race, when Mattéo Vercher and Benjamin Thomas crashed while contesting the bonus point at the second categorised climb of the day, although both were able to continue. Others were not so lucky. The fetishisation of crashes in some sections of the media, particularly the Netflix documentary Tour de France Unchained, has been a bone of contention for fans of the sport. But their impacts cannot be ignored. Ineos Grenadiers time trial specialist Filippo Ganna was the first rider to abandon the tour after a crash early in the race. The hour record holder initially remounted but it was later reported that he began to show concussion symptoms and was ordered to stop. Later, Stefan Bissegger and Thibau Nys also crashed, with Bissegger also abandoning the Tour. Nys told Eurosport the crash was "very nasty" and he might struggle to start the race tomorrow. "I had prepared myself for the worst, and I think that's what I got," he said. Facing riders on stage 2 is a 209.1km hilly ride from Lauwin-Planque to Boulogne-sur-mer, where the riders cut through the village of Montreuil-sur-mer, where the hero of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, Jean Valjean, was the fictional mayor.
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Queensland Maroons captain Cameron Munster loses father days out from State of Origin III
The death of Cameron Munster's father Steven has come as devastating news just days out from the State of Origin series decider. The Queensland captain, in a brave decision to honour his dad, will still lead the Maroons on Wednesday night after taking time away to grieve with his family before preparing to lead the side in what will be an emotion-charged occasion. Maroons coach Billy Slater made a statement to media on Sunday morning. "Unfortunately we woke to the sad news of the passing of Cameron Munster's father Steven Munster overnight. Cam will exit camp to be with his family before rejoining his team for the game on Wednesday," Slater said. "On behalf of myself, our footy team and the state of Queensland we send our thoughts, our love and condolences to Steven Munster's family and friends, in particular his wife Debbie, his daughter Danielle and of course his son Cameron." Days before the passing of his father, Munster spoke of his desire to lead the Maroons to what would be a historic victory. No Maroons side in 45 years has lost the first game and won the next two away from home. The 26-24 win in Perth in game two is the first box ticked. Munster won his first decider on debut in 2017 and was superb. He backed that up in 2020 in a 20-14 win in Brisbane, after which he was named the Wally Lewis Medal winner as player of the series, despite missing most of game two after being concussed in the opening minutes. Both of those games were in Brisbane. He has played just one previous decider in Sydney, in 2019 when a last-minute James Tedesco try won it 26-20 for NSW. Munster, 30, was man of the match in his first game as skipper in game two and is determined to back that up in his 21st Origin match. "There's a lot riding on it and there's a lot of history that needs to be broken, but things tend to get broken," Munster said. "I'm probably going to need to stand up again for game three and I'll make sure I do. "I have played in a decider in Sydney when we just got beaten by them in the last two minutes. We had come back in a miraculous way. I think we were down 14 points at one stage, but then Tedesco scored and broke our hearts. "I know they're a good quality outfit and we're a good quality outfit too. We keep speaking about bringing our best game and we brought it for the first 40 minutes [in Perth] but it's going to take a whole 80-minute performance in Sydney." The Maroons have retained the Origin shield in a Sydney decider on four occasions, with wins in 1998, 2008 and 2013, along with a draw in 2002 when Dane Carlaw scored in the final minute. Munster indicated the Maroons would relish being the underdogs in Sydney. "In Perth, there was a lot of people that wrote us off, so there'll be a lot of people writing us off for game three," he said recently. "We can only control what we control in the week and get our preparation right. "We've got to go down there and try and play our hearts out and give it everything."
