Owen Farrell 'up to speed already'
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Daily Mail
7 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Ben Cousins announces stunning footy comeback and reveals the star who convinced him to return to the field
Controversial AFL legend Ben Cousins has announced he'll be returning to the field in a high–profile match – with the chance to star alongside a fellow great of the game proving too much to resist. The 47–year–old revealed he'll be playing in the AFL Legends game at Melbourne's Marvel Stadium on August 28, joking, 'How hard can it be?' after last playing first grade 15 years ago. 'I think it might be time to dust them [the footy boots] off. One game, hey? I can get myself up for one! It should be a bit of fun… I'm looking forward to it,' Cousins said on Mix94.5's Pete & Kymba with Ben Cousins radio show on Monday. The West Coast Eagles premiership–winner will take to the field with a host of big names, but the one that sticks out for him is former Hawks superstar Cyril Rioli. 'Shane Crawford is the coach; Nick Riewoldt is the captain. I only decided [to play] over the weekend. But, for me, the chance to play alongside Cyril, you know? I'm excited about that,' he said. 'It's a big thing; he was just such a great player. The 47–year–old has kept himself in great shape – and joked 'how hard can it be?' when he was asked about having just over three weeks to prepare for the match 'Everyone's situation is different but because he was 28 when he stopped playing, we all felt he had so much good footy left in him. 'To see him run around and have a kick is so exciting and I'm looking forward to handpassing to him or getting one off him!' Last month, Rioli stunned footy fans by announcing he'll run out for the All Stars side against their Victorian opposition in the match, which will raise funds for the Australian Prostate Cancer Centre. Rioli's bombshell exit from the game came after he accused Hawthorn of having a shocking relationship with its Indigenous players, and later penned an open letter about his experiences. When Cousins was reminded that the Legends game is only just over three weeks away, he replied, 'It's supposed to be like riding a bike, isn't it? 'It's a young man's game but I can get myself up for one, surely. How hard can it be?' Cousins – who is also working for Channel Seven in Perth – has kept himself in great shape since he was released from jail in 2019 after several stints behind bars. He recently looked super–fit as he took the rare step of publicly posting photos with his children after they enjoyed a family holiday in Western Australia. Cousins was also joined on a cruise by a host of other A–list Australian celebrities, including radio presenter Fifi Box, former host of The Project Carrie Bickmore, and former West Coast Eagles teammate Chris Judd and his wife Bec Judd. Cousins' battles with addiction have been well documented since they became public in 2007 after a series of off–field incidents, including arrests and suspensions. He was suspended from the AFL in 2007 and returned in 2009 to play two seasons with Richmond before retiring.
BBC News
9 minutes ago
- BBC News
'Huge moment' as UK's tallest outdoor climbing wall opens amid £7m revamp
The UK's tallest outdoor climbing wall is opening as part of a £7m 18m (59ft) high and 35m (114ft) wide - the equivalent height of four double-decker buses - the wall is a new addition to 270 Climbing Park on the edge of the Cotswolds, between Cheltenham and Gloucester. Also boasting a 17m (55ft) indoor wall, its co-owner David Stevens calls the park a "truly world class destination" for climbers. The centre, which is opening later, will also feature Olympic standard bouldering walls and high ropes. Mr Stevens added: "This is a huge moment for 270 and for the UK climbing scene."We've created a truly world-class destination for climbers of all levels, from beginners to elite athletes. There's nowhere else in the country that combines this scale and variety of climbing and high ropes in one place."Ahead of its public opening, the outdoor wall has already hosted the European Military Climbing Championships 2025, which saw more than 60 of Europe's elite military climbers compete over three indoor area also features an International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) Boulder Wall, built to international competition standards and permanently set to Olympic bouldering Mason, a climbing route setter, said: "It's great to finally see a facility in the south that can offer what we need for our sport all in one place."
BBC News
9 minutes ago
- BBC News
Pep talks - how Klopp's ex-assistant is shaping Man City
Manchester City have spent more than £150m on five new players this summer but Pep Guardiola's biggest signing did not cost a penny - and he will not play any football, early June, the second-most important figure of Jurgen Klopp-era Liverpool became Guardiola's right-hand man at Manchester it should have been a bigger news story, not least because hiring Pep Lijnders - a man credited with most of the day-to-day training under Klopp, as well as a substantial part of the German's tactical evolution post-Borussia Dortmund - suggests Guardiola is considering a major tactical what's even more remarkable is that those tactical changes will be navigated with the substantial input of a coach who worked with Klopp on concepts like counter-pressing and attacking in vertical lines; on concepts that served as the antidote to Guardiola's famous positional contrast is often overstated, mind. Guardiola and Klopp borrowed from one another, and their shared peaks at Liverpool and Man City almost seem to merge into one perfect blend of Klopp's dynamism and Guardiola's the one hand Klopp's 'heavy metal' football was tamed by an appreciation of territorial dominance, on the other Guardiola used Klopp's ideas to adapt to the rough-and-tumble of Premier League Lijnders, like Klopp, is far more concerned than Guardiola with aggressive, high-octane attacking football and the opportunities that open up when the ball changes now. Because from the outside looking in, Lijnders' appointment appears to confirm Guardiola thinks modern Premier League football is moving in the direction of the old Kloppites. And he's right. It used to be the case that Guardiola's territorial suffocation would pin back inferior opponents but, as the middle-class teams got better, those who were bold enough to press hard and disrupt the build-up play started to see quite literally pushed back, until pressing hard and maximising transitions spread across the division and even Guardiola struggled to control things with slow passing and rigid positioning."Today, modern football is the way Bournemouth, Newcastle, Brighton and Liverpool play," Pep Guardiola told TNT Sports a few months ago. "Modern football is not positional. You have to ride the rhythm."That's a huge statement from the man whose 'positional play' tactical philosophy pretty much defined the past 15 years of the sport, but it's spot the past five years fast breaks and direct attacks are on the rise, while PPDA - a measure of pressing frequency and intensity, where a lower score means greater pressure - is going down. When Guardiola made those comments about modern football he was already beginning to experiment with a subtly more direct style of their 2023-24 to 24-25 campaigns, City's possession share dropped from 65.5% to 61.3% while their total number of fast breaks jumped from 22 to 30, a rise of 36%.Most prominently, we saw more long balls from Ederson to bypass the opposition high press and more direct dribbling through the lines from January signing Omar by the looks of things, was the first signing of Man City 2.0: the rebuild that will shift Guardiola, Lijnders and City into a more Klopp-like direction. More players in that mould have since Cherki and Tijjani Reijnders have arrived from Lyon and AC Milan respectively and both signings, like Marmoush, point to more carrying of the ball through the lines and fewer neatly choreographed passing put it more simply, Cherki, Reijnders, and Marmoush are the kind of players who prefer to ride the data here is stark. Compared with Man City's three most commonly used central midfielders in 2024-25, Cherki, Reijnders, and Marmoush scored considerably higher for 'progressive carries' (a carry of the ball at least five metres towards the opponent's goal) and 'attempted dribbles'. Signing Rayan Ait-Nouri also alludes to Klopp-esque - or Lijnders-esque – football, because having mostly deployed central midfielders or centre-backs in the full-back positions over the past two seasons - an obvious nod to control, order, and discipline - Guardiola has emphatically changed is one of the most attacking full-backs in Europe. Similar to the other three 2025 signings we have discussed, he ranked second for dribbles completed among defenders in the Premier League last season (63) and sixth among full-backs for progressive carries (89).But more impressively, he was within the top three among defenders for goal involvements (11), expected assists (5.5) and touches in the opposition box (96).Ait-Nouri's arrival tells us Guardiola is done with packing midfielders into the team and is ceding some control in favour of more urgent, vertical attacking like that, Manchester City fans can go from worrying about their team's slow and passive football to wondering how such an explosive attacking pair as Ait-Nouri and Jeremy Doku could work together on the left, or how Marmoush and Cherki will fit into the same attacking midfield will certainly have more questions than answers before the 2025-26 Premier League campaign gets under way, because most of their new arrivals - on the pitch and in the dugout - just don't fit the usual Pep Guardiola is working on something new. With Lijnders at his side, it could be his sharpest left turn yet.
