Damian Barrett is an Australian journalist who works for

AFL Media AFL Media is an Australian sports media company operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) to provide coverage of the league and the sport of Australian rules football. History Established in 2012, AFL Media provides content to AFL.com.au ...

and covers

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

Career

Barrett has worked in the Australian sports media, covering a variety of sports, for over 30 years. He has worked for the

Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the Murdoch owned News Corp. The ''Herald S ...

, The Footy Show, The Sunday Footy Show,

Footy Classified ''Footy Classified'' is an Australian television program broadcast two nights per week on the Nine Network, which discusses pressing issues relating to the Australian Football League and Australian rules football. It debuted on Monday 2 April 200 ...

on Channel 9 and on

Triple M Triple M is an Australian commercial radio network owned and operated by Southern Cross Austereo. The network consists of 40 radio stations broadcasting a mainstream rock music format and 5 digital radio stations. The network dates back to th ...

radio. In 2018 he joined

as their chief correspondent being involved in programs on the digital service including ''Access All Areas'' and some of their podcasts. He also co-hosts the long-running ''The Sounding Board''

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

with Craig Hutchison. He is a multiple award winner of Most outstanding news reporter (electronic) at the Australian Football Media Association awards, and in 2013 won a

Quill Award The Quill Award was an American literary award that ran for three years in 2005-2007. It was a "consumer-driven award created to inspire reading while promoting literacy." The Quills Foundation, the organization behind the Quill Award, was support ...

for the best Best Sports News Story in any Medium for his reporting on the

Essendon Football Club supplements saga The Essendon Football Club supplements saga was a sports controversy that occurred during the early- and mid-2010s. It centred around the Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbo ...

Controversies

Over the course of his career, Barrett has gotten into numerous disputes with both AFL players and coaches. Barrett was involved in a physical altercation with

North Melbourne North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. North Melbourne recorded a population of 14,953 at the ...

coach Brad Scott in 2016, that occurred when Barrett was questioning Scott about the Kangaroos performance in the

2016 AFL season The 2016 AFL season was the 120th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured e ...

. Barrett has stated that he feels journalists should be held less responsible for stories that turn out to be false. During August 2020, Barrett became involved in the Mitch Cleary controversy when he voiced his opinion that the AFL made the right move by standing down fellow journalist

Mitch Cleary AFL Media is an Australian sports media company operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) to provide coverage of the league and the sport of Australian rules football. History Established in 2012, AFL Media provides content to AFL.com.a ...

, at odds with the majority opinion of the AFL community. This opinion was criticized by former AFL player

Tim Watson Timothy Michael Watson (born 13 July 1961) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). After retiring from the game, he has continued working in the Australian footb ...

, and Barrett responded by questioning Watson's understanding of journalism, and bringing up the

. Watson responded by declaring Barrett to be "The Voice of Treason" and calling Barrett "beholden to the AFL".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrett, Damian Australian radio personalities Australian sports journalists Living people 1970 births