Footy fans stunned by AFL star's post-game interview after suffering shocking injury
The Dockers trailed Hawthorn by 13 points at the final change of Saturday night's match, but kicked four goals to nil in the last quarter to seal the 12.5 (77) to 9.10 (64) win in front of 49,460 fans.
The result improved Fremantle's record to 11-6, leaving them just percentage adrift of fourth spot.
Brayshaw calmly agreed to be interviewed after the match by reporter Kath Loughnan, despite blood streaming down his face.
'You let me know if you feel dizzy at all during this interview as I see the blood rushing down your face,' Loughnan said.
The footy star sustained the injury when he was struck by a knee during a marking contest in the final minutes.
Brayshaw was injured by a knee during a marking contest in the final minutes
Following the interview, footy fans took to social media to praise Brayshaw.
'Brayshaw doing post game interview with more blood than a Jaws movie,' posted one X user.
'Andrew Brayshaw doing an interview with blood p***ing from his head is absolute elite level of athleticism,' posted another.
Others believed another player could have been selected to speak to while Brayshaw got stitched up.
Fremantle goalsneak Sam Switkowski made a stunning return from injury, kicking three goals to lead the Dockers to a gutsy 13-point win over Hawthorn.
Switkowski, in his first match back from a hamstring injury, not only was the leading goalscorer on the ground, but was also the most creative.
The 28-year-old finished with a match-high eight score involvements to go with 16 disposals, often shrugging off tackles or side-stepping opponents to set up attacking forays.
'Yeah he hit the scoreboard, that's nice, but he brings so much to our forward line in terms of leadership,' Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir said.
'He's probably one of the unheralded leadership group members in terms of he slides under the radar a little bit, but I love his leadership, the way he leads those around him.
'Some of his defensive acts would probably not show up on TV, and people just watching the game probably don't notice, but they're massive.
'He never gives up. His footy awareness, footy smarts in contested situations is second to none. It was good to see him get some reward on the scoreboard.'
Hawthorn opted against a hard tag on Caleb Serong.
The star midfielder tallied just 11 disposals and a clearance against Sydney last week, but rebounded with 29 possessions and nine clearances on Saturday night.
Jordan Clark (31 disposals) also relished the greater freedom.
Former Docker Lloyd Meek tallied 46 hitouts and 11 disposals against Sean Darcy (26 hitouts) and Luke Jackson (31 hitouts) in an intriguing ruck battle.
Hawthorn antagonist Jack Ginnivan was booed throughout the match on the way to 27 disposals and one goal, while Karl Amon (30 disposals, 696m gained) was also influential for the Hawks.
Longmuir had copped a barrage of criticism from North Melbourne legend David King in the wake of last week's 11-point loss to Sydney.
King questioned whether Longmuir was the right man to lead Fremantle to a flag, and the Dockers coach hit back by saying King had never built a list, game plan or culture before.
Fremantle were looking wobbly at three-quarter time on Saturday night, but a Switkowski snap to begin the final quarter fired them into action.
Patrick Voss followed it up with a 48m set shot, Darcy nailed his own set shot, and when Josh Treacy converted one from 49m, it was 'Wharfie Time'' for the bustling crowd.
Voss and Hawthorn captain James Sicily engaged in a fierce wrestle before the first bounce, setting the tone for the match.
Recently retired Fremantle forward Michael Walters did a lap of honour at half-time, revving up the home fans.
It also seemed to fire up his fellow goalsneaks Switkowski and Frederick, with the pair each scoring a major early in the third term to fire Fremantle to the lead.
But an opportunistic soccer goal from Hawthorn forward Connor Macdonald and a big mark in attack from sub Finn Maginness ensured the Hawks went to the final break with a handy advantage.
Basic skill errors hurt Fremantle badly in the third quarter, but they came out firing in the last to secure the vital victory.
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The Guardian
42 minutes ago
- The Guardian
PSG's Ousmane Dembélé takes centre stage as football's chief late bloomer
Ousmane Dembélé is right behind you and way ahead of everyone, which is just where Luis Enrique always imagined him. At the end of Paris Saint-Germain's destruction of Real Madrid in the semi-final of the Club World Cup in New Jersey this week, the coach declared his No 10 the season's best player 'by far'; not so much for the 35 goals and 16 assists but for something more simple. So simple it has taken a decade to do. But then Didier Deschamps, his national team manager with France, did say that being late is 'a little habit of his'. Well, it was. If there is a portrait that defines the PSG team potentially 90 minutes from winning it all, an image that embodies them and Dembélé's transformation, it may be that shot of him poised, coiled, at the edge of Inter's area in the Champions League final. Toes on the line, his eyes narrow and fixed on Yann Sommer like a leopard ready to pounce, a sprinter listening for the gun. It is a scene repeated relentlessly, opponents made prey, Wednesday at the MetLife another episode. 'I told him he was pressing a lot; he told me he has to,' Madrid's keeper, Thibaut Courtois, said. 'I get half a second to think.' That was half a second more than most. The semi-final had been virtually decided inside nine minutes, PSG scoring twice. Both times, Madrid made mistakes, Raúl Asencio and Antonio Rüdiger allowing the ball to escape them: not much, but enough. Both times, Dembélé was alert, on to them in a flash, sneaking up and then: bam. Like antelope narrated by David Attenborough, before they realised what had happened, Madrid's defenders were done. 'Scary,' Jürgen Klinsmann called it. 'They didn't let Inter breathe, not even for one moment,' said the Germany World Cup winner, who is analysing the tournament with Fifa's technical study group. 'They suffocate you from the first second; they get on to the pitch and get at you. Against Madrid, yes, the two goals were mistakes but they were forced; it's a high press with such energy, so aggressive it's scary.' And it starts with Dembélé. 'I would give the Ballon d'Or to Mr Ousmane Dembélé, for how he pressed,' Luis Enrique said after the Champions league final. 'That is leading a team.' 'I haven't always been like that,' Dembélé admits. He was always different: explosive, entirely two-footed, unpredictable. There is a reason Thomas Tuchel, his coach at Borussia Dortmund, had wanted him at Chelsea, Sunday's final opponents. A reason too – as well as desperation after Neymar's departure for PSG, admittedly – that Barcelona spent €145m on him. A reason Xavi Hernández had insisted that he could become the best player in the world in his position, making Dembélé's contract extension hisa first priority when he arrived at the Camp Nou as coach. But that was 2021 and a rescue mission: Dembélé had been in Barcelona four years and, what moments there had been were too brief, injuries invariably intervening, the feeling that he wasn't really looking after himself as unavoidable as it was perhaps unfair. When Dembélé departed two years later, the anger was about the way he went not the fact that he went: there was talent, everyone knew that, but the truth was that he had been largely irrelevant and they didn't lament his leaving. When he went all philosophical during the battles over his contract, denouncing 'blackmail', people wondered where this personality had suddenly come from. When the president, Joan Laporta, had said he was better than Kylian Mbappé, it was, well, just like Laporta. Mostly, people laughed. Turns out, he may be right. In the semi-final certainly, in this season too. 'If he doesn't win the Ballon d'Or, that's the Ballon d'Or's problem,' PSG's president, Nasser al-Khelaifi, said, which he probably would, butDembélé has been a revelation. Moved into a central position, he has scored more this season than in the previous five put together. He has scored against Real Madrid, Liverpool, Bayern, Arsenal, and Manchester City. His role was decisive in the Champions League final and the Club World Cup semi-final. He was Ligue 1's top scorer. You shouldn't buy Ballon d'Or winners, you should make them, Luis Enrique said, and perhaps he has. Should PSG beat Chelsea, they will join an esteemed list of elite European clubs – Celtic, Bayern Munich, Barcelona (twice), Ajax and PSV – to have won every men's competition they have participated in during a season. Celtic in 1966-67 won five trophies, clinching the domestic treble, the Glasgow Cup and the European Cup. PSG can match that tally. Linfield of Northern Ireland won all seven domestic tournaments they participated in 1921-22 and in 1961-62. Barcelona (2009) and Bayern won (2020) won 'sextuples' across different seasons. Ervin Ang Dembélé has benefited from the system and benefited the system. As much as a system, it is an ecosystem, a collective culture, at once simple and complex. Style, age, environment, opportunity all count, built in part by circumstance, timing. 'Last year I went empty handed because Kylian took it all again,' Dembélé joked when he collected his player of the year award in France, true words said in jest. 'He did it all himself,' Luis Enrique said, but at the heart of it all is a coach who brought 'extreme principles', in the words of Vincent Kompany. 'The coach has changed lots of things,' Dembélé said. Luis Enrique believed in Dembélé from the beginning, despite the warnings. At Barcelona, Gerard Piqué joked that the team's WhatsApp group was a handy reminder for a kid 'is always late', and Deschamps said Dembélé should be 'careful' about his timekeeping. But even in private conversations where others feared that the Frenchman could not apply the intensity demanded by a manager who can be extreme, when frankly they wondered if he was too lazy, unlikely to offer the commitment required, the coach was convinced. There could be criticism for others, but there was always a defence of Dembélé. Yes, it could be – is – like he is on his own planet sometimes, but there was a player in there. 'Dembélé has always been a phenomenon,' Luis Enrique said. 'The thing is, you have to go deeper to get the best version of Ousmane.' Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion His version. Aggressive, relentless, chasing everything. 'It's not just the goals or the decisive passes, it's his overall impact that makes the team win trophies,' Luis Enrique said. 'He has shown he is a step above. He is our best player, someone who can make the difference, because he has convictions.' It is that part of his game – the collective contribution rather than the individual, the press rather than the goals – that the coach returns to repeatedly. Yet they are not mutually exclusive; in fact they are mutually dependent. Dembélé is looked after, embraced, trusted and made to feel important as well as being made aware of his obligations, the demands. For a coach who is extremely strict, who likes working with young players because they are faster, hungrier and almost always more malleable, it is also about letting go, complicity, a connection. About warmth and support, belief. With Dembélé, who at 28 is among the oldest at PSG now, the relationship is especially close. Until the joking stops. 'The best thing I did was leave him out against Arsenal,' Luis Enrique said after he had felt the need to punish his player for indiscipline. 'I had to take a hard decision but I thought it was the best for the team and I would do it again a hundred times. We have had to do and say difficult things. 'Ousmane is a leader, but in what he does, not with words. Have you seen how he pressed? Tell me a No 9 in Europe who presses the goalkeeper and the centre-backs like that. When you press like that, the rest have to follow.' When you press like that, you are also closer to goal and to chances: the intensity is higher, the trigger points more sensitive, but the overall distances are reduced and when you can rob the ball in those positions everything opens. PSG play with two full-backs joining the rotation and movement through midfield, players carrying the ball all over the pitch, and forwards who are all dribblers – 'dribblers are scarce but we have five of them,' Luis Enrique said. That creates an environment that works for the players, Dembélé especially. 'You have a false 9, a wide player, two-footed, who can go both sides, who has the freedom and mobility to find pockets of space,' Portugal's coach, Roberto Martínez, said. '[But] when you analyse Dembélé, you have to start not at the end, with him, but the beginning. PSG work so hard to get players ahead of the ball, to give passing lines. People talk about them working off the ball but it's also with it: players offer to receive, don't get it, keep moving, offer again, don't get it, keep moving. They are relentless. They have a high volume of quality chances and they work incredibly hard for that. It's a whole lot of work, a whole lot of belief, an extreme belief and players who love to play that way.' They love it because it pays off, so it becomes self-perpetuating, reinforced with every win. And then there's something simple: fun, enjoyment, engagement. 'It's very easy to find the words to say it, but actually doing it is harder, [yet] that's the key to everything we do,' Luis Enrique said. Klinsmann said: 'As a striker it is a system you love. It is fascinating, because it's also about chemistry: you can only play this kind of football if everybody, everybody, buys into it. If there is even one who doesn't, the moment you have one not committing, not getting into people's faces, you are going to fail.' Why do players buy into an idea, why is Dembélé doing things he hadn't before? Because of everything, and because he likes it. The man who was always the last to arrive is now always the first, so sharp, so quick, so alive that other footballers don't see him coming until he's gone.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Sainz leaves Norwich to join Porto on five-year deal
Winger Borja Sainz has left Norwich City and joined Porto for £ 24-year-old has signed a five-year deal with the 30-time Portuguese champions following a two-year spell at Carrow was the club's top scorer last season with 18 Championship goals despite missing six games through suspension as a result of a spitting Spaniard joined the Canaries from Turkish side Giresunspor in June 2023. Norwich sporting director Ben Knapper told the club website: "During his time with us, his performances and impact have been brilliant. He gave us all many memorable moments, scored some spectacular goals and was often the deciding factor in many of our games."This is a fantastic move for all parties, with Borja now progressing onto the next stage of his career with a top European club in FC Porto."It also demonstrates once again our ability to identify and develop players for the highest levels of the game, and everyone involved deserves huge credit for their work."The Canaries were bracing themselves for Sainz's departure and have brought in Denmark international Mathias Kvistgaarden who can operate as a striker and remains to be seen if forward Josh Sargent will follow Sainz out of club - the United States international has been linked with a move to Premier League new boys Burnley but has three years left on his contract. In his first season at Norwich, Sainz scored on his debut in an EFL Cup tie against Fulham and went on to add another seven goals in all competitions, including a memorable FA Cup goal against Liverpool at began the 2024-25 season in blistering fashion scoring 16 goals from 20 appearances in all competitions, a run including two hat-tricks against Derby County and Plymouth his form dipped in the second half of the campaign and he only added two more to his tally, finishing second in the Championship top scorer list behind Leeds United's Joel dip in form was compounded by Sainz receiving a six-match ban for spitting at Sunderland defender Chris Mepham in the game at the Stadium of Light in December made a full apology for the incident, saying in a statement: "Spitting at an opponent is completely out of character for me, and my reaction in that moment was unacceptable....I am deeply disappointed in myself and for letting all of you down through my conduct."Speaking following Norwich's 3-1 pre-season win over Northampton Town on Saturday, new head coach Liam Manning told BBC Radio Norfolk that Sainz's move was a "terrific deal" for the added: "It allows us to improve the team, and that's part and parcel of football now. "My job is to concentrate on what we've got here and how we get the group ready for next week and beyond. We're working hard behind the scenes to add. "There are still a few faces we need to add and will add so we'll keep pushing on that and make the squad as strong as we can."
Times
an hour ago
- Times
England vs Wales live score: Lionesses Euro 2025 updates
Kit Shepard: White shirts in one end, red shirts and bucket hats in the other, Abba blaring out from the loudspeakers. This is very much 'Brits abroad' night in St Gallen. The Lionesses have never lost in ten meetings to Wales, winning nine of them. Tonight would be a really, really bad time for that streak to end. Kit Shepard: The England team are greeted with loud cheers as they emerge for their warm-up in St Gallen. Lauren James is sporting a black eye, having picked up the knock while challenging for a header against the Netherlands. However, she and the rest of the squad appear in good spirits as they begin to limber up. While you are assembling the snacks trolley and pouring drinks, may we run a little bit of pre-match reading under your nose — it's our guide to the Wales team, how you might go about beating them and how (if you're not careful) they could beat you. Read it and impress your friends and family. Kit Shepard: Wales make three changes from the team that started the 4-1 defeat by France. Olivia Clark replaces Safia Middleton-Patel in goal, Rhiannon Roberts comes into the back line for Josie Green, and the midfielder Carrie Jones is in for Kayleigh Barton. The 38-year-old Jess Fishlock, Wales's record goalscorer and most capped player, starts what could well be her final international. Wales (4-2-3-1): O Clark — E Morgan, R Roberts, G Evans, L Woodham — J Fishlock, A James — C Holland, C Jones, R Rowe — F Morgan. Subs: Middleton-Patel, Kelly, Ingle, Green, Barton, Cain, Ladd, Hughes, Estcourt, Joel, Powell, Griffiths. Kit Shepard: England are unchanged from Wednesday's 4-0 win over the Netherlands. That means Lauren James stays on the right wing after struggling in the No 10 role against France, while Ella Toone retains her place. Presumably, Jess Carter will start at left centre back and Alex Greenwood at left back, as they did against the Dutch. The pair started the other way around in the France game and both played poorly, before swapping positions for the Netherlands match and delivering much-improved performances. England (4-2-1-3): H Hampton — L Bronze, L Williamson, J Carter, A Greenwood — K Walsh, G Stanway — E Toone — L James, A Russo, L Hemp. Subs: N Charles, B Mead, M Le Tissier, A Moorhouse, G Clinton, E Morgan, M Agyemang, C Kelly, A Beever-Jones, J Park, K Keating, L Wubben-Moy. Kit Shepard, women's football reporter The picturesque university town of St Gallen has been full of England and Wales fans today. The city's cathedral and Abbey Library proved popular landmarks for supporters with plenty of wiggle room for sightseeing before the 9pm kick-off (local time). Arena St Gallen is about three miles out of the city, and the trains and buses were packed by 6pm. There's a lot of people to shift from city to stadium, but Switzerland's immaculate public transport appears more than ready for the challenge. Fans of each nation have mingled harmoniously, be it in the city, on the train or at the ground. There has been plenty of light-hearted banter, of course. Please enable cookies and other technologies to view this content. You can update your cookies preferences any time using privacy manager. First things first — let's remind ourselves how the Group D table looks. France are home and hosed, obviously — but need a point against the Netherlands to secure top spot. As for everyone else, England are through if they equal or better the Netherlands' result against France, unless both sides lose and Wales win by four or more goals against the Lionesses. The Dutch qualify if they better England's result — if they were tied on points then England go through as it then comes down to the result between the teams. Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the final two games of the Euro 2025 group stage as we discover which of Netherlands, England and Wales will join France in the last eight. Admittedly Wales's chances are such a long shot that they make the David Beckham goal against Wimbledon seem like a tap-in, but we'll get to that if they suddenly find themselves 4-0 up against England, who have given themselves a great chance by thrashing the Dutch 4-0 in midweek. Kit Shepard is our man watching the Lionesses in St Gallen so will be your eyes and ears for analysis and the bits you might not have noticed from TV. On we go.
