Latest sports news: Rosebud rallies behind draft hope Henry Hustwaite – CODE’s Best of Sport

Rosebud rallies behind draft hope Henry Hustwaite

Dandenong Stingray Henry Hustwaite was already doing incredible things on the footy field, but a growth spurt now has the 195cm midfielder firmly in the AFL‘s sights, writes PAUL AMY.

Ahead of the Dandenong Stingrays’ best and fairest, club talent manager Toby Jedwab put together a highlights package of Henry Hustwaite.

It was part of the recognition for the left-footer finishing third in the count.

What Jedwab had seen so often in games he saw in replays as he compiled the presentation-night clip.

“When you watch them multiple times, the thing that keeps standing out is how poised he is with ball in hand, really composed, never rushed, finds space when others don’t,’’ Jedwab says.

“Some of his hands in close, the ability to release others from congestion with a 20m handball, is pretty impressive.’’

AFL clubs agree.

A few weeks out from the national draft, the 195cm midfielder from Rosebud is regarded as one of the Stingrays’ best hopes to go to a league club.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Locks and bolters of the Socceroos’ best XI

There is one month for Graham Arnold to sort out the Socceroos before their first game against France. ADAM PEACOCK picks his most-likely starting side.

Each moment on a football pitch for Socceroos scattered all over the world is becoming increasingly important, with 31 sleeps until Australia’s opening game of the World Cup.

Graham Arnold will wake up each day hoping there’s only good news. Players in form. No injuries. There’s a few of those. But that’s the theme across the world at the moment. Hectic club schedules are striking a line through key players for every nation.

Every Socceroo has to be on deck because the challenge on November 22 in the south of Doha is considerable. France. Didier Deschamps, their manager, will select from an embarrassment of riches, leaving some seriously talented and expensive footballers with massive egos out.

Arnold will need a specifically chosen line up to combat French strengths, particularly in the first hour, with options off the bench to either chase the game, or protect points late on.

Here’s how a likely first 11 shapes up.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

How Cheatle’s hardest hurdles evolved her cricket

Between several serious injuries and a shock skin cancer diagnosis, there were times Sydney Sixers bowler Lauren Cheatle could have given up – but all it has done is make her stronger, writes LACHLAN McKIRDY.

The Lauren Cheatle story is one of the more remarkable in Australian cricket.

Debuting for Australia as a teenager. Dealing with relentless injuries. A shock skin cancer diagnosis.

Every single chapter has brought hurdles. Each season, a new setback she’s had to overcome. But rising above it all has been her prodigious talent.

Other players in her shoes may have given up years ago, thinking the life of a professional athlete wasn’t for them.

Yet for this 23-year-old, everything to this point has just been an opportunity to grow and display maturity beyond her years. There’s not a thing she would change.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Bent’s big sacrifice pays off with Jillaroos call up

Shaylee Bent has spent most of this year living away from her own home on the Gold Coast, but through a stroke of luck it didn’t cost her a Jillaroos debut, writes PAMELA WHALEY

To Shaylee Bent, the reality of playing semi-professional rugby league has meant sleeping in her own bed on the Gold Coast for about two-and-a -half months in total this year.

It means leaving an important job she loves, working with Link Up NSW, reuniting members of Australia’s Stolen Generation with their families.

It means making choices between what’s right for her NRLW career and what might be easier on her family and personal life. It means great sacrifice.

But with one phone call from Jillaroos coach Brad Donald, everything she’s done to play the game this year became worthwhile.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

‘Daddy centuries’: Handscomb, Renshaw stake Test case

Peter Handscomb and Matt Renshaw debuted together and fell from favour. They‘re rising again, write DANIEL CHERNY and LACHLAN McKIRDY.

It would be easy to suggest that Matt Renshaw and Peter Handscomb on Thursday put themselves back onto the Test selection radar.

But in truth both were already there. Renshaw played for Australia A on the tour of Sri Lanka earlier this year, while Handscomb would have done so had he not needed to return home early from his stint with Middlesex after wife Sarah went into premature labour.

Clearly, though, there was some neat symmetry to the fact that the pair – both of whom burst onto the Test scene only to disappear within three years – posted respective double centuries in the Sheffield Shield on the same day.

There is no bad time to score runs en masse. And the selectors will always look kindly on those who can post what are these days known as “daddy hundreds.”

But the circumstances are significantly different to when Renshaw, Handscomb and Nic Maddinson were called up for the Adelaide Test of 2016.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

VISIT CODE SPORTS FOR MORE GREAT STORIES:Our in-depth CODE originals, everything from News Corp Australia’s National Sports Newsroom, plus the best of The Times (London), The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post and FOX SPORTS US.