The annual

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

Mark of the Year competition (currently also known as the Four'N Twenty AFL Mark of the Year) is a sporting award that celebrates each season's best

mark Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Fi ...

. A mark is the action of a player cleanly catching a kicked ball that has travelled more than without the ball hitting the ground. Originally known as the "VFL Mark of the Year" and selected by a panel of football experts on Network Seven's '' World of Sport'' program, the contest was renamed the "AFL Mark of the Year" following the competition's renaming in 1990. Since 2001 it has been run by the AFL. It is open only to players within the AFL and applies to marks taken during official AFL season matches. Several other Australian rules football leagues followed with their own "Mark of the Year" competitions. A famous VFL footballer,

Alex Jesaulenko Oleksandr "Alex" Jesaulenko ( ; uk, Олександр Васильович Єсауленко, Oleksandr Vasiliovych Yesaulenko, ; born 2 August 1945) is a former Australian rules footballer and who played for the Carlton Football Club and t ...

, unofficially won the first award for a "

spectacular mark A spectacular mark (also known as a specky, speckie, speccy, screamer or hanger) is a mark (or catch) in Australian rules football that typically involves a player jumping up on the back of another player. The spectacular mark has become a much ...

" during the 1970 VFL Grand Final, a mark that has been frequently called " The Mark of the Century". Thirty-two players have won the competition; of those, five have won multiple times and six are still active in the AFL. Peter Knights (

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) and Tony Modra (

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...

) have won the most Mark of the Year awards, with three each. The competition is run in conjunction with the Goal of the Year contest, which recognizes the best

goal A goal is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envision, plan and commit to achieve. People endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines. A goal is roughly similar to a purpose or ai ...

kicked during an AFL season. Two players have won both the "Mark of the Year" and "Goal of the Year" awards in the same season: Michael Mitchell and

Peter Bosustow Peter Robert Bosustow (born 27 October 1957) is a former Australian rules footballer with the Perth Football Club in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and the Carlton Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Career Bosu ...

Background

Currently also known by its sponsorship name as the " Four'N Twenty AFL Mark of the Year", the competition is open to players in the AFL (Australian rules football's highest league). Winners receive an assortment of prizes, including $5,000 for their grassroots (junior) club, the use of a

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for 12 months and the

Alex Jesaulenko Medal The Alex Jesaulenko Medal refers to three unrelated medals in Australian rules football, all named in honour of Alex Jesaulenko, a legend in the Australian Football Hall of Fame. The medals are currently awarded annually to the best player in the ...

. The current

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(formerly known as the Victorian Football Association) runs a similar competition; however, the winners are selected only from the few games that are televised. Many other amateur Australian rules football leagues also run an equivalent competition, but they often rely on less comprehensive television footage; some amateur leagues rely on spectators who submit photos and amateur video recordings to the league or to television shows such as the

AFL Footy Show ''The Footy Show'' was an Australian sports and variety entertainment television program which aired on the Nine Network. The show was dedicated to the Australian Football League (AFL) and Australian rules football. The show featured a pane ...

. Chris Tarrant's mark in Round 10, 2001, has been used as the basis of the

silhouette A silhouette ( , ) is the image of a person, animal, object or scene represented as a solid shape of a single colour, usually black, with its edges matching the outline of the subject. The interior of a silhouette is featureless, and the silhou ...

for the Mark of the Year logo despite ironically losing the Mark of the Year to

Gary Moorcroft Gary Moorcroft (born 16 April 1976) is a former Australian rules football player for Essendon and Melbourne in the Australian Football League (AFL). Moorcroft caught the attention of talent scouts by winning the Morrish Medal in 1994 whils ...

's Round 14 mark, considered by many to be one of the best marks of all time. Many of the best marks in the VFL/AFL were featured in a VHS/

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

named ''Miracle Marks''.

History

The competition was initiated following

's mark over Graeme "Jerker" Jenkin in the 1970 (Victorian Football League) Grand Final and later recognised officially as the Mark of the Year; the medal awarded to the winner now bears his name. During the 1970s and early 1980s, the award was decided by a panel of football experts on Network Seven's " World of Sport" program and during the 1980s and 1990s, the winning mark was determined by selected football journalists and experts. With minor modifications, the current selection process was first used in the 1998 season. In 1990, the competition (originally known as the VFL Mark of the Year) was renamed the AFL Mark of the Year, following the inception of the AFL.

Selection process

After each round of the regular AFL season, three "mark of the week" nominations are determined by a panel of football experts. The

general public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

can then

vote Voting is a method by which a group, such as a meeting or an electorate, can engage for the purpose of making a collective decision or expressing an opinion usually following discussions, debates or election campaigns. Democracies elect holde ...

for a weekly winner on the AFL website. After the regular season's end, the title is given to a single mark, which is chosen by the

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perf ...

selection committee; the public is not given a say in the outcome. The selection committee is not restricted to choosing a winner from the mark of the week winners; indeed, in 2010, the two favourites both came in round 21, and although the public voted Brendon Goddard as mark of the week, the selection panel named Jurrah as Mark of the Year. The winner is announced during grand final week.

Annual winners

AFL Mark of the Year Winners ;Key

References

{{Australian Football League Australian Football League awards Australian rules football awards Australian rules football-related lists