{"id":789325,"date":"2026-07-09T14:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T14:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/789325\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T14:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T14:07:11","slug":"afl-news-2026-sydney-swans-tom-papley-pays-tribute-to-retired-nrl-star-jai-arrow-after-mnd-diagnosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/789325\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL News 2026: Sydney Swans\u2019 Tom Papley pays tribute to retired NRL star Jai Arrow after MND diagnosis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sydney<\/a> star Tom Papley paid tribute to retired NRL<\/a> player Jai Arrow<\/a> during his side\u2019s loss to Fremantle<\/a> on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

During the top-of-the-table AFL clash in Perth, Papley kicked a goal in the second quarter and celebrated with a bow-and-arrow gesture.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tom Papley\u2019s tribute to Jai Arrow after kicking a goal.\u00a0via Getty Images<\/p>\n

It was a strong return to the game for the small forward, after six weeks out with an injury.<\/p>\n

Asked at half-time about the celebration, Papley said it was for Arrow and his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah that\u2019s for Jai July. Jai Arrow, hope you\u2019re going well mate, keep fighting brother,\u201d Papley told Channel Seven.<\/p>\n

The NRL initiated \u201cJai July\u201d to help raise awareness and funding<\/a> for the fight against motor neuron disease. Arrow was forced to medically retire during the 2026 season<\/a>, after being diagnosed with MND.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old was also brought into the AFL ranks on King\u2019s Birthday Monday for the league\u2019s \u201cBig Freeze\u201d game, which also raises money annually to fight MND and was started by Neale Daniher, who died from the disease earlier in 2026 after a 13-year fight.<\/p>\n

The Rabbitohs have called on fans to show up to Accor Stadium this weekend for a special match-day celebration to honour the former forward. Queensland Origin star Selwyn Cobbo also let an arrow celebration rip after scoring a try in Wednesday\u2019s decider.<\/p>\n

Thursday night\u2019s contest saw first and second on the AFL ladder clash in a battle that lived up to the hype.<\/p>\n

Sydney led by as much as 23 points in the third quarter, with inaccuracy seeing Fremantle kick 11 behinds without a goal to half-time. <\/p>\n

But it was all Freo after the main break, getting their act together in front of goal to turn that 23-point deficit into a 38-point win.<\/p>\n

They kicked 14 goals to just five after half-time to send a message to the rest of the competition. <\/p>\n

Sydney could have stolen top spot on the ladder if the game had continued as it was looking early, but now the Dockers have cemented their two-game lead in first.<\/p>\n

Charlie Curnow played his best game in red and white, kicking five goals for the Swans, while Josh Treacy booted four second-half goals for Freo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sydney star Tom Papley paid tribute to retired NRL player Jai Arrow during his side\u2019s loss to Fremantle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-789325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}