Sports Benches is back for more weekly sports news where we’re still running circles but with three corners in between two massive events and one long stretch.
There’s another repeat winner in NASCAR yet again while we will update State of Origin II during mid-week plus a bonus game of ANZ Premiership Netball.
Sports Benches is the place to be for your weekly sports fix and also check out our General Hospital posts every Saturday.
You won’t wanna miss how Cassius Faison came to the rescue after Cullum nearly stabbed Josslyn including growing affairs between Chase & Willow; plus Kristina’s farewell ahead of her complete change of scenery in medical school.
NASCAR Cup Series at Pocono
It’s been a fuel-focused race on a large track with just three corners but same winner three straight weeks now starting with Denny Hamlin, No.11 Gibbs-Toyota.
Could’ve been cleaner right from pole but has a knack of taking advantage through lapped traffic to pitting under green so he can motor his Camry home.
That way, he doesn’t have to worry about anything else having manufactured with a strong 2nd half package including restarts.
Meanwhile, Kyle Larson finished 5th as this week’s Chevy Camaro once again for Hendrick Motorsports whose sweet spot was in the early stages but struggled to maintain long run balance.
Although Kyle tried to diagnose this via green flag pit cycles which didn’t quite pay off towards 1st; at least he had some late gains after Christopher Bell unfortunately tapped out at the white flag.
Ford? they still haven’t been good enough lately to Chevy & Toyota but Chris Buescher is this week’s top Mustang in 7th for RFK Racing based on one word: stability. There were flashes of promising progress before things went sideways with track position. Sometimes you gotta have a Plan B with safety first being the only way to salvage a quiet end to his day inside Top 7-10.
ANZ Premiership RD 10: Northern Stars v Central Pulse
Top 3 finalists are already locked in before it even reached the final regular-season game between Southern Steel and Mainland Tactix where they will now meet again for Sunday’s Elimination Final.
Northern Stars ended their season well in 4th over 5th-placed Central Pulse by 59-49 while Northern Mystics head straight to the Grand Final following their 53-42 win v Waikato BoP Magic.
Can’t get enough of the Stars despite falling short off Top 3 where their front three trio of Martina Salmon, Amelia Walmsley & Claire O’Brien expressed themselves with a more attack-minded play.
You have Amelia staying natural to her Goal Shoot role while Martina stretches deep including two-point buckets from afar.
Also, Claire’s been back to her best supplying consistent feeds towards the final third in the hope of a Silver Ferns recall — maybe as a back-up/standby player.
With Pulse, Ainsleyana Puleiata was one redemption benefit who loves shutting down opposition defenses while processing quick plays in between WD and C.
It’s been so long since her injury setback but tough season overall for Pulse despite their good start before they lost their shine amid important players lost to Super Netball + now dealing with an injury hit-list.
State of Origin II
We’re back for another game of Rugby but League this time at the MCG. Will it be Maroons redemption or a Blues series sweep? Blues currently has the upper hand following their sensational comeback last month in Game I.
Full match summary will be updated after full-time.
Update 18/6/26
All signs point to NSW earlier on before the QLD Maroons inspirationally kept their series hopes alive ahead of next month’s decider on home turf at Suncorp Stadium.
Final score was 24-44 in front of 90K at the MCG.
There’s another new crop of Blues debutants including ex-Waratah & Wallaby Mark Nawaqanitawase, who scored back-to-back origin tries + number of contributions right away.
However, NSW struggled to maintain retention while losing scraps & they’ve let one slip away with poor use of their subs, having saw QLD dominate at its finest.
With QLD, it’s one of their best games in Origin history. They went into Game 2 under immense pressure after their last-gasp heartbreak from Game 1 but QLD refused to back down — that’s their fighting spirit.
Despite a few early teething issues, no wonder the Maroons knew how to put back the pressure with such a good possession game plan, particularly from a narrow half-time lead into 2nd half rampage.
Gotta say their half-time pep talk also worked well too as all hope is not lost just yet.
