Douglas Wilkie Medal

Last updated March 25, 2019

The Douglas Wilkie Medal is an award presented to those who do the least for Australian rules football, in the best and fairest manner. An accolade presented by the Anti-Football League, it is named after Douglas Wilkie, a Sun News-Pictorial columnist who wrote for the paper during the years 1946–1986. It was Douglas Wilkie who first suggested the notion of an Anti-Football League, which was brought into being by Keith Dunstan. The League exists as a response to the overwhelming obsession of football by the Melbourne public.

Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, or simply called Aussie rules, football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of eighteen players on an oval-shaped field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by kicking the oval-shaped ball between goal posts or between behind posts.

The Anti-Football League is an Australian organisation that pokes fun at the obsession with Australian rules football. It was founded by Melbourne journalist Keith Dunstan in 1967.

Douglas Wilkie was a respected columnist for The Sun News-Pictorial (Australia). The son of travelling Shakespearean actors Allan Wilkie and Frediswyde Hunter-Watts, he began his newspaper career as a copy boy with the Hobart Mercury. This period was followed by Sir Keith Murdoch appointing him as Geelong correspondent for The Herald. Wilkie is best remembered for his political commentary for The Sun News-Pictorial for which he wrote during 1946–1986.

The award is the League's answer to the Australian Football League's Brownlow Medal, an honour bestowed on footballers who throughout the season play in a skilled and sportsmanlike fashion.

The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent 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 game. The league was founded as the Victorian Football League (VFL) as a breakaway from the previous Victorian Football Association (VFA), with its inaugural season commencing in 1897. Originally comprising only teams based in the Australian state of Victoria, the competition's name was changed to the Australian Football League for the 1990 season, after expanding to other states throughout the 1980s.

The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal, is awarded to the "best and fairest" player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by the officiating field umpires after each game. It is the most prestigious award for individual players in the AFL. It is also widely acknowledged as the highest individual honour in the sport of Australian rules football.

Following the suggestion of Wilkie's fellow writer Cyril Pearl, who wished to burn a football to express his disaffection for the game, the winner must destroy a football in a unique and creative manner on receiving their medal.^[1]

Cyril Alston Pearl was an Australian journalist, editor, author, social historian, wit and television personality.

Previous winners

1967 – Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia
1968 – Bob Skilton, football player
1969 – Ron Frazer, actor
1970 – Barry Oakley, author A Salute to the Great McCarthy: a Novel (1970) ISBN 0-85561-008-5; the book was filmed in 1975 under the same name.
1972 – Cyril Pearl, author
1973 – Doug McClelland, politician
1974 – Leon Hill, former General Manager GTV-9
1975 – Barry Humphries, writer, actor, bohemian
1977 – Kate Baillieu, former GTV-9 personality
1979 – Pete Smith, television announcer
1980 – Jack Elliot, racing writer
1981 – Lindsay Thompson, Premier of Victoria ^[2]
1983 – Julie Clarke, a suffering housewife
1985 – Shelley Dye, another suffering housewife
1986 – Sir Les Patterson, alter-ego of Barry Humphries
1987 – Peter Russell-Clarke, celebrity chef
1988 – Terry Lane, radio broadcaster
1989 – Raelene Boyle, athlete
1990 – Tim Bowden, ABC broadcaster and author
1992 – Wendy Harmer, broadcaster and comedian
1993 – Tim Bowden, broadcaster
1994 – Dennis Pryor, author and broadcaster
2007 – Barry Jones, former quiz champion, politician, author
2008 – Michael Leunig, cartoonist
2010 – Catherine Deveny, columnist
2011 – Brian Troy, a 74-year-old Melburnian, who has never attended an Australian rules football match.

Harold Edward Holt,, was an Australian politician who served as the 17th Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1966 until his presumed drowning death in 1967. He was the leader of the Liberal Party during that time.

The Prime Minister of Australia is the head of government of Australia. The individual who holds the office is the most senior Minister of State, the leader of the Federal Cabinet. The Prime Minister also has the responsibility of administering the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and is the chair of the National Security Committee and the Council of Australian Governments. The office of Prime Minister is not mentioned in the Constitution of Australia but exists through Westminster political convention. The individual who holds the office is commissioned by the Governor-General of Australia and at the Governor-General's pleasure subject to the Constitution of Australia and constitutional conventions.

Robert John "Bob" Skilton is a former Australian rules footballer who represented South Melbourne in the Victorian Football League (VFL).

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References

↑ "Douglas Wilkie Medal". The Anti-Football League. Retrieved 25 September 2011.
↑ "Lindsay Thompson". The Telegraph. Retrieved 25 September 2011.

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[1] "Douglas Wilkie Medal". The Anti-Football League. Retrieved 25 September 2011.

[2] "Lindsay Thompson". The Telegraph. Retrieved 25 September 2011.