June 25, 2026 — 5:00amFinishing the last of three shows on a cruise ship in the Arctic last week, veteran Australian singer Daryl Braithwaite decided “that’s it”.After a 58-year career that encompassed huge success with the band Sherbet, lost years in the mid-1980s and a successful midlife comeback that spawned a catalogue of great songs including One Summer, All I Do, As the Days Go By and The Horses, he concluded it was time to retire. Daryl Braithwaite is retiring after a 58-year career.Shotz By JacksonHis decision to stop touring was, in part, brought on by a persistent issue with his larynx that has plagued him in recent years. On his social media on Monday, he said it had “been increasingly physically challenging for me to sing comfortably” and the joy of performing had been diminished.“I’ve been thinking about it for maybe a year and asking different people, ‘How do you retire?’” Braithwaite, 77, told CBD.“I’ve had a breathing problem for about a year or more where the larynx sort of closes when it should open and all this sort of stuff. It hasn’t got any better. The preparation I have to do for a gig now, it is over two or three days.“It’s all probably in the head, but you do all this prep stuff, you have honey and this and that and gargle, and then you go on and you are still fighting a battle when you’re on stage: ‘How am I going to get this note?’Sherbet in 1975: Clive Shakespeare, Daryl Braithwaite, Alan Sandow, Garth Porter and Tony Mitchell (left to right). Work on a documentary on the band has begun.“It works, but it is like changing gear the whole time, and it was never ever like that. After the last gig, I came off and I thought, ‘Yep, that’s it.’”Fittingly, the last two songs he performed were The Horses and the Sherbet classic Howzat.He has been overwhelmed by the response his announcement sparked. His phone is still going berserk.Daryl Braithwaite’s best known songs include The Horses, Howzat and As the Days Go By.“As I sit here, I think, I will miss it [touring] immensely, every part of it, but if you can’t give 100 per cent then ... you are fooling yourself and you are fooling the people” he said. “It feels right to do what I have done and call it quits.”While he will no longer be on stage, Melbourne-based Braithwaite isn’t going to be idle.Already there are plans for a book of images from his Sherbet era compiled from his personal archive, along with a documentary on the band.Sayers stoush over AFL privilegeAndrew Dillon’s AFL is this week publicly triaging Sachi Dade’s Federal Court legal action against the Demons and what she claims is the club’s invasion of her privacy due to her relationship with former player Steven May.But behind the scenes, the Luke Sayers explicit picture scandal is also sucking considerable legal resources at head office as the high-stakes defamation action by his estranged wife Cate unfolds.Luke Sayers and Cate Sayers at the 2023 Brownlow Medal before their split. WireImageOn Monday, the couple’s respective legal teams were set to be back in court, but at the last minute the hearing was vacated. A legal source, not able to speak publicly, said this came after Luke’s side withdrew an application that the four subpoenas issued last month by Cate’s side (to the AFL, Carlton, Luke’s long-time assistant Julie Trainor and AFL exec Sharon McCrohan) to produce documents outlining their roles in the sorry saga be set aside.Respective legal teams were now negotiating on how the subpoenas might be modified by agreement, the source said. But the bottom line is that docs will now need to be submitted, including details of how the investigation into the whole affair was handled by the AFL and Carlton. In court filings, Cate has already questioned the processes at the club and league in January last year.The Tony Keane-led AFL integrity unit’s investigation into the social media scandal cleared Sayers of wrongdoing, with a statutory declaration by Luke on the matter central to the league’s examination.The January 2025 sworn statement declared Cate’s denials about posting the explicit picture couldn’t be trusted and that she suffered from mental illness and at times refused to take her meds – claims that are the subject of Cate’s defamation action. It also requested that neither the police nor the AFL interview Cate.It was recently revealed that a draft of the declaration was sent to the AFL before a final version was submitted.Now that the subpoenas for production of documents stand, the parties will shortly have to get their files to the court, but word is now that Luke and the AFL may claim legal privilege over some material. A fresh hearing is scheduled for August.Agassi to ‘reset’ in AustraliaWe are more used to seeing Andre Agassi in Australia in January for the Australian Open, but the tennis great will be getting a taste of winter in Sydney when he appears at the Reset: Growth Through Disruption conference.Tennis great and pickleball enthusiast Andre Agassi.James BrickwoodAgassi will be one of the headline speakers at the event, which is hosted by the Australian Association of National Advertisers, on August 6.A winner of eight grand slam titles, and now a pickleball enthusiast, Agassi was a champion on court, but his story encompassing mental health, celebrity life and philanthropy is way more interesting than just serves and slices.“Andre Agassi is one of the greatest examples of reinvention, resilience and sustained high performance we have seen in any field,” the association’s chief executive, Josh Faulks, said. “He didn’t just win at the highest level, he adapted, evolved and found new ways to succeed.”And if you can’t make it to the conference, CBD would highly recommend Agassi’s awesome memoir Open.From our partners