The South Sydney Rabbitohs leadership group were at Rod Laver Arena on Thursday night to watch nine-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic.
The Rabbitohs players and coaching staff have been in Melbourne the past few days as part of a leadership camp with AFL club Richmond Tigers.
Latrell Mitchell kicks an AFL ball at Richmond’s Punt Road Oval.Credit:Instagram
Forget Eddie Jones’ raid of rugby league, which he declared upon his return to Australian rugby. Perhaps it’s the AFL the NRL has to worry about, judging by the ease with which Latrell Mitchell slotted the Sherrin through the sticks from the boundary at Punt Road Oval.
His Instagram post with “sign me up” captioned would have sent shivers down the spine of NRL bosses Andrew Abdo and the Melbourne-hating Peter V’landys.
Mitchell joined five-eighth Cody Walker, hooker Damien Cook, skipper Cameron Murray, winger Alex Johnston, prop Junior Tatola, forward Jai Arrow and centre Campbell Graham on the pre-season camp.
Coach Jason Demteriou also brought his assistants on the study trip, as well as South Sydney chief operating officer Brock Schaefer.
Richmond’s Trent Cotchin with South Sydney’s Cameron Murray.Credit:South Sydney Rabbitohs
The Rabbitohs have formed an alliance with the Tigers over the past few years, a relationship that began after South Sydney hosted Richmond during the Sydney COVID bubble in 2020.
Souths will remain in Melbourne on Friday for the final day of their three-day leadership camp with the Tigers.
But they managed to sneak in a match at Rod Laver Arena before heading back to Sydney to finish their pre-season. The Rabbitohs begin their premiership assault against the Sharks in Cronulla on March 4.
Kyrgios declines commentary gig
There’s no denying Nick Kyrgios is a ratings sensation. After his shock withdrawal from the tournament, Channel Nine, the publishers of this masthead, reached out to his management to see if there was any appetite from the 27-year-old to make his commentary debut.
Kyrgios, though, decided to enjoy his last few nights in Melbourne with friends and family. He has a specialist appointment for his knee on Thursday before going under the knife to repair the tear on Monday.
King of the aces
John Isner serves another rocket at the Australian Open.Credit:Getty
Big-serving American John Isner bowed out of the tournament in the first round but not before creating some history along the way.
Isner became the first male player to hit 14,000 aces in his career, slamming down 21 in his opening-round loss to veteran Frenchman Adrian Mannarino.
Controversy and coaching in busy day for Chardy
Jeremy Chardy was knocked out of the Australian Open in controversial circumstances after an altercation with the chair umpire over a ball falling out of his pocket.
He didn’t have a lot of time to voice his frustrations after the match, rushing off to oversee countryman Ugo Humbert.
“I need to go because I start to coach Ugo Humbert during this period,” he said during the press conference. “And for the moment he still has no coach, so I’m still his coach.
“He has nobody, but I will try to find someone good for him. I’m happy. He play a good match. So when he lose and I lose, it’s tough. He won yesterday, so it give me happiness. I hope he will win today like this and my day is a good day.”
Brit Evans a Big Bash fan
After his heat-affected first-round win, Great Britain’s Dan Evans said he watched Roy Keane appear on Irish comedian Tommy Tiernan’s talk show to fill some time during the break.
After another win in Melbourne on Thursday, he was asked about some of his viewing habits and revealed that he’d been enjoying life in the sporting capital of Australia.
“If I’m honest with you, I watch a lot of sport, I watch Big Bash most nights,” he said. “I’ve been to two games since I’ve been here. I think it’s Thunder-Renegades today. Yeah, probably watch that tonight.”
As for which side of the fence he’s sitting on? “Obviously I’m here in Melbourne, so Stars,” he said. “I think it’s Joe Clarke, he opens for Melbourne. Plays for Nottingham, I think. He’s English, as well. Pretty good T20 player to watch. I don’t have a team. I watch pretty much any of it. It’s good viewing.”
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