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Australian Football Hall Of Fame
The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the 1996 AFL season, 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, coaches and administrators. The initial intake included 136 inductees, with twelve awarded Legend status. As of 2025, this figure has grown to more than 300, including 33 Legends. South Australian goal kicking star Ken Farmer became the most recent inductee to be elevated to Legend status in 2025. Since 2015, anyone involved in the game from its inception in 1858 until at least five years after their retirement are theoretically eligible; however, as of 2024, very few outside the elite leagues—the Victorian/Australian Football League (VFL/AFL), the West Australian Football League (WAFL), the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), the Challenge Cup (Australian rules football), Challenge Cup of 1870–1876, the Sou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Professional Sports
In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larger audiences, so that sports organizations or teams can command large incomes. As a result, more sportspeople can afford to make sport their primary career, devoting the training time necessary to increase skills, physical condition, and experience to modern levels of achievement. This proficiency has also helped boost the popularity of sports.Andy Miah Sport & the Extreme Spectacle: Technological Dependence and Human Limits' (PDF) Unpublished manuscript, 1998 In most sports played professionally there are many more amateur than professional players, though amateurs and professionals do not usually compete. History American football American football (commonly known as football in the United States) was professionalized in the 1890s as a s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael O'Loughlin
Michael Kevin O'Loughlin (born 20 February 1977) is a former professional Australian rules footballer, who played his entire Australian Football League career with the Sydney Swans. O'Loughlin was named a member of the Indigenous Team of the Century. He was the third player with Indigenous heritage to play 300 AFL games. He twice achieved All-Australian selection, played for Australia twice in the International Rules Series, and was a Fos Williams Medallist as best player for South Australia in State of Origin. O'Loughlin was the first Sydney Swans player to play more than 300 career games. In 303 games he kicked 521 career goals. Early life Michael Kevin O'Loughlin was born on 20 February 1977. His parents never married, so he was given his mother's maiden name of O'Loughlin, which came from her Irish great-great-great-grandfather. He supported Carlton Blues growing up. O'Loughlin's ancestors were Czech Jews, Aboriginal Australian (Kaurna and Ngarrindjeri), Irish and En ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jim Main
Jim Main (12 March 1943 – 8 August 2022) was an Australian sports journalist and writer. He is known especially for his coverage of Australian rules football, especially his book ''More Than a Century of AFL Grand Finals'' (2001–2005), some editions of which he co-authored with Rohan Connolly. He studied law at the University of Melbourne and later graduated from La Trobe University with a bachelor of arts degree. Main worked at the Melbourne ''Herald'' and later on London's ''Daily Express''. He was later sports editor of ''The Australian'' for more than 10 years. He covered several Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games and won a Walkley Award for his coverage of the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. Main was inducted into the Melbourne Cricket Ground Media Hall of Fame in 2003. He has published more than 60 books and has co-written books with David Allen, Eddie McGuire and Jim Stynes.Main, p. 1. He was also a notable supporter and historian of the Sydney Swans. Re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dennis Cometti
Dennis John Cometti (born 26 March 1949) is an Australian retired sports commentator, player and coach of Australian rules football. In a career spanning 51 years, his smooth voice, dry humour and quick wit became his trademark. Until his retirement, he remained the only television broadcaster to have spanned the entire duration of the AFL national competition, serving the Seven Network, Nine Network and Broadcom. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2019 Australia Day Honours. Cometti retired as a sports commentator, with his last game being the 2021 AFL Grand Final, which was called for Triple M in Perth on 25 September 2021. Early life Cometti was born in Geraldton, Western Australia, the son of Dulcie () and James Cometti. His father was the son of Italian migrants; his paternal grandfather Giovanni Cometti was from the village of in Lombardy and moved to Australia to work on the Western Australian Goldfields. Cometti's father died suddenly wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patrick Smith (journalist)
Patrick Smith (20 January 1952 – 12 November 2023) was an Australian sports journalist and Walkley award recipient. He was noted for long career writing for ''The Age'' and then ''The Australian'' newspapers' sports section. Smith started his journalism career in 1972 with Melbourne's ''Sun'' as a copyboy, before moving to ''The Age'' in 1976. There he was promoted from sport subeditor to deputy sports editor, and then to sports editor, which he remained for six years. In 1993, he was a senior columnist for ''The Age,'' leaving for ''The Australian'' in 2000. Smith also appeared on '' Hungry for Sport'' with Kevin Bartlett on SEN 1116. He wrote pieces on political issues in sport, including the internal workings of Australian rules football, Cricket and Athletics Australia. Smith won Walkley awards for his commentary and analysis of sport in 1997, 2002 and 2004. In 2001 and 2002, Smith won "Most Outstanding Columnist" at the AFL Media Awards. In 2009, he was awarded a Hig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mike Sheahan
Michael Sheahan (born 3 March 1947) is an Australian journalist who specialises in Australian rules football. He was chief football writer and associate sports editor for the ''Herald Sun'' for 18 years. Although he left these positions at the end of 2011, he still writes special columns for the newspaper, including his yearly "Top 50" player list. He was also a panelist on the Fox Footy program '' On the Couch'' and former media director for the Australian Football League (AFL, formerly VFL). He also joins Brian Taylor, Matthew Richardson, Matthew Lloyd and Leigh Matthews in the 3AW radio station's pre-match football discussion on Saturday afternoons. In addition he conducted a weekly interview program on Fox Footy, ''Open Mike'' until September 2020 when he would be retiring after an 19 year stint at Fox Footy. In February 2018 he joined a podcast with former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas and former co-host of '' The Footy Show'', Sam Newman, entitled "Sam, Mike and Thomo" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tim Lane (journalist)
Timothy Lane (born 18 September 1951 in Launceston, Tasmania) is a veteran Australian sports broadcaster and journalist who works at the Seven Network and Fairfax. He currently calls Australian rules football ( AFL) matches for 3AW radio on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and writes for ''The Age'' newspaper. Additionally, beginning in 2018, he is a lead commentator for the Seven Sport test cricket coverage. Between 2003 and 2011, he was also an AFL commentator for Network Ten. Lane is well known for commentating on a variety of sports for decades—particularly cricket—as well as AFL and as a track-and-field commentator for both the Summer Olympics and Commonwealth Games. He famously called Cathy Freeman's win for ABC Radio at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Early career Born in Launceston, Lane moved with his family to Devonport in 1963 and matriculated from Devonport High School in 1969. Lane then studied at the University of Tasmania in Hobart, where he resided at St. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caroline Wilson (journalist)
Julia Caroline Wilson (born 7 June 1960) is an Australian sports journalist. She is a football columnist for Melbourne's ''The Age'' newspaper, and she also appears on 3AW's pre-match AFL discussion. She was previously a panellist on Nine Network's '' Footy Classified'', from 2007–2024, and is an occasional panellist on the ABC program '' Offsiders''. As of 2025, she works on Seven Network as an AFL commentator as well as being a panellist on ''The Agenda Setters''. Career Wilson began covering football in 1982. She has covered numerous sports, but specialises in the AFL (Australian Football League), and was chief football writer for ''The Age'' from 1999 to 2017. Wilson was the first woman to cover Australian Rules football full-time."Top 50 Sports People ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geoff Christian
Geoffrey Hugh "Geoff" Christian (13 October 1934 – 7 November 1998) was a leading Australian rules football writer and radio broadcaster covering the Australian Football League and West Australian Football League. Geoff Christian began his career as a junior football writer by writing for ''The West Australian'' 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 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 Australian Football League (AFL) from a Western Australia-based team throughout the season, and the latt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Gordon (journalist)
Henry Alfred Gordon, (9 November 1925 – 21 January 2015) was an Australian journalist, war correspondent, author, and historian of the Olympic Games. During his journalistic career, he served as editor of ''The Sun News-Pictorial'', and editor-in-chief of The Herald and Weekly Times and Queensland Newspapers. From 1992 to 2015, he was the official historian of the Australian Olympic Committee. Early life Gordon was born 9 November 1925 to Harry Gordon, a dockworker, and his wife, Marjorie. As a child, he was taught to tap dance by his mother and to box by his father. He was educated at Elwood Primary School and Melbourne High School, a selective all-boys school. He was a high school middleweight boxing champion. Career Journalism Gordon began his journalistic career as a teenager, working as a copyboy for ''The Daily Telegraph'' when he was 16. He began working at ''The Sun News-Pictorial'' in 1949 as a general reporter. In 1950, at the age of 24, he was sent abroad t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Col Hutchinson
Colin Hutchinson (born ) is a veteran statistician, most notably covering the Victorian/Australian Football League in the sport of Australian rules football. He was the AFL's official historian from the 1990s until around 2005. A part of the AFL Players Association, Hutchinson provides interesting statistics on football to newspapers and media outlets. He is the author of several books, including a history of the Geelong Football Club, titled ''Cats' Tales: the Geelong Football Club, 1897–1983''),''Cats' tales : the Geelong Football Club, 1897–1983''. Geelong Advertiser, 1984 and ''The AFL Footy Quiz Book''. Hutchinson attended 1,294 consecutive matches involving the Geelong Football Club between Round 11, 1963, and the 2019 preliminary final, inclusive. That streak came to an end when he and the general public were locked out of the Cats' 2020 Round 1 loss to in Sydney due to the COVID-19 pandemic. If away games are excluded, Hutchinson's streak lasted from the early 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brendon Gale
Brendon Gale (born 18 July 1968) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). As a qualified lawyer, he practised law with a commercial law firm for some time after his retirement from football, and then was CEO of the AFL Players' Association from 2005 to 2009. In 2009, he began what would become a successful 15-year stint as CEO of Richmond, overseeing three premierships. In 2024, it was announced that he would be leaving Richmond to become inaugural CEO of the incoming Tasmania Football Club. Early life and education Brendon Gale was born on 18 July 1968. He studied at Monash University in Melbourne, graduating with Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Arts degrees. Playing career Gale played for the Richmond Football Club from 1990 to 2001 as a centre half-forward and later Ruckman (Australian rules football position), ruckman. For five seasons he played alongside his older brother, Michael Gale (f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
