Salute good sports

IT hasn’t been a great week for the AFL. In fact, it’s been a shocker.

Hawthorn skipper Ben Stratton’s dirty tactics were prime time news on Friday night.

The following night the league botched its response to unruly crowd behaviour, an issue that was kept in the headlines by Jeff Kennett. As president of one of the league’s highest profile clubs, the former state premier should have known better. At least he had the good sense to later apologise for what he said.

Then a new player betting scandal emerged on Tuesday.

Collingwood’s Jaidyn Stephenson has set a cautionary example for other cashed-up AFL players about the perils of gambling on the sport; a message that was hammered home by the league with a hefty suspension yesterday.

While many people will struggle to comprehend how Stephenson could be so stupid, his case does show how easily some minds — particularly those belonging to young men — get clouded by the punt.

With one more of the three shortened, mid-season rounds to play, AFL chief Gill McLachlan will be hopeful that attention soon turns back to the on-field action, and the intriguing run to the 2019 finals.

Elsewhere, it’s been a great month for Australian sport, particularly women’s sport.

Sam Kerr’s heroics yesterday morning in France catapulted the Matildas into the round of 16 at the soccer World Cup.

With four goals against Jamaica, our national captain wrote her name into World Cup folklore, and laid claim to being Australia’s best — and most marketable — sportsperson at this moment.

The fiercest competition for that position comes from tennis star Ash Barty, who became just the second indigenous Australian to win a grand slam tournament when she conquered the French Open.

With the closing stages of the World Cup approaching, and Wimbledon soon to start, Kerr and Barty are just the type of sporting stars Australians can be proud to cheer for.