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Legendary sports journalist and former Age chief football writer Caroline Wilson has been honoured at the 68th annual Walkley Awards for her outstanding contribution to journalism.
Wilson’s achievements across her groundbreaking career were celebrated at Australia’s most prestigious journalism awards, held in Sydney on Thursday night.
Legendary sports journalist Caroline WIlson has been honoured with the Walkley Award for outstanding contribution to journalism.Credit: James Brickwood
The Outstanding Contribution to Journalism award recognises the achievements of a person or group each year that has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to the highest standards of journalism – truth, rigour, integrity and fairness – over their career.
Wilson was among eight female journalists to receive the honour at Thursday’s gala, including The Sydney Morning Herald’s chief investigative reporter Kate McClymont in a bid to redress a gender imbalance.
Wilson praised the Walkley committee for honouring the group of women.
“It was led by [award-winning journalist] Adele Ferguson … I think she looked at 27 years of outstanding career achievement awards, and 21 of them had gone to men. I honestly think that is not a reflection of our industry, and it hasn’t been for 25 years,” she said.
Caroline Wilson accepts her lifetime achievement award at the 2022 Quills in Melbourne.Credit: Mat Lynn
“I have always believed in quotas and I have always believed in affirmative action. I’ve seen it with the AFLW launch, I’ve seen it with the AFL Commission, I’ve seen with female coaching, and I’ve seen it in journalism. I saw it when I was finally allowed after 22 years to become a member of the MCC.”
The Age’s editor Patrick Elligett said Wilson’s contribution to sports journalism is “immense, pioneering and unmatched”.
“Both our readers and our journalists regularly tell me how grateful they are to have access to her talent and expertise. There was no more deserving recipient of this award,” he said.
Starting in sports journalism in 1981, Wilson became only the second female journalist to cover an AFL season. She went on to report in London before returning to Melbourne in 1986. In 1999, Wilson was appointed The Age’s chief football writer.
For almost two decades, Wilson excelled in the top football reporting role, breaking some of the biggest stories in the sport in the face of frequent sexism. Revered for both her fierce commentary and reporting skills, she would go on to earn the moniker as the “first lady of football”.
“You know when you have to make a phone call that makes you feel sick to the stomach, it’s going to be a really good story. That was my yardstick, and nothing has changed since I started working as a very young sports writer in 1981 until now,” Wilson said.
Wilson probed the 2013 Essendon drug scandal alongside Age colleagues, leading the coverage and commentary across the three-year saga. Her analysis of Bombers coach James Hird’s role in the scandal earned the Walkley award for best All Media Commentary, Analysis, Opinion & Critique in 2013.
In her first year as chief reporter, Wilson approached former champion Carlton half-back Ken Hunter – there was “a story he had never told and I wanted him to tell it,” Wilson later wrote.
After four months of behind-the-scene reporting, Wilson revealed the mental-health struggles and depression Hunter suffered at the end of his playing career, after pivotal roles in three Carlton premierships in seven years.
Ken Hunter’s story in The Age in 1999, when he spoke openly of depression.Credit: The Age Library
In 2008, she exclusively revealed the AFL was expanding to 18 teams, a scoop that earned the front page of both The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.
Wilson probed the AFL’s handling of the racism that dual Brownlow medallist Adam Goodes was subjected to in 2015, critiquing the response as a failure of leadership by league executives.
She went on to reveal why four-time premiership player Cyril Rioli had become disconnected from Hawthorn, a watershed interview which would ultimately lead to the AFL’s 2022 investigation into alleged racism at the club.
She stepped down as chief football writer in 2017, but remains at The Age as a regular AFL columnist and as a panellist on the Real Footy podcast. Wilson continues to break some of the sport’s biggest stories, including the sacking of Gold Coast coach Stuart Dew.
Her groundbreaking career has been celebrated by multiple awards in the industry, including the Melbourne Press Club lifetime achievement award, and induction to the Australian Media Hall of Fame.
Wilson was also the first woman to be inducted into the MCG Media Hall of Fame, and was honoured by the Australian Sports Commission with a lifetime achievement award in 2010.
Wilson was honoured alongside Pamela Williams, Joanne McCarthy, Karla Grant, Marian Wilkinson, Colleen Ryan, Geraldine Doogue and McClymont.
“I felt very humbled actually to be in the company of journos … I have looked up to for so long. It’s an enormous honour.”
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