The Wrap Angel Reese Records The Most Rebounds In A Single Wnba Season

Welcome to The Wrap, a weekly podcast covering women's sports news.

Bez, what have we got around the grounds this week?

Our Paralympians are winning plenty of medals in Paris.

Football Australia announced a new broadcast deal

and Angel Rees has the treats for movie nights covered moving forward.

I like that.

For the key story, we'll discuss the new technology being used

in the AFLW for the first time this season.

My name is Chloe Dalton.

I'm joined every week on the show by my co-host, Bez.

We're recording on Gadigal land.

Before we jump into the ep today, we've got a new series.

We've partnered up with KO to do a new series called Everyone's Game.

And the whole purpose is to, rather than just sitting down

and interviewing athletes and experts like we often do on the podcast,

the whole purpose of this series is to discuss issues that impact women in sport.

So the first two episodes are out.

I'll make sure producer Soph puts the link in the show notes

so you can have a listen, but go check it out.

Let's take a look around the grounds.

The Paralympians.

The Paralympics.

It's been fun so far, hasn't it?

So good.

In some rowing news, Nicky Ayres and Jed Alschwager.

Alschwager?

Alschwager.

He had some swagger after the...

He was awesome.

They were like an epic pair, weren't they?

It was a beautiful interview after they won.

So, spoiler alert, they've become the first Aussie power rowers

to win a gold medal and the first athletes ever to win

the new PR3 Mixed Doubles event.

Ayres and Alschwager saw off a challenge from Great Beach,

to win in a time of seven minutes and 26 seconds.

Rowers are always so cooked after they cross the line.

Have you ever been on a rowing machine?

Oh, sorry, better mute my emails.

Yeah, I was on one this morning.

It wasn't great.

I broke it.

Did you do that?

No, I literally nearly...

This is in seven minutes.

I genuinely nearly broke it.

I was pulling too hard.

I nearly...

The seat made some awful sound and, yeah, it was not fun.

But, no, definitely not seven minutes and 20 seconds flat chat.

They're amazing athletes.

Ayres told media from when Jed and I first got into this,

we sat down with our coaches and said what our goals were

and what we were aiming for.

The two things we wanted to be were undeniable and unbeatable

and we showed that today.

It shows that all the hard work paid off.

Undeniable and unbeatable.

It's cool.

I like that.

In cycling at the Paralympics, Emily Petricola went into the women's

C4 3000 metre individual pursuit as the reigning world record holder

and she proved she is unstoppable in the event.

All the uns.

All the uns.

She broke her own world record in the heats to qualify

for the gold medal race and the gold medal race was all Petricola.

She lapped New Zealand athlete Anna Taylor to claim back-to-back

Paralympic golds in the event.

She was very emotional, wasn't she, afterwards?

It was really quite special.

She said, I'm not shocked because I've worked so hard,

but it's been such a hard eight weeks.

These three years have been really, really hard.

My body has been fighting me really hard.

She added tears streaming down her face.

It's been a crazy, horrible period,

but this makes it work.

It's worth it.

Love that for her.

So good.

Congrats, Emily.

And on the athletics track in a three-way battle

and she was gunning for a spot on the podium

at the Paralympics Australia's Madison,

De Rosario claimed bronze in the women's T54 5000 metres.

The five-time Paralympian held off two Swiss athletes

who were both in a hot pursuit as she stormed home to cross the line.

De Rosario's pursuit got off to a dramatic start in the final

with officials restarting the race due to an early crash.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

How's the adrenaline in your system?

And then they have to go,

they had to go do another lap and then get back into the zone.

And for Maddie,

I know you're going to talk about it,

but it's been very elusive,

the podium for the 5,000 metres.

So Maddie said,

my start really came together perfectly

and then I had this bit of a shock

when I heard the guns go again to call us back.

So like you said,

she was off.

She was ready.

She said it was a bit daunting.

I wasn't sure what my second start was going to look like,

but I'm happy.

So the T,

as you said,

Chloe,

the T54 5000 medal was the one that had been very elusive,

but Madison De Rosario,

she finished fourth in Rio and fifth in Tokyo.

So nice bronze,

I reckon.

So that means LA,

she'll get silver and Brisbane,

she'll get gold.

Perfect.

Sounds perfect to me.

Great plan.

Let's let Maddie know.

That's what she's doing.

Solid progression.

In AFLW,

I actually thought I was watching the AFLW grand final on Friday night.

I'm not joking.

I was so invested in this game.

You were even,

you were talking about it.

I didn't stick around and watch the second game with you,

but during the first game,

you were pumped for Daisy Pierce.

I was really pumped for her and we tweeted about it and shared it on the

TFAP socials,

because I think in men's football,

we know that there's generations on generations of fans of their teams and

the clubs and things like that,

where they have bought in.

They've grown up being a fan of a particular club.

The women's league is now into its eighth year,

ninth season,

because we played two seasons in a year.

And I just think it's a really beautiful evolution of the game.

We've seen other women coaching.

We've also seen Loz Arnell,

um,

in an AFLW coaching role at Port Adelaide,

who was an exceptional AFLW player herself.

But I think credit to Daisy,

the way she made an impact as a footballer,

who she was as a player and pioneer of the game.

She had twins,

came back,

led her team to a premiership at the D's.

And there's been a huge amount of talk about where she's going to go.

So she's ended up at the Eagles who've been struggling for a number of years.

I just think it's a beautiful evolution of the game to,

to allow fans to kind of buy into that next layer of it.

Yeah.

I love it.

And you didn't even mention her media work too.

She's probably my favorite commentator.

She's sad that that part's now potentially.

I feel a bit sad about that too.

Not going to be part of her repertoire anymore or for now.

Yeah.

But yeah,

she,

she really is one of those people that has kind of touched on every aspect of

the game to date.

And yeah,

you were very excited about her coaching day,

but I was,

and I've got some good friends and former teammates at Richmond.

I didn't want them to do well,

but I don't know.

They're just,

I'm just here for the underdog maybe.

Um,

so it was pretty,

it was pretty hectic.

So at halftime West coast were up by 22 points.

Richmond didn't really come to play for a while.

West coast led the entire game before Amelia.

You see a put Richmond ahead with three minutes remaining.

And it was a switch that West coast needed to flip because I think they'd

panicked and gone in to save the game,

but almost stopped playing footy.

So when they were then behind,

it was awesome.

Cause then they started attacking again.

Kelly Gibson took a very clever mark with 43 seconds to go in the,

the goal square.

She could have easily run through and kicked it,

but she was quite smart and milked the clock for 30 seconds.

The clock that she couldn't say that Pez doesn't like the fact that you can't

see a clock in,

in Aussie rules.

That's a conversation for another day.

Anyway,

congrats to the Eagles on a one point win 40 to 39 over Richmond in round one

shout out to Daisy Pierce on your coaching debut in AFLW.

So good.

In some NRLW,

the Cronulla sharks have made it six from six in this year's NRLW with a

decisive 22 to six victory over last year's grand finalists.

The gold.

Coast Titans while the Titans dominated the early exchanges,

it was Cronulla who struck first after they ran 90 minutes in two plays to

open the scoring through Tiana Penitentiary.

The gold coast kept the pressure on after the try and the score was only 10,

six at the break,

but the sharks held the home side scoreless in the second half running away

with the match four tries to one.

And we all know that defense wins.

I didn't know if we were going back and forth or together or what we were

doing.

Uh, in football,

football,

Australia and paramount Australia have announced a landmark multi-year and

multi-platform agreement to broadcast an extended package of Matilda's games on

network 10 through to 2028.

The five-year agreement means network 10 and paramount plus will broadcast

some Matilda's next two major tournaments.

We love that the 2026 women's Asian cup,

which will be hosted by Australia and the 2027 FIFA women's world cup in

Brazil.

Are we going to Brazil?

Yes.

Done sold,

but the vast majority of matches will be shown behind the paramount plus paywall.

I probably got a bit excited a bit too early about behind the paywall.

It is the first time FA's national team rights have been sold as part of a

bundle with both the Asian football confederation rights and the women's world

cup,

which the federation secured in separate deals to then on-sell to boost the

value of the rights.

They own approximately half of all Socceroos and Matilda's matches for the next

broadcast cycle.

There will be over a hundred in total.

Lots of games,

lots of football.

Wow.

We'll be shown behind a paywall,

which is a roughly similar carve up to the expiring deal and was stipulated by

the FA in the tender process.

It's an interesting one.

This,

I think it's a good deal.

If you look at it on face value,

it is a good deal.

It's good money.

There's a lot of football going to be on television.

The paywall part of it is problematic because we know that people want to see

these,

these games on free.

Yeah.

And I think I think we probably got a bit caught up in the excitement and just

the epicness of the women's world cup in what year was 2023.

We'll say you're in Australia.

Yeah.

You know what?

So many of those matches were behind a paywall as well.

So I,

it just makes it hard for everyone to say it.

We were here in Sydney.

We got to go see games and things like that.

I think,

I think free to air is so vital to continue to grow fandom and engagement.

How does that sit though?

If part of if the broadcast deals are the biggest revenue in the game,

and that's just the nature of how sport works,

like how does that work moving forward?

If we want there to be more investment in the women's game.

And I've thought about this briefly while you were speaking,

I guess,

and you're right.

The subscription model is wherever a lot of people make that guaranteed income.

You don't have to worry about it.

It's a subscription amount that,

you know,

is received quarterly or whatever it might be.

I just think that the,

the free to air companies need to put more invest,

put more investment into the actual game and sell the advertising through the

fruit on their free to air channels for more money and to,

to compensate for the subscription model that they may earn less on.

So 10 and paramount plus of it obviously are aligned.

So they get the broadcast deal and they put more into their commercial side so

they can put more on 10.

Thank you.

Yeah.

So put it on channel 10 and sell the ad space for more in a simple way.

I like it.

Charge more for the ad space.

I like it.

In more football news,

there's been a bit of doping drama.

This is a weird one,

wasn't it?

This one was messy.

I'm really feeling for Ivy.

It's yeah,

it's a lot.

And I think both having been involved in elite sports spaces,

you as a player,

me as a not player,

this,

this can be tricky.

This part of it.

So Ivy Lewick was really,

but it has a real that she had been found guilty of an anti doping violation after being treated for a back injury.

The 39 year old,

who currently plays in Sweden,

was forced to rule herself out of playing at the Paris Olympics was a bit weird.

That was a it was a very kind of smoky reason as to why she was not playing hamstring injury.

And yeah,

I think so.

The old hammy hammy safe excuse that obviously ruling us off potentially has ended her international career.

She was the reason she did so was she was told that she faced a three month ban by Italian anti doping agency Nardo Italia.

She told the sports ambassador podcast that it just made my heart drop.

The ban relates to treatment.

She received her back injury during her time with Naples base club,

Pamigliano.

The 42 cat Matilda was treated with a cortisone injection,

which despite initial concerns,

she was told would be okay.

The club asked Lewick to sign a TUE,

a therapeutic use exemption,

which is an application to the world anti doping agency water that you pretty much put paperwork in and say,

Hey,

I'm using this by subcontracting.

Substance,

but I have a medical reason to do so.

But weeks later,

she was told about her three months suspension from the game.

Professional footballers,

Australia released a statement showing their support for Lewick.

Ivy's case further highlights the need to establish an anti doping system that respects the fundamental rights of athletes and is effective in pursuing its stated objectives in speaking out.

Ivy has once again demonstrated the courage and character she's always shown on and off the pitch.

I think it's just an exhausting time for her,

because we've seen.

A number of different athletes,

but we saw Peter bowl go through that process.

There was the whole issue with the Chinese swimmers in the lead up to the Olympics.

Like there's just starting to be,

I think for me as an athlete,

I've always looked to water in these anti doping associations as watertight.

And there's been a few instances now,

and this is obviously a reflection of the Italian anti doping agency rather than water.

But I think it's pretty concerning when you say stories like this that have the potential,

not only to ruin athletes,

career,

this could be the end of Ivy's international career,

but actually ruin their public image and persona.

Absolutely.

And any reputation,

I guess for want of a better word.

And I think the biggest issue here is,

as you said,

it's the inconsistencies that seem to be pretty prevalent in this case between wider and the Italian doping agency.

Really rough for Ivy.

In some WNBA news,

Angel Reese broke the WNBA record for the most rebounds in a single season.

It's not even,

not even done yet.

Not even done yet.

Multiple rounds to go.

Wow.

And of course she's a rookie.

The Chicago sky forward broke the mark for the most rebounds in a single season when she grabbed her six board in Sunday,

79 to 74 lost to the Minnesota links that gave Reese 405 boards for the season.

That's a lot of rebounds.

Sure is.

Whoa.

Overtaking Sylvia Fowler's record of 404 set during the 2018 campaign.

In that match,

she finished with 19 rebounds.

And 17 points notch up her 24th double-double of the season.

24 double-doubles is very,

very impressive.

As a rookie.

Yeah.

You know who else is coming good?

Who?

Caitlin Clark.

Haven't heard her name before.

I mean,

she's always been good,

but now she's consistently scoring 30 points a game.

Yes.

It just took a while,

didn't it?

Oh,

the physicality.

And that's speaking about Angel Reese.

And obviously this is unfortunately the horrible thing that these two rookies are both exceptional at what they do and people are pitting them against each other.

In a ridiculous race argument.

Um,

but the issue that Caitlin Clark had,

I think when she started was the physicality.

So it makes Angel Reese's like rebounding rebounding is it's not easy.

Yes.

So,

I mean,

I know she's obviously a bigger body,

but she's still a rookie.

She's in there against bigger,

older,

more experienced bodies.

She's killing it.

She's also,

it's,

this is a really cool collab.

I'm so here for it.

She's teamed up with Hershey's races for an epic partnership.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

She posted a tweet.

Say Reese's pieces where y'all at,

which was maybe a nod to the company,

but also to her fans who have started calling themselves Reese's pieces.

Love that.

The collective noun for fans of Angel Reese pieces,

pieces.

It's so good.

Melissa bled,

senior brand manager of races told marketing brew.

We had definitely been keeping our eyes on angel for a while,

given the obvious name connection.

But once we learned angels fans had started to call themselves the Reese's pieces and she was calling them the Reese's pieces.

We felt naturally invited to be part of the fandom.

That's really cool because it's like them feeling like they needed to be invited in,

in a way rather than being like,

Hey,

we're here to do this.

I love it.

I would like to know if it was going to be an Aussie athlete,

what would your brand co-labs be?

Obviously Ray gun and Ray docks.

Yes.

Because after you've busted that many cool moves,

you definitely need a mineral salt bath.

Good.

Ellie Cole,

Colgate.

Nice.

Tay Harris,

Harris farm.

Good.

Vanessa low at Lowe's,

which you have to wear Lowe's kit.

That's ordinary.

Oh,

Coco golf pops.

That's good.

She lost this morning.

Oh,

sad.

Curry web jet.

Web jet is good.

It's good.

Shayna hungry jacks.

That's great.

Kate Campbell's soups.

Perfect.

What soup would be your favorite Kate?

I reckon.

I reckon she's like a tomato.

So that's what's coming.

Tomatoes.

Campbell's tomato.

So I don't know how I feel about it.

Lindsay Fox.

Obviously there's so many Fox related things,

but also the trucks you're passing on the Fox.

Fox tell or another Fox is passing you.

Fox tell another Fox is passing you.

That's good.

Yeah.

Down the rapids.

Yeah.

Lydia RM Williams.

There's so many here.

That's good.

I'm so here for it with any others you might have,

we should probably.

Put a little petition together and start speaking to these massive

corporate brands and telling them to get behind these amazing

female athletes.

Yes,

we should.

Let's take a look at the key story in a bit of AFL W technology

news for the first time score assist technology will be used in

AFL W this season.

Score assist will work in a covert manner.

It sounds like it's a spy whereby,

if the ball is a trench coat and a hat crosses the goal line,

hits the post or is touched in flight,

there'll be score assist officials.

S A O say,

oh,

say,

oh,

crazy.

Can't beat a stay over a snack,

make it happen,

operating at each game.

And there'll be real time alert indicating what has happened.

So this has been made possible through the introduction of the smart ball.

So what happens?

So pretty much if someone's kicked a goal and they are unsure whether it usually goes through big sticks or the small sticks.

So big,

if you don't know,

six points,

small six,

one point in the men's game,

they've got technology called the arc.

And because the men's always play in these big stadiums,

they have the technology set up at every ground that is played in for the men's AFL in AFL W there's a push to

play in a lot of community and regional grounds.

And so there's not the ability or the funding for the technology to ensure that there's really consistent score of you to be

put in place.

So this to me is an amazing and amazing piece of technology because I think it's a great,

great example of we don't need to copy and paste what the men do.

Let's adapt the women's game using technology so that there's still ways to ensure there's fairness because there are a couple of instances in previous seasons where the ball may have been touched off the boot.

One of the players may have claimed,

hey,

touched off the boot shouldn't be six points.

It should just be one point,

but they didn't have the technology to review.

So it was just if the goal umpired called goal,

it was a goal.

Now they can actually go back and look at it.

And I just think from an equity perspective,

it's such a good decision.

So the sensors assist with tracking and motion,

which determine the ball's exact position on the field,

distance traveled,

speed,

spin rates and flight or hang time.

Love it.

It's cool.

AFL EGM of football,

Laura Cain said this technology differs to that used in the men's AFL,

as you were saying,

and she said it's to help umpires officiate.

It will just happen in a different way.

In AFL,

we use cameras.

In AFLW,

we'll use a ball that effectively has a GPS chip in it,

in its body.

It's a ladder.

That's what it's called.

Right.

We've upgraded all of the communications for all of our umpires who will have

headsets and microphones,

and there will be score assist operators at every game.

One thing I would like to say on that,

um,

I watched many games of AFLW across the weekend.

There needs to be a bit more excitement while it's happening.

Give me like a KFC bucket.

That's telling me whether it's a goal or not a goal.

It just,

it just was camera on the umpires and that was it.

They need some drama.

Give me something on the screen.

Or like just say under review or I don't know,

do something.

Some graphics.

Someone make some graphics.

Someone make some graphics please.

You can do that.

You're very good.

Multiskilled.

You could do some,

draw up some graphics,

send it off to a AFLW and with a big,

big invoice.

So there's been thousands of hours of testing,

including various iterations of the ball to ensure it looks,

feels,

weighs and performs like a typical NAB AFLW match ball.

This has included blind testing with players,

lab tests to validate sensor accuracy and ball performance,

and extensive field and match play deployment to build the sensor accuracy

and basic performance qualities.

How good.

So the officials now have both the smart ball alert and capacity to review

broadcast vision to determine the correct outcome.

Great combo.

Love it.

Can we,

does this also pick up things like velocity?

I do think there's an element of it where they're going to get a lot of data

from it.

Regardless,

they put,

they put sensors in rugby balls a while ago.

Didn't really take off the kind of measure.

Well,

they,

I think they still got the,

the details,

but they're trying to make people excited about the data speed and things like

that.

I feel like people get excited about player data.

I don't know if it's the same about ball data,

but like the football member football world cup was at Alessia Russo.

Who was it?

That keeps a really fast penalty goal.

No,

Chloe was a Chloe Kelly.

Chloe Kelly.

I think it was.

And that was that tracked from the chip in the ball.

Yes.

So maybe the people want it.

Let's take a look at what to watch.

Paralympics continues.

All the way till Sunday.

Get on our socials.

Have a look.

We've got schedules for you.

We've got medals for you.

We've got it all for you.

All the things in AFLW,

the Western Bulldogs take on Port Adelaide this Friday night at the MCG in the first double header of the year.

Both teams will be fired up coming off round one losses with the action kicking off Friday night at 4 30 PM AEST.

And you can catch it live and free on channel seven and the seven plus app.

Just on that whilst 4 30 PM on a Friday is not the most ideal time to be at the ground.

Kudos to Western Bulldogs for throwing the toys out of the cot when their final was announced to be on at the same time as their women's match and they said, we don't want to be playing at the same time.

Let's have a double header.

Love that.

Well done.

NLW.

It's an exciting weekend with first place playing fourth and third playing second.

It's like a little final series early.

The undefeated sharks take on fourth place roosters on Sunday at midday while the second placed Broncos head to Newcastle to take on the third place nights in Newcastle on Sunday at 6 10 PM.

All the action will be live and free on the night network this weekend in tennis.

We're quickly moving into the quarterfinals at this year's US Open.

Whilst all the Aussies are out, unfortunately, there are still some epic matchups this whole week, culminating in the final on Sunday, the 8th of September.

The tournament is broadcast live and free on the night network and Stan Sport in there's under 20 FIFA World Cup is on the young Matildas are back in action and they'll be looking to bounce back from a two nil loss to Columbia when they take on Mexico on Wednesday morning.

They then back it up when they take on Cameroon on Saturday morning, the final game in the group stage, both matches kick off at 8 AM AEST, and they'll be live and free on the 10 play app in a bit of surfing after nine regular season events.

WSL finals brings the top five men and top five women in professional surfing to lower trestles for a one day winner.

Take all showdown for the coveted title of world champion currently sitting in the number four spot.

Aussie Molly Picklin will be out to make her presence felt.

The waiting period begins.

This Saturday, the 6th of September, and you can watch the final live on WSL.com and KO Sports.

Go Pickles.

That's the wrap.

That is the wrap.

See you next week.