Beyond The Lead

The first-choice closer for the Chicago White Sox, Liam Hendriks probably doesn’t get the recognition that he deserves in his native Australia, because the 32-year-old is on the cusp of big things in Major League Baseball. Hendriks and his ballclub have streaked away with the AL Central in 2021 and are shaping strongly in the search for a first World Series title since 2005. 

The wheeling and dealing West Australian arrived on the South Side of Chicago the last offseason, leaving the Oakland Athletics and signing a three-year deal with an option for a fourth for a guaranteed minimum of USD $54 million with the Sox -- breaking record average annual value for a relief pitcher. 

So far in 2021, he leads the American League and is second in all of Major League Baseball in saves, is limiting opposing batters to a .179 batting average, has a WHIP of 0.77 and a career-high mark of 14.2 strikeouts per nine innings. However, he’s also given up 11 homers and blown six saves -- leading to him recently telling the Chicago Sun Times that he was having a mixed season.

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Ellyse Perry needs little in the ways of introduction. A multi-sport athlete who evolved into one of the most dominant cricketers of all time, Perry is a multiple-time Belinda Clark Award winner, swept the ICC’s Awards for the best players of the 2010s back in 2020, and was also named amongst Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Decade. 

The 2020s, however, got off to a bittersweet start for Perry. A key figure in the promotion of the 2020 World Cup in Australia, she suffered a torn hamstring against New Zealand during that tournament. After a few false starts, she made her domestic return for the Sydney Sixers during the 2020 WBBL and an eagerly anticipated international return against New Zealand in March of this year. 

Now, despite the COVID and international travel restrictions doing their best to scupper the tour, Perry has been named in the Australian squad to face India in a multi-format series set to commence with a one-day match at the Great Barrier Reef Arena in Mackay on September 21. 

In conversation with ESPNcricinfo’s Andrew McGlashan, Perry spoke on the coming tournament, a jam-packed upcoming schedule that features a WBBL season, an Ashes, One-Day World Cup and then a Commonwealth Games, the growth of the women’s game and much more.

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Coach Carl Robinson’s Western Sydney Wanderers are a big club that should be a lot bigger. Entering their tenth year, the Wanderers count on a large, loud and passionate fanbase, elite facilities, the best home stadium in the country, and some of the most ambitious owners in the country. 

And yet, the club’s A-League side hasn’t played finals football since the 2016-17 season and, despite making three Grand Finals in its first four years and winning an Asian Champions League in 2014, has never won an A-League championship. 

Recruiting Robinson from Newcastle Jets ahead of the 2020-21 season, in a manner that still has a few noses out of joint in the Hunter, and recruiting strongly, hopes were high that the last A-League season would be the one that ended the drought - only for that familiar feeling of disappointment to set in by year’s end. 

Now, despite the challenges wrought by COVID-19, the club has been highly active in recruiting ahead of the coming A-League season and, as the fanbase rumbles with discontent at their continued playoff absence, Robinson is confident that the club has what it takes to succeed.

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The past few years have seen an explosion in athletes using their platforms to spread messages of social, economic and climate justice -- the David Pocock led “The Cool Down” initiative surrounding climate change a recent example. 

This increase in athlete activism is taking place a backdrop where the traditional ethos of sports are colliding with the profitability and power that can be sourced from it -- the business of sport, the huge sums of money at stake and the reputational laundering on offer increasingly precedence over more antiquated notions. 

Furthermore, the ongoing battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, the need to find a new normal and the race to vaccinate is further complicating the lives of athletes, members of the sporting industry and fans. 

Deep in the reeds on these issues, amongst others, is Brendan Schwab, the current Executive Director of the World Players Association and a long-time figure in athlete labour movements.

Prior to landing with the World Players Association, Schwab has had involvement with the global football players union FIFPro, the Australian Athletes’ Alliance and, back in 1993, co-founded the Australian Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) with former Socceroo Kimon Taliadoros. The World Players Association, for their part, represent over 80,000 players across professional sport through more than 100 player associations in over 60 countries -- working with the likes of FIFPro, the MLBPA, the NBPA, and the NFLPA.

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The opening week of the 2021 AFL Finals Series was full of moments but, unfortunately, one unsavoury flashpoint has come to dominate the discourse leading into this weekend’s semifinals. 

At the three-quarter time break of his GWS Giants' thrilling one-point win over the Sydney Swans, firecracker forward Toby Greene began to gesticulate and exchange words with umpire Matt Stevic, before making contact with the official as he continued to follow his teammates. 

The polarising Greene’s reputation for pushing the boundaries widely recognised and his rap-sheet quite long at this point, match review officer Michael Christian him directly to the tribunal over the incident -- where he was ultimately suspended for three matches.

The AFL’s resident panto villain, Greene, unsurprisingly, had individuals spring to both his defence and prosecution in the wake of the incident, with the latter camp increasingly dominating the discourse as more footage emerged of the contact with Stevic. 

To get an umpire’s perspective of the incident, ESPN’s Matt Walsh -- a member of the ESPN Footy Podcast -- sat down with former AFL umpire Matthew Head, who officiated 144 games of AFL footy, to talk about the incident, as well as how umpires and players interact, local footy umpiring, improving officiating standards.

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You’ve got to be a pretty special athlete to win a Gold Medal; a glittering memento that marks the culmination of years of often anonymous blood, sweat, tears and toil. Winning a second four years later is an even more special achievement of sustained dominance and excellence. 

To win three in a row? That’s truly remarkable. 

But then again, there probably exists no better word to describe Chris Bond OAM and his Australian Wheelchair Rugby team than remarkable. 

When the 'Steelers’ roll out onto the floor of the Yoyogi National Stadium to take on Denmark in the first of their pool games on Wednesday, August 25, they will do so in pursuit of back-to-back-to-back Paralympic Gold Medals.

Narrow runners-up to Japan at the 2018 World Championships, Australia’s Wheelchair Rugby side has featured on the podium of every major world and regional competition they have competed in since 2006 -- a streak they are in no mood heading into the delayed Paralympic Games. 

One of the best 3.5 players in the world -- forming a fearsome Green and Gold combination with Ryley Batt -- the Tokyo Games will be Bond’s third and, at 35-years-of-age, perhaps his last. But after having been forced to sit back and wait for a year to compete, and having made so many personal and financial sacrifices to represent his country, the teenage cancer survivor is as keen as ever to get back out there and bring another Gold Medal back home. 

For BEYOND THE LEAD, he sat down with ESPN’s Joey Lynch to talk the origins and intricacies of Wheelchair Rugby, looking for a three-peat in Tokyo, how he came to the sport, his Canberra Raiders, and how special it will be to compete at the Olympics after becoming a father for the first time.

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Competing at her first Olympic Games, Jessica Hull became one of the faces of Australia’s strong showing on the track at Tokyo 2020 -- reaching the finals of the women’s 1500m after setting a new Australian and Oceanian record in the semifinals. Hull ended up finishing 11th in that final ultimately won by Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon, while fellow Australian Linden Hall finished sixth. 

The pair’s strong showings were one of a number of surprise stories to come out of Tokyo 2020 for Australian track; Stewart McSweyn and Ollie Hoare reaching the final in the men’s 1500m, Peter Bol captivating the nation in the 800m, Rohan Browning winning a heat and making the semis in the 100m, and Ash Moloney -- with a healthy assist from mate Cedric Dubler -- securing Australia a first-ever medal in the decathlon.  

At just 24-years-old and now entering her running prime, Hull had hoped to use Tokyo 2020 as a springboard and now has her sights on the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Oregon, the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

But before all of that, the Illawara native is set to compete in the prestigious Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon against the likes of Kipyegon, Tokyo 2020 silver medalist Laura Muir and Hall. 

Joining Beyond the Lead from Portland, Oregon, she sat down with ESPN’s Joey Lynch to talk about the Prefontaine Classic, he memories of Tokyo, the conditions and life in the Village, the superhuman efforts of 1500m bronze medalist and 5000 and 1000m champion, if she’ll be able to get back to Australia this year, and much more. 

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There’s determination and bravery, and then there are Rebekah Stott levels of determination and bravery. 

One of the W-League’s most fearsome and respected defenders, New Zealand international Stott was riding high at his time last year: joining the waves of Antipodean players making their wave to Europe when she signed with Brighton & Hove Albion for the 2020-21 FA Women’s Super League season.

However, she was forced to cut her adventure short in early 2021, revealing to the world in March that she had been diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkin's Lymphoma and that she was set to undergo six cycles of an aggressive chemotherapy regime in Melbourne. 

Receiving an outpouring of support as she underwent her treatment, Stott subsequently displayed equal parts determination and positivity throughout her cancer journey; resolving to inspire others through her own experiences and helping to raise funds and awareness through the World’s Greatest Shave and under her own Beat it By Stotty brand. 

Returning to the football field with FC Bulleen Lions in the local Victorian leagues in July, Stott has re-signed with Melbourne City for the coming W-League season and now, in full remission has her sights firmly set on the 2023 Women’s World Cup and Paris 2024. 

Joining Beyond the Lead, she spoke with ESPN’s Joey Lynch -- a fellow Hodgkin’s Lymphoma patient -- to discuss her reflections and lessons from her cancer experience, her return to the pitch and for plans on and off the field.

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Any medal at the Olympics is a massive achievement -- recognition of years and years of hard work and sacrifice by not just an athlete, but also those around them. But for Kyle Chalmers, that he was even able to make it to Tokyo, let alone win a silver medal in the men’s 100-meter freestyle and two further bronzes in the relays was truly remarkable. 

A significant beneficiary of the 12-month delay to the Games of the XXXII Olympiad, the 23-year-old was forced to battle a list of injuries that realistically retired several athletes in the years leading up to the games, as well as a series of personal battles that gave him significant pause. 

At one point, he was even courted by AFL teams Port Adelaide and Geelong about making a potential shock switch in codes before ultimately opting to stay in the pool and target Tokyo -- where he took his career Olympic medal tally to six.

But now, the 100-meter men’s freestyle champion at the 2016 Rio Olympics is eagerly anticipating the next three years as he targets a re-match with American rival -- and good mate -- Caeleb Dressel at Paris 2024. 

A fierce advocate for Closing the Gap for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, Chalmers has also committed to confronting and challenging the racism and system barriers they face in their everyday lives -- and challenging Australia to do better. 

Chalmers joins ESPN’s Joey Lynch to talk Tokyo, the years ahead and the years just gone, how close he came to going to the AFL, country football, his impressive reptile collection, NBA fantasy leagues, Josh Giddey and much, much more. 

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Australia hasn’t produced many better sporting exports than Joe Montemurro in recent years. 

A former boss of Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City in the W-League -- leading the latter to an invincible premiership and championship-winning double in their first year of existence -- he took over the women’s side of football giants Arsenal in 2017 for a celebrated four-year reign. 

Winning an FA Women's Super League and FA Women's League Cup, the Melbourne-born coach was also responsible for the recruitment of Matildas Lydia Williams, Caitlin Foord and Steph Catley to the Gunners -- the three part of a wave of Australian women making their way to Europe to play their football. 

In early 2021, ‘Pep’, as he is also known, left Arsenal and took a couple of months off before resurfacing as the head coach of Italian giants Juventus’ women’s side -- a dream job for a man that supported the Bianconere growing up and who actually played for Juventus (Brunswick Juventus) in the Victorian state leagues during the 1980s. 

Montemurro sat down with ESPN’s Stephanie Brantz to talk his time with Arsenal, why he ultimately decided to depart London, the growth of Williams, Foord, and Catley, why so many Matildas are heading to Europe, and much more.

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