AFL journalists have enjoyed a clean sweep at Thursday’s Australian Football Media Awards, with every trophy going to a member of the AFL’s accredited media representatives.
The result follows a rigorous judging process in which the committee, made up of AFL Sycophantic Journalists, assessed the entries, submitted by AFL Sycophantic Journalists, before announcing the winners, who were all AFL Sycophantic Journalists.
The AFMA president said the awards were open to anyone working in Australian football media, not just those covering AFL, but couldn’t name any of them that weren’t covering AFL.
The night’s big winner was AFL Media, the league’s in-house publishing arm, which took out Best AFLW Reporter and Best Diversity and Inclusion Presentation and was commended in three further categories. The organisation reported its own success the following morning on AFL.com.au. That article has since been entered in Best News Report for next year’s awards.
The AFMA denied that the AFL’s communications department winning awards from the AFL’s press gallery represented any conflict of interest, noting that AFL Media were members, paid their fees, and sat on the committee. AFL.
Best Reporter went to Herald Sun writer Jay Clark, presumably for his reporting on Geelong’s concussion scandal and the Sydney players who were caught in a hotel room with hookers and blow.
“This is the kind of hard-hitting speaking-truth-to-power journalism these awards are designed to celebrate,” said an AFMA spokesperson. When questioned why neither story had elicited any sanctions or action from the AFL, the spokesperson declined to comment.
Best Radio, Best Television and Best Digital were shared between the three rights holders, each represented on the judging panel by the person who won.
The AFMA has named a Player of the Year every season since 1973, with the exception of 2003, when it declined to. Sources close to the association say it remains the only occasion the committee has withheld an award from anyone, and that it has since resolved not to let it happen again.
In a statement, released on AFL.com.au, the AFL said it had no involvement in the running of the AFMA and that any suggestion the league influenced media awards was categorically false. Several staff of AFL.com.au sit on the AFMA committee.
The night ended in controversy, as following an interview with himself, Jay Clark dropped a printed memo from the AFL titled, “Approved Criticism Topics.”
