Yao Ming tips Rockets to be top team in NBA, endorses Yang ahead of draft
Yao Ming tips Rockets to be top team in NBA, endorses Yang ahead of draft
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News.com.au
3 hours ago
- News.com.au
Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir wants the AFL to intervene ahead of SCG clash unhappy with the surface
Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir has real concern over the playing surface at the SCG, saying it was unsafe to play on ahead of his team's clash there in round 17. Longmuir was in the stands in Sydney on Friday night when the Western Bulldogs beat the Swans. He didn't like what he saw. Visibly, up to a third of the turf on the SCG looked below AFL standard and players continued to lose their feet. At one stage, the Bulldogs Bailey Williams got caught in the turf and there were fears he'd injured his knee. He left the ground, but returned. But the risk of serious injury seemed real. There is plenty of rain heading Sydney's way during this week as well. Longmuir joined the chorus of football people slamming the surface. 'I watched the game on Friday night, and we'll be led by the AFL, but the moment my brain goes to, 'that's unsafe for players', I have a concern,' he said. 'And I went there on Friday night. I thought at times it was unsafe to play on. 'I think the Bailey Williams one, we just can't put players out there and risk their safety if the ground's not right. 'And I thought it was a bit unsafe the other night, especially down the left hand side. 'I don't make those decisions. Fully understand that both teams are playing on the same surface. 'So if the AFL deem it safe to play, we'll play, and I won't speak another moment of it. But thought it was unsafe the other night.' Longmuir said the AFL approached the Dockers to look at the ground, but as yet there had been no discussions about changing venues. He said he expected Fremantle and the AFL to go back and forth during the week ahead of Sunday's clash. Longmuir will also keep an eye on dual Brownlow medallist, Nat Fyfe, during the week. Despite a close game against St Kilda, which the Dockers won by 12 points, the Dockers did not activate their sub, Fyfe. With the Saints dominating clearances, he would have been handy. "There's been some challenges with the surface..." 😬 Dean Cox was asked post-game on the SCG's turf in tonight's #AFLSwansDogs clash. MORE ðŸ'‰ — Fox Footy (@FOXFOOTY) June 27, 2025 But Longmuir said Fyfe told the coaching staff during the third term that his calf didn't feel right. So they opted to leave him on the pine. 'Yeah, it came up to the box early in the third quarter that he had some calf awareness,' Longmuir said. 'He tried to warm up at half-time and he did some run-throughs and then he felt some awareness in his calf. 'So not sure whether we could have put him on if we had an injury, but since we didn't have an injury and didn't have any players really flagging, the safe option was to just leave him out of the game. 'It's a bit of a concern, of course. But we'll see how he pulls up tomorrow, get it scanned if we need to, and see where it takes us. 'But from what I understand, it's pretty minor and we didn't have to bring him on.'
ABC News
5 hours ago
- ABC News
NBA draftee Lachlan Olbrich's 'surreal' journey from suburban Adelaide to Chicago Bulls
Paths to the top entail hard work, as Michael Jordan knew only too well. In a famous utterance for a footwear commercial, Jordan — who is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketballers to have ever laced up a pair of trainers — spoke candidly about the role defeat had played in his victories. "I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career," the NBA five-time MVP and six-time champion admitted in the ad. "I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. "And that is why I succeed." If the Chicago Bulls are today a household name not just in the US but across the world, it is largely because of the exploits of Jordan during the glory years of the 1990s. "There are 30 franchises in the NBA — a lot of them are pretty anonymous to the general public but the Chicago Bulls are synonymous with basketball," reflected Dean Nyberg. Nyberg is an Adelaide-based coach who has spent years in and around basketball, and his connection to the US club of which he speaks so highly has, in a small but significant way, just been strengthened. In the second round of last week's NBA draft, one of Nyberg's former young charges, Adelaide local Lachlan Olbrich, was selected by the Chicago Bulls — the club of fellow Australian Josh Giddey — at pick 55. "I've spoken to Lachie really briefly since it happened and he was very much [of the view that] this is fantastic," Nyberg said. Nyberg, who is currently head coach with the West Adelaide Bearcats men's team in the NBL1 competition, was previously a junior coaching director at Southern Tigers at Morphett Vale in Adelaide's south. He worked with Olbrich at both clubs. "It's pretty surreal just to think the mornings at Morphett Vale have culminated in this and everything that's ahead of him now. It's pretty cool," Nyberg reflected. Aged just 21, the 208-centimetre Olbrich has already notched up an impressive series of accomplishments. Entering the NBL as a development player with the Adelaide 36ers, he joined the Illawarra Hawks in 2023 and, during the NBL off-season, played for the Canterbury Rams in the New Zealand NBL, where he was named league MVP. He has also played college basketball in the US, and is among four Australians to have been selected in this year's NBA draft. Sport is filled with stories of youthful precocity — of prodigies who excel from the get-go — but Olbrich was, his old coach said, something of a "late developer". Nyberg said there were times in Olbrich's junior years when he was "overlooked for various representative and state teams". "His work ethic never wavered all throughout that entire period," he said. "A lot of other kids would have had setbacks and gone, 'Maybe this isn't for me'. He was just very focused on, 'Well, I'm going to show them.'" Olbrich has also known the devastation of bereavement — his father Greg, a keen club basketballer, died last year after collapsing on court during a game. "Greg was his biggest champion, his biggest fan," Nyberg said. "Even when he was suffering those setbacks as a junior, Greg and his [Lachlan's] mother were steadfast in their belief in him and everything they did was to try and put him in a position to succeed. "I think at times Greg believed it even more than Lachie did, that it would happen, so I think Lachie would be very proud of how he would make his father feel, looking down to see that." According to Nyberg, one of Olbrich's greatest attributes is his capacity for perseverance. He said the 21-year-old would already be focusing on "moving onto the next thing, which is getting into camp with the Bulls and then playing in their summer league team". "That'll determine whether he makes the roster for this year or they sort of put him aside for this year and take him on next year." In other words, while NBA selection is an achievement in itself, it is not so much an endpoint as a new beginning. Further success will involve hard work along the way.
Sydney Morning Herald
16 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Sitting pretty but winning ugly. Should the Pies be worried or should everyone else?
Dan Houston was the Magpies major off-season recruit, but to date – other than being best on ground in his first match in black and white – has been good but not great. Lachie Schultz, too, struggled in his first season at Collingwood last year, adjusting to their style of play. But between injuries this year, he has been very good. Schultz now understands where he best fits and the role he plays. With Houston the player and team are still fine-tuning that. Collingwood likes handball chains in defence to find a free player to kick it inside their forward 50 metres. By bringing Houston in at the same time they moved Josh Daicos behind the ball, they now have two players designed to be their architects and distributors. To date, Daicos has been commonly used more than Houston in that role. Houston's numbers are slightly down on his averages at Port Adelaide over the past few years – 17 touches a game at Collingwood down on 23 a game for Port. He has also had slightly fewer marks, tackles, inside 50s and rebound 50s a game at Collingwood. The numbers are not alarming. They are partly explained by the fact two different teams play two different styles and ask different things of Houston in his role. He has not been poor – no Houston, we do not have a problem – but he has not been as influential as he was at Port. The flip side of this is there is more growth in his game yet at Collingwood. His fellow defensive recruit Harry Perryman has been the better of the two additions to the team so far. Perryman has been excellent. Loading Goodbye to the bye The AFL has to say bye to the bye in its current format. Five shortened rounds in a row – nearly a quarter of the fixture – sucks the life out of the season. Thursday nights have taken free-to-air footy off Saturdays, but the bye rounds have also created a black hole on Sundays, often with just two games. The byes have also meant for a lean football diet in Melbourne. In the past three weeks there have been two, three and two games each weekend in Melbourne. With football played across four days, the reduced number of games from byes leaves the fixture stretched and thin for quality. This is compounded by the fact there are a large number of poor-to-mediocre teams this year. Frankly, the logic of accepting byes are necessary is baffling – players are paid to play, so that's what they should do. But that argument was lost on the collective bargaining negotiating table years ago. So we have to live with each team getting a mid-season bye, and find a better solution to the current long winter crawl. One full week off for all clubs doesn't hold great appeal without something to fill the void – an AFLW State of Origin game could and would work, but for the fact it is out-of-season for that competition. At least it is at the moment – the timing of the AFLW season has long been a moving feast. Playing just one or two games – Friday and Saturday nights – for one week and giving the rest of the comp a week off was tried before but dismissed. It was felt to be too empty for that one week, but now feels like it might have been a better alternative than what we presently have. Then again, this is a decision to be made by the people who brought us injury-ravaged, callow Essendon on Thursday or Friday nights in four of the next eight rounds. Oh, and they still have to fit them in during the last round – which has yet to be scheduled – for an extra game against Gold Coast for the cyclone-postponed opening-round match. Loading This has happened despite the AFL having the flexibility of a rolling fixture. Clearly the league over-estimated Essendon and Carlton, for that matter, in their scheduling of the second half of this season. The AFL has been focused on change at headquarters with their executive. A change to the bye, better fixturing, servicing the TV-viewing fans – those who pay and those who don't – with football might be a good start for the new executive team. Lynch crosses line The term white line fever might have been coined for Tom Lynch. Off the field there is no more charming, genial figure. He is like an old labrador. On the field he is a different person, more rottweiler than lab. It is like he releases his week's worth of suppressed anger and aggression in a two-hour window. Ordinarily, this helped give him a presence, on Sunday it simply made him look like an angry old man. His hit on Jordan Butts – we've all seen the footage – was a swing in frustration. His statistics for the first half read: zero kicks, zero handballs, zero marks, zero tackles, five frees against. If you read stats alone, you would not have known he was out there but for five frees he gave away. If you watched the game, you certainly knew he was there because he was the one waving his arms around, whinging and carrying on at the umpires. He threw Butts to the ground minutes before he struck him in the head. He was angry that Adelaide players were dropping in the hole in front of him, and he wanted them to know it. Oh, they knew it. Injury and age has stopped him being the player he once was. His team is a long way from the team it was when he was in his prime. His hit on Butts looked to be the lashing out of a man raging against the fading light. How many weeks will he get for it? It looked like he meant to punch him in the head, and he succeeded, so it was intentional, not careless, and it was high. What was the impact? Who knows? But the potential to injure was very high. It should, and probably will, go straight to the tribunal. Will his likely suspension matter in the context of Richmond's season? They play Geelong next week. Ordinarily, you would say missing Lynch would hurt them, but not if you're going off his stats against Adelaide. Humphrey quietly makes a mark Mac Andrew got the big bucks. So, too, will Matt Rowell after confirming his new contract this week. But Bailey Humphrey is quietly becoming the player every team is going to want because he is now turning into the player he was projected to be. He is naturally a player with strut. But for his early years in the AFL he tried too hard to live up to the comparisons with Dustin Martin. Now he is playing like he knows he belongs in the AFL. In a midfield where the focus is Rowell and Noah Anderson, Humphrey is the disruptor. He has the burst of speed from the contest the Suns needed.
