Hawthorn’s disciplined young side faces the reigning premier at the MCG, with Brisbane attempting to continue its pursuit of a historic third consecutive premiership.

When: Saturday September 19, 2026 at 5:15 pm

Where: MCG

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Hawthorn Hawks vs Brisbane Lions Odds

Hawthorn Hawks vs Brisbane Lions Preview

Hawthorn returns from a week’s rest after securing a home preliminary final with a disciplined 72-40 victory over minor premier Fremantle. James Sicily controlled the back half with 26 disposals, 12 intercepts and 10 marks as the Hawks restricted one of the competition’s strongest attacks. Brisbane reaches the MCG after defeating Adelaide 144-91, keeping its pursuit of a third consecutive premiership alive. Zac Bailey contributed 23 disposals and three goals, while the Lions expect Logan Morris to be available despite a calf concern late in the match. Brisbane dominated the Round 22 meeting between these teams 125-58 and has won its past seven Saturday matches at the MCG. Hawthorn’s pressure and extra recovery time should make this far closer, but Brisbane’s finals experience and scoring depth provide the stronger overall case.

The Roosters and Sharks renew their finals rivalry at Allianz Stadium, where the winner advances to face the Dolphins and the loser’s season comes to an end.

When: Saturday September 19, 2026 at 7:50 pm

Where: Allianz Stadium

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Sydney Roosters vs Cronulla Sharks Odds

Sydney Roosters vs Cronulla Sharks Preview

The Roosters and Sharks meet at Allianz Stadium with a preliminary final against the Dolphins awaiting the winner. Sydney enters after a 19-12 loss to Penrith, its fourth consecutive defeat, but retains the core of the side that beat Cronulla twice during the regular season. Salesi Foketi returns to the starting team because Egan Butcher is unavailable following a concussion, while Angus Crichton is named on the interchange. Cronulla kept its campaign alive with a 26-16 win over North Queensland and makes only one squad change, adding Jayden Berrell to the extended bench. The Sharks won last season’s elimination final between these clubs, but the Roosters answered with victories of 34-22 and 27-8 this year. Cronulla’s edge threats remain dangerous, particularly Sione Katoa, yet Sydney’s recent record in the matchup and home setting provide the stronger platform.

Lionel Messi scored the 100th goal of his Inter Miami career and Casemiro added another as Miami defeated Cruz Azul 2-0 on Wednesday night to win the Campeones Cup.

Messi opened the scoring in the 24th minute, heading in a cross from Luis Suárez for his 100th goal in 115 appearances across all competitions with Miami.

The milestone came against the same club Messi scored his first Inter Miami goal against. He scored on a stoppage-time free kick to beat Cruz Azul 2-1 in his Miami debut in July 2023.

Casemiro made it 2-0 in the 81st minute, heading in a corner from Messi.

The Brazilian midfielder has scored four goals, all headers, in his last five matches after scoring in three consecutive games against CF Montreal, Atlanta United and Chicago before being held scoreless Saturday against Nashville.

The victory gave Inter Miami another trophy three years after Messi’s arrival. Miami won the Leagues Cup in 2023, the Supporters’ Shield in 2024 and MLS Cup in 2025.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

David Benavidez is aiming to take over boxing over the next 12 months, but two-division world champion Paulie Malignaggi believes there is one fighter he would favour to hand ‘The Mexican Monster’ his first defeat.

Benavidez made the 25lb jump up from light-heavyweight to cruiserweight and knocked out unified WBA and WBO world champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez in a performance of the year candidate back in May.

Now, he looks set to challenge newly-crowned WBC ruler Michal Cieslak in a three-belt unification bout in December, with the victor of that contest mandated to take on cruiserweight poster boy, Jai Opetaia.

Speaking to BoxingScene, Malignaggi admitted that Benavidez’s showing against Ramirez enhanced his interest in a possible clash with Opetaia.

“I think that this is a very tough fight to call, this is very, very difficult. Benavidez’s performance against Zurdo put me on a different level as far as going from ‘I don’t know if he can compete with a cruiserweight as big as Opetaia’ to ‘OK, he can compete with Opetaia’.

“Now, winning? I don’t know. I don’t take it as a foregone conclusion. I do think that it is now a competitive fight to where I want to see it, whereas before it was like ‘nah, you are just going to get a really good fighter like Benavidez hurt if you make him fight too heavy, and that is not fair’.”

Malignaggi would lean towards Opetaia if he were to meet the ‘The Mexican Monster’ in the ring.

“I would probably still edge Opetaia slightly, but it’s not something that would shock me if Benavidez is not only competitive but possibly wins the fight. But, it’s not one of those fights that I look at and say ‘I am changing my pick and I am picking Benavidez,’. I think that’s way too soon, man.”

Benavidez-Cieslak is expected to take place on Saturday, December 12, in Phoenix, Arizona, where a victory for the 29-year-old could tee up a 2027 Cinco De Mayo meeting with Australia’s Opetaia. 

LSU listed quarterback Sam Leavitt as doubtful on its first injury report ahead of this weekend’s game at Ole Miss. After missing Wednesday’s practice with an upper-body injury, Leavitt did participate in Thursday’s walkthrough, sources confirmed to CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz. 

Leavitt did not appear to be injured in last week’s win over Louisiana Tech, where he rebounded from a three-interception first half with 366 total yards and four total touchdowns. LSU only led Louisiana Tech by a single possession last weekend at halftime, a result of turnover-filled first two quarters inside Tiger Stadium.

“Sam’s gotta do a better job taking care of the ball,” Kiffin said in the aftermath. “We made a lot of yards, and we were smooth through that at times, but obviously, the red zone is where you gotta finish drives. So maybe it was perfect for us that we needed something like that, ’cause it’s a game we play good on offense in games.”

Lane Kiffin made no mention of an injury to his most important player during this week’s media availability ahead of Saturday night’s league opener. Leavitt has thrown for 574 yards, two touchdowns and four interceptions over LSU’s first two games this season, along with 135 yards rushing and five scores.

He’s struggled with injuries in the past, missing a total of seven games in the last two seasons at Arizona State. 

Sam Leavitt injury history

LSU’s backup QB situation 

LSU’s backup quarterback appears to be Landen Clark, a transfer from Elon who was the 2025 CAA Co-Offensive Rookie of the Year. Clark is technically listed as No. 3 on the depth chart, but has been first off the bench in both games this season.  He threw 18 passing touchdowns and rushed for 11 more last season at Elon. 

Also on the roster is Husan Longstreet, a USC transfer who completed 13 of 15 passes for 103 yards and a touchdown with the Trojans a year ago as a freshman. He was a five-star prospect coming out of high school, ranked the No. 32 overall player and No. 4 quarterback in the 2025 class, according to 247Sports. 

What happens next?

The SEC’s availability reports are now in their third season. Schools must adhere to guidelines for three days leading up to kickoff in league contests with updates nightly, beginning on Wednesdays of game week.

Final reports are due 90 minutes before kickoff, and schools are fined for non-compliance, inaccurate or late reporting, ranging from $25,000 to $100,000.

Coaches must release their initial availability report by 8 p.m. on Wednesday of each week and must update it daily with a final report coming 90 minutes prior to kickoff. Player status designations include “available,” “probable,” “questionable,” “doubtful,” or “out” before game day. On game days, they’re to be marked as “available,” “game time decision,” or “out.”

There are consequences for non-compliance, which includes both inaccurate and late reporting, with fines to the school ranging from $25,000 to $100,000 for football.

Other players listed on the availability report for LSU include wideout Phillip Wright III (Out), linebacker Jaiden Bracker (Out), running back Raycine Guillory Jr. (Out), linebacker TJ Dottery (Questionable), linebacker Tylen Singleton (Questionable), and four players under the probable designation, including Whit Weeks and Trey’Dez Green.

SEC availability designations

LSU’s next injury report is due Thursday night at 8:10 p.m. ET.

BMW PGA Championship – round one

-6 A Rai (Eng), J Lagergren (Swe); -5 R Gerard (US), A Scott (Aus), I Elvira (Spa), L Aberg (Swe)

Selected others: -4 P Reed (US), R Fox (NZ), R MacIntrye (Sco), V Hovland (Nor), T Detry (Bel); -3 R Fisher (Eng), R McIlroy (NI), D Law (Sco), A Sullivan (Eng), E Ferguson (Sco), J Dean (Eng); -2 T Hatton (Eng), JJ Spaun (US); -1 S Lowry (Ire) -1 M Wallace (Eng); E A Fitzpatrick (Eng), M Fitzpatrick (Eng)

Full leaderboard

While Rory McIlroy sparkled and then suffered a late stumble, Aaron Rai was a model of consistency as he shot a six-under 66 to share the first-round lead with Sweden’s Joakim Lagergren at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

Rai, who became England’s most recent major winner earlier this season, knocked in seven birdies, with the only blemish to his card arriving on the 16th, when he found the fairway bunker off the tee and ended with a bogey five.

Lagergren, whose one and only win on the DP World Tour was back in 2018, also made a fine start with an eagle on the 12th, the highlight of his round.

Six-time major winner McIlroy had got under way in sensational fashion earlier in the day until his round unravelled on the back nine.

The Northern Irishman was five under after 10 holes and in the outright lead but some erratic driving proved costly after the turn on a course he covered in 60 in Wednesday’s pro-am.

And when McIlroy also found the water on his penultimate hole, it contributed to one of his three bogeys in the final seven – leaving him at three under, three strokes adrift of the joint-leaders.

American Ryan Gerard, Australia’s Adam Scott, Spain’s Nacho Elvira and Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg are at five under, while Patrick Reed, the only player above McIlroy in the Race to Dubai standings, is one of 12 players at four under.

Reed, who is bidding to become only the second American after Collin Morikawa to win the Race to Dubai, is in a group two shots off the lead with Open champion Ryan Fox, Norway’s Viktor Hovland and Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre, who made birdies on the 17th and 18th holes to conclude with a flourish.

However, it was a difficult day for Spain’s two-time major winner Jon Rahm, who carded a six-over 78.

Birdies proved difficult to come by as Rahm played alongside Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood, with none of the trio picking up a single shot on the front nine.

While the English duo were able to make five birdies between them on the back nine to finish at one over, Rahm toiled to five bogeys and a double bogey as he repeatedly found trouble off the tee.

Former US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, who outlined his reluctance to travel to Dubai for November’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship event on Wednesday, is at level par, along with his younger brother Alex.

Sixty years after India scripted hockey history at the 1966 Asian Games in Bangkok, Harbinder Singh still gets goosebumps when he hears the song that became the team’s companion on its journey to gold.

“Whenever we went to a match, Shankar Laxman (India goalkeeper at that time) would play ‘Watan ki raah mein watan ke naujawan shaheed ho’ in the team bus, and all the players would sing along. This would automatically motivate us,” the 83-year-old three-time Olympic medallist told PTI in an exclusive interview.

“Even today, when I hear this song, I get goosebumps,” he added.

It also became a galvanising force before their Asian Games final against arch foes Pakistan, a match that India won to bring home their first ever gold at the continental showpiece.

The song and the final remain etched in the memory of the legendary centre-forward, who was also a part of India’s 1964 Tokyo Olympics gold-winning team.

“We had won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics just two years earlier, and so the excitement was high, as most of the players from the Tokyo Olympics were on this team. We were determined to win our first Asian Games gold medal,” he recalled.

India achieved that goal, beating two-time champions Pakistan. The match, however, appeared to be slipping away almost from the start.

With India losing a player to injury within the first five minutes and no substitution rule in place, the team was reduced to 10 men for almost the entirety of the match.

Eventually, after 70 minutes and the first period of extra time, a wounded Balbir Singh returned to the field to score the winner.

“The match started off rough, and within the first five minutes, our right winger, Railways’ Balbir Singh, was injured by a Pakistani player’s stick and had to be stretchered off,” Harbinder remembered.

“Pakistan’s team was very strong, and the entire 70 minutes remained goal-less,” he said.

Even the first half of extra time, which lasted seven-and-a-half minutes, produced no breakthrough. Then, with five minutes left in the second half of extra time, came the moment that decided the gold medal.

“…Balbir was standing on the sidelines with a bandaged knee. Indian players began telling him to play on one leg. Why was he standing outside? After asking the umpire, he came on the field, and luckily, he scored the only goal of the match,” said Harbinder, a Padma Shri awardee.

India’s squad had three players named Balbir Singh — the injured Railways winger and two others representing Punjab and the Services.

“At that time, hockey was the dominant sport, cricket wasn’t as prevalent,” Harbinder said, recalling how the team was welcomed with victory processions in Delhi, Amritsar and Jalandhar.

“Because hockey was an amateur sport, we couldn’t receive any prizes for winning a gold medal, but victory processions were held in Delhi, Amritsar, and Jalandhar,” he added.

There were no permanent national camps either, with players coming together only before major tournaments.

“At that time, the camp was held in Jalandhar. The Federation bore the expenses of the camp, there was no government funding at that time. The camp was held in the heat of June, July, and August.

“There were no AC coolers, and mosquitoes were rampant. It was quite tough, but the diet was excellent, authentic Punjabi food,” he added.

Harbinder, who also won gold medals in the junior and senior 100m and 200m athletics events, feels modern hockey is faster but has lost some of the artistry that once made the sport a major spectator attraction.

“At that time, there were rules regarding offside, stick, and obstruction, so one had to play very carefully. The game relied heavily on umpires because technology wasn’t present. Today’s hockey isn’t as fun to watch because the artistry is gone, and goals are often scored in three touches,” he said.

“Spectators used to stand on their seats to watch the first pass, the return pass, and the dribbling. Many times, I have scored goals against mighty teams like Pakistan, England, Holland, and Germany by taking the ball from the centre line and dodging the entire defense,” he added.

The veteran is also concerned about declining crowds at domestic hockey tournaments. He believes international players need to return to domestic competitions to restore spectator interest.

“We all played hockey for our departments, whether it was the Gold Cup, the Beighton Cup, or the Obaidullah Cup. A lot of spectators used to come to watch Indian players, but nowadays, international players don’t play domestic hockey. If star players don’t play, how will the sport grow in popularity?” he asked.

As India prepares for the Asian Games in Japan, Harbinder expects the Harmanpreet Singh-led side to challenge for gold but cautions against taking opponents lightly.

“Even the Asian Games are no longer competitive. The Indian team must win the gold medal again because the hockey of Japan, Malaysia, and Pakistan is no longer at the same level,” he said.

“But Japan has already won the gold medal unexpectedly once (in Jakarta in 2018), and India should not take any team lightly. We must forget the World Cup failure and start afresh,” he added, referring to the team’s dismal eight-place finish last month.

Abhishek Sharma (BCCI Photo)

NEW DELHI: If you were seated on the second tier here at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Thursday evening, the white Kookaburra ball would have seemed to be perpetually flying in your eyeline for the first 10 overs of the third T20I between India and Afghanistan. It was Abhishek Sharma who was bringing a dead rubber to life just the way Indian T20 batters are used to doing in home conditions and the IPL.Such are the standards set by Abhishek over the last three years that bringing up his hundred off 30 balls felt like just another day in the office. As one was still coming to terms with the carnage he inflicted, Abhishek decided to celebrate his century by calmly sitting in the middle of the pitch, meditating like a monk.Having endured a comparatively modest year with the bat in international cricket, Abhishek’s relentless hitting was kind of a throwback to his marauding run with the Indian team before the T20 World Cup in March.Abhishek’s onslaught on a tired pitch made his opening partner Sanju Samson‘s 35-ball 50 look like a laborious effort. That one knock of 108 off 34 balls, which ended in the 10th over, was enough for India to post 221/7 after Abhishek left the park with the scoreboard reading 142/1.The 11 sixes and nine boundaries off Abhishek’s bat were enough to break the spirits of the Afghanistan team. Afghanistan’s batting folded for 94 in just [missing number] overs to lose by 127 runs, bringing their first ‘home’ series against India to an end with a 3-0 scoreline in favour of India.The Afghan players clearly lacked energy on the field, having endured heavy poundings in the first two T20Is here this week. It appeared they almost waited for this game to just pass by. But Abhishek wasn’t satiated despite his two whirlwind knocks in the previous two matches.As the Afghan players looked like merely rolling their arms over and tossing the ball without any intent, Abhishek was amusing himself by testing the catching skills of the spectators in the stands.Abhishek’s returns in international cricket haven’t been the best since the T20I World Cup in March. The runs have come at a premium for him. He wasn’t going to let this opportunity go to waste in re-establishing himself as India’s undisputed first-choice opener in T20Is even as the buzz around 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi only keeps growing. He finished the series with 209 runs off 85 balls.

Reddy’s bowling gives confidence

Nitish Kumar Reddy is the pet project for the team management to get him ready as a premier seam-bowling allrounder besides the injury-prone Hardik Pandya. On Thursday, he managed just one off four balls with the bat in his only outing in the series.Captain Shreyas Iyer chose to give him the new ball like Pandya has been doing in T20 cricket for India. The first one didn’t look incisive, but Reddy came back later in the innings with a clear plan of varying the pace and length. He finished with figures of 3/25 in four overs.Having pulled him out of the Asian Games team, Reddy’s performance on Thursday night will give the team management a lot of confidence as they start preparing for the ODI World Cup with the ODI series against West Indies later this month.