Geoffrey Hugh "Geoff" Christian (13 October 1934 – 7 November 1998) was a leading

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 ...

writer and

radio broadcaster Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio sta ...

covering the

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 ...

and

West Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from March to September, ...

. Geoff Christian began his career as a junior football writer by writing for ''

The West Australian ''The West Australian'' is the only locally edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia. It is owned by Seven West Media (SWM), as is the state's other major newspaper, ''The Sunday Times''. It is the second-oldest continuousl ...

'' newspaper as a teenager in 1954. In 1961 he became Chief Football writer for the paper; a position he held for more than a quarter of a century. In the late eighties, he retired and concentrated on radio work. Christian was a member of ABC Radio’s ''Saturday Sportstalk'' program for a period of 14 years prior to his death in November 1998. Following his death, two awards, the Geoff Christian Medal and the Geoff Christian Media Award, were inaugurated to honour Christian's contribution to football in Western Australia, with the former being awarded to the best player in the

(AFL) from a

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

-based team throughout the season, and the latter being award to a journalist performing at a "consistently high standard throughout the year in either print, television, radio, or photography". Christian was posthumously inducted into the

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the Centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media personalities, coa ...

in 2000, and the

West Australian Football Hall of Fame The West Australian Football Hall of Fame was created in 2002 to recognise and enshrine those who have made a significant contribution to Australian rules football in Western Australia. People eligible for inclusion are players, coaches, umpires, ...

in 2004.Australian Football Hall of Fame - Media
– Australian Football League. Retrieved 22 June 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Christian, Geoff 1934 births 1998 deaths Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Australian radio personalities Australian rules football commentators People from Perth, Western Australia West Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees 20th-century Australian journalists