Record start continues for Super Netball pacesetters

Perth Now18-05-2025

The NSW Swifts have survived a first-half scare in their Sydney derby clash with the Giants before extending their record-setting start to the Super Netball season.
Sunday's contest at Ken Rosewall Arena drew together two teams at different ends of the ladder, but the Giants threw everything they had at their unbeaten rivals before falling to an 82-69 defeat.
While the Swifts remain unbeaten after six rounds - continuing their best start to a season - the Giants remain at the bottom of the ladder with just one win.
The Swifts got off to a sluggish start that has typified their recent matches.
They still managed to hold a three-goal lead at the main break after a feisty first half featuring a physical battle between Swifts centre Paige Hadley and her Giants counterpart and fellow Diamond Jamie-Lee Price.
But the third quarter proved crucial as the competition front-runners streaked away with the match, extending their lead to 60-48 with sharp-shooter Grace Nweke almost unstoppable.
Down the other end, Swifts keeper Teigan O'Shannassy also kept a tight lid on the Giants and was named player of the match.
The Giants lost Jo Harten with a mystery injury. The veteran shooter made her way off court and down the tunnel midway through the third quarter and was unable to return.
Harten had been in blistering form, with 25 goals from 25 attempts and two from four from the two-point range.
Matisse Leatherbarrow took over the GS bib and was also on target with 16 goals from 19 attempts, including five super shots.
The Giants tried to claw their way back into the match in the final term but the deficit proved too much, with the Swifts' Kiwi ace Nweke finishing with a mammoth haul of 64 goals from 67 attempts.
Briony Akle's troops extended their dominance over the Giants, now winning their past six clashes.
"We wanted to start each quarter hard, we wanted to come out and lay a mark and I think we did that," said ex-Giant O'Shannassy.
"We got told by Briony to go out and do what we do best, individually and as a team, and getting that freedom from the coach is something that lifts everyone up.
"It's the battle of NSW and no matter where they (Giants) are on the ladder they bring out the best in us and no matter where we are in the ladder it's always going to be a great game."

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Perth Scorcher Finn Allen smashes Chris Gayle's six-hitting record in incredible start to Major League Cricket

West Australian

10 hours ago

West Australian

Perth Scorcher Finn Allen smashes Chris Gayle's six-hitting record in incredible start to Major League Cricket

Perth Scorcher Finn Allen has sent records tumbling and claimed a special piece of history in the opening game of the Major League Cricket season, breaking a record held by West Indian great Chris Gayle. Allen wreaked havoc for the San Francisco Unicorns as they opened the season against Washington Freedom at the Oakland Coliseum, the former home of the NFL's Raiders and a purpose-built Baseball arena. The domineering Kiwi took to the unusual dimensions with relish, blistering a record 19 sixes en route to the fastest-ever T20 150, surpassing Gayle, who hit 18 sixes for Rangpur Riders in the 2017 Bangladesh Premier League final. Watch every game of Major League Cricket live and free on 7plus Allen's, who is signed to the Scorchers for at least one more season, remarkable knock came to an end at 151 from only 51 balls, his record-breaking six also bringing up the 150-run milestone. The leg side took a pounding as Allen opened the innings with a deft ramp before butchering 40 off 14 deliveries inside the six-over Powerplay. The 26-year-old registered his fourth T20 century off 34 deliveries, setting the fastest MLC century and the quickest T20 hundred by a New Zealand batter. Three Australians featured in the bowling attack for Washington, Sydney Sixer Jack Edwards taking 2-39 from his four overs while former Victorian Ian Holland, who now plys his trade in England's County Cricket system, took 1-33 and the Big Bash League's breakout star Mitch Owen claimed 1-33. Owen made 39 from 20 with the bat and is also set to make his international T20 debut in a series with the West Indies next month. Allen's 151 guided the Unicorns to a mammoth 5-269 from their set of 20 overs, a task that proved far too much for Washington. The Freedom were dismissed for 146 from 13.1 overs in a helter-skelter chase, recording a massive 123-run defeat. However, the Freedom is set to be boosted by star Australian Steve Smith next week between the star's Test duties for the World Test Championship Final and three-match series in the West Indies.

Scorcher sets records tumbling, passes remarkable Gayle mark

Perth Now

10 hours ago

Perth Now

Scorcher sets records tumbling, passes remarkable Gayle mark

‘Not to be messed with': Criminals recruited for country's biggest wind farm

The Age

19 hours ago

The Age

‘Not to be messed with': Criminals recruited for country's biggest wind farm

When Keys arrived at the wind farm, west of Melbourne, as the AWU's chief delegate, he was determined not to let history repeat. According to project insiders, he began cultivating people who could keep the CFMEU at bay. Among them was ex-AFL player Billy Nicholls, who in 2015 was sentenced to 11 years' jail for shooting two men in their legs over drug disputes. Both victims survived, and Nicholls was convicted of intentionally causing serious his arrest, the former Hawthorn and Richmond player's life had become consumed by ice and a descent into the underworld. Keys told supporters Nicholls had not only left jail a reformed man, but with a tough-guy reputation that ensured the CFMEU had earmarked him to join its growing list of criminals-turned-union reps. Keys got in first, appointing Nicholls his new AWU wind farm deputy delegate. Nicholls would in turn bring his own hard men to the wind farm, proposing as a delegate an ex-Geelong bikie and boxer called Brad Azzopardi, who had been released from prison after being jailed for a dangerous driving incident that left a man dead. Wiser heads in the AWU intervened and Azzopardi, who has a 1 per cent bikie tattoo on his head, was instead given a support job on the wind farm. Nicholls also arranged for ex-bikie Jonny Walker, who served eight years in jail for manslaughter over the fatal bashing of a man in a bikie clubhouse, to get work at the wind farm after the CFMEU turfed Walker amid a bikie cleanout in the wake of the Building Bad scandal in July 2024. Along with hard men, Keys and his deputy were also assembling a group of staunch AWU companies capable of withstanding the CFMEU's pressure and heavy connections. Project sources said 24-7 would come to stand out. Workers from rival labour hire firms were pushed onto its books and 24-7 began promoting, through its website, its achievement in supplying 'approximately 50 skilled people … to one of the largest renewable wind farm projects in the world', as well as its 'close working relationships with industry stakeholders, including unions'. When project and union insiders queried why Keys appeared so enamoured with the labour hire company, despite its lack of obvious civil construction experience or AWU history, they became concerned it was because of the whispers that 24-7 had both gangland and CFMEU protection. When first approached by this masthead a fortnight ago, Keys said he had no knowledge of the firm's criminal links, or of any person called Bassem. He said 24-7 involved only 'two girl directors and the operations manager' and that he had 'never met a guy' called Bassem. Keys subsequently refused to answer further questions on the record, despite repeated attempts by this masthead to quiz him. But photos uncovered by this masthead show Keys, Nicholls and a third AWU delegate being hosted by 24-7 at the Collingwood AFL President's Lunch at the MCG on the day the Building Bad scandal broke last July. In the photos, there is no sign of the firm's female directors. Rather, the AWU trio are snapped at the 24-7 table posing with two brothers, Bassem and Osama Elsayed, along with a third man, Jarrod Hennig. Bassem is a convicted criminal who was accused in a September 2017 bail hearing by a Victoria Police special taskforce of hiring a violent criminal to bribe a grandmother preparing to testify that his brother Osama had shoved a gun in her son's mouth over a drug debt. A detective told the bail hearing of her concerns about Bassem's 'associations with organised crime' and how phone taps had captured him and his younger brother talking about how the violent criminal would be 'taking care of it'. Loading 'They have a conversation, laughing in regards to how loose … [the standover man] is and they know that he has … [previously] murdered someone,' the court heard. The court also heard allegations Bassem had separately extorted an associate over a $100,000 business loan, texting the victim: 'I hope Allah burns you in hell you thief' and allegedly hiring a standover man who threatened to 'rape' the debtor's family. After the victim retracted the most serious allegations from his statement, Bassem was sentenced in 2019 to six months' jail and a 12-month community corrections order. The conviction added to a criminal rap sheet that already included 'offences of violence, dishonesty, firearm, driving and drug offences' and which Victorian Supreme Court judge Rita Zammit described as 'significant'. Osama was, in August 2019, separately jailed for three years and four months for his role in a drug trafficking syndicate and for separate charges of robbery and recklessly causing injury. This drug syndicate was led by the third man photographed at the MCG lunch, Jarrod Hennig, who was jailed for eight years on multiple counts of drug trafficking. Industry, underworld and police sources, along with corporate and court records, reveal Hennig's middle name to be Morgan. He is the 'Jarrod Morgan' whose signature appears on AWU enterprise bargaining agreements secured by 24-7 in 2023 and 2024. Hennig is also married to Rebecca Reed, who signed off on the same documents as 24-7's director. Her co-director, Kristina Kuzmanovska, is Bassem Elsayed's wife. Osama Elsayed also appears to have been involved in the 24-7 group, creating a business called 24-7 Waterproofing in 2024 with fellow convicted drug trafficker Mohsen Mehrijafarloo. In January 2025, 24-7 Labour moved its registered office to a new Northcote business address. On the same day, Osama moved another of his businesses to the same registered office. The address is the office of accountant Charles Pellegrino, who for years has handled the finances of the CFMEU-backed gangland figures Mick Gatto and John Khoury. Pellegrino's Northcote office was raided in March by a federal police team investigating payments to Pellegrino's companies that were allegedly intended for Gatto, Khoury and other construction industry or union players. No charges have been laid. There is no suggestion the Elsayed brothers are the targets of that federal police operation. But they have their own strong links to the CFMEU. A character referee for Bassem at his 2017 bail hearing was ex-kickboxer and bouncer Chris Chrisopoulidis, who told the judge he was 'good friends' with Bassem. Chrisopoulidis would go on to become one of the CFMEU organisers who confronted Keys on the West Gate project. Bassem's wife, Kristina, is also a 50 per cent shareholder of a construction firm which gained a CFMEU enterprise bargaining agreement in 2021. Her co-owner of that business is builder Thomas Chillico, who is facing criminal charges for allegedly bribing a public official to gain construction permits. In a statement, Rebecca Reed said 24-7 'has no knowledge of or involvement with organised crime at all and is in all respects a well-run small family business. Loading 'If anyone has made allegations that 24-7 … is in any way involved with organised crime, those allegations are false,' she wrote. She said that while the company took a 'progressive approach to ex-offenders', Bassem had no 'formal involvement' with her firm. Reed did not answer several specific questions, or respond to further requests. Asked about whether he knew of 24-7 ties to any criminals such as Bassem, AWU secretary Ronnie Hayden said he had 'no idea who any of these people are'. 'When 24-7 came to us … Jared [sic] came with two women, Rebecca and Kristina,' he said. Hayden stressed he had never authorised the AWU to give preferential treatment to any labour hire firm. He conceded it was possible Keys had 'favoured' 24-7 because of concerns other labour hire firms were not giving the AWU the chance to recruit their workers as union members. 'I understand Johnny was pissed off with the labour hire companies that had done that,' he said. Before 24-7 was engaged at Golden Plains, there was the Host Group. It not only supplied multiple workers to the wind farm project but allied itself closely with the AWU in Queensland, contributing dozens of workers and security personnel to the government-funded Centenary Bridge upgrade in Brisbane. Host's director Gary Samuel has recently fallen out dramatically with the AWU over hotly disputed claims of underpayment of workers. But until last year, Host promoted itself boldly as the AWU's preferred labour hire company across the nation, helping it win an important contract with Centenary Bridge's key contractor, BMD Group. That deal partly involved providing security against intimidation tactics carried out by the CFMEU on the project. BMD declined to comment, but this masthead's investigation has confirmed that a security subcontractor used by Host to help do this engaged several high-ranking Comancheros, including the feared bikie group's national president, Bemir Saracevic, to intimidate CFMEU figures in Brisbane last year. While there is no suggestion that Samuel himself was involved in the Comanchero standover, he has a history of underworld relationships. Sources close to Samuel have confirmed he met Saracevic on multiple occasions, having employed one of the bikie boss's close friends as a Host adviser and worker. Royal commission records reveal that in 2011, Samuel advised a building firm owned by Mick Gatto and his fellow underworld identity Mat Tomas (both Tomas and Gatto achieved notoriety by beating separate murder charges). Samuel later went into a failed business venture with Tomas and also ran the Victorian operations of the now-deceased labour hire king Kevin McHugh, whom federal police charged in 2020 with money laundering offences and tax fraud. Loading Samuel is also close to convicted drug trafficker turned businessman Michael La Verde, who married into a prominent Calabrian mafia family and has a host of organised crime connections. La Verde claims on LinkedIn to be involved in Samuel's Host Group, although it is understood this is limited to Samuel providing his friend an email address. Samuel declined to answer specific questions but in a statement said it was 'important to acknowledge the ongoing rivalry between the CFMEU and the AWU' and that 'certain factions of the CFMEU have been linked to organised crime'. 'Our company is law-abiding and has no link to organised crime,' he said. The AWU is now rethinking its backing of the firm at the wind farm and the Centenary Bridge. Quizzed about Host, Hayden conceded the union failed to undertake thorough due diligence of labour hire firms it has supported with EBAs and other union backing. He said the union would lift its game but also urged federal and state governments to do more to weed out sinister players in the industry. Hayden said one vital reform the Albanese government could back was banning labour hire on government-funded projects. 'I think any project that the government are putting taxpayers' money into should be direct employment,' he said. A Victorian government spokesperson said it was 'eradicating the rotten culture' in the construction industry, including through the introduction of new powers for the Labour Hire Authority. Federal Workplace Relations minister Amanda Rishworth said the government was finalising a blueprint to improve the industry and was working on the implementation of a new labour hire system.