World Footy News

The Madden Medal award recognizes both the well documented on-field success but also the achievements that AFL players have had in their community and personal development endeavours. Two players that are retiring this year that are up for a number of the awards are Peter Bell and Mal Michael, both of whom have received plenty of coverage on this site in terms of their backgrounds and international connections.

The winners of the awards have been determined by the Executive Committee of the AFL Players’ Association who all cast votes on a 3, 2, 1 basis for each award. The Madden Medal committee consists of the AFLPA Executive; Joel Bowden (President), Brett Burton (Vice-President), Luke Ball, Adam Goodes, Tom Harley, Nick Maxwell, Robert Murphy, Luke Power, Ashley Hansen AFLPA CEO Brendon Gale, and past player representative Simon Madden. The awards will take place this Friday in Melbourne and the achievements by all the retiring players below are worth noting.

MADDEN MEDAL – Presented by AMP
Peter Bell – North Melbourne, Fremantle
Shane Crawford – Hawthorn
Robert Harvey – St Kilda
Nigel Lappin – Brisbane Bears, Brisbane Lions
Mal Michael – Collingwood, Brisbane, Essendon
Scott West – Western Bulldogs
David Neitz - Melbourne

STEEL BLUE COMMUNITY SPIRIT AWARD
Nominees for the community spirit award have had involvement or worked for charitable organisations, they have participated in community development initiatives, demonstrated empathy and support for disadvantaged people, and displayed leadership in tackling social issues.

Peter Bell
Throughout his career Peter has balanced football with ambassadorial roles for a number of charities and foundations for the environment and underprivileged children.
Shane Crawford
Crawford has been an integral part of Hawthorn’s community programs since he joined the club. He has also worked with the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
Robert Harvey
Robert has always balanced community involvement with his football career working closely with the Mornington Peninsula community and the Woorinyan Organisation who provide employment support for people with disabilities. He is also an ambassador for the Bonne Babes foundation which provides counselling for families after miscarriage, stillbirth or prematurity.
Mal Michael
Mal established the ‘Mal Michael Foundation’ in 2006. The foundation is aimed at raising money to help young Papua New Guineans to play AFL. He aims to continue this work.
Fraser Gehrig
Renowned as one of the toughest players in the competition Fraser still found time to give back to the community, working for the Sacred Heart Mission helping Melbourne’s homeless and disadvantaged.
Jason Johnson
Jason’s community endeavour was as impressive as his career with Essendon. He worked in South Africa for World Vision, as well as work in Australia for the Salvation Army and the White Ribbon campaign against domestic violence.
Nathan Thompson
Nathan is an ambassador for the Beyond Blue foundation. He has been instrumental in educating other AFL players how to handle depression
Ryan Lonie
Ryan has worked extensively in the area of Prostate Cancer awareness. Together with his brother Nathan they established a foundation called ‘Moving Towards a Cure’ which raises money for the Prostate Cancer Council.
Adam Ramanauskas
Adam’s work with the Cancer Council has been well documented. Adam established the ‘Call to Arms’ campaign and was the driving force behind the ‘Clash for Cancer’ game.
Shane Wakelin
Shane has been actively working to promote environmental awareness as an ambassador for Connex. Shane has also completed a climate research project and training with former US President Al Gore and the Australian Conservation Foundation and is accredited to deliver the ACF’s Climate Project presentation.

OPEN UNIVERSITIES AUSTRALIA PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AWARD
The Personal Development award recognizes players demonstrating personal development, business achievements, education and training, family support, hardship/recovery from long term injury.

Peter Bell
While playing football Peter obtained a law degree. He is currently the CEO of Simpking International Consultants and was the AFLPA president between 2002-2006.
Shane Crawford
Shane completed an AFLPA Next Goal placement with the Freeman racing stables and has since established his own business, ‘Shane Crawford Racing.’
Robert Harvey
Robert Harvey was the only player in AFL history to play in 21 AFL seasons, this is more than four times the length of the average AFL career. Throughout this record breaking career he always balanced his own personal development with football. Robert also owns and runs his own Sports Memorabilia and AFL store, Harvey Warne Hamill.
Ben Holland
Combined with his 191 games for Melbourne, Holland, a qualified podiatrist, has undertaken a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment and has studied Spanish and German.
Ken McGregor
For a number of years Ken has balanced his football life with his passion to become a journalist working part time with the Adelaide Advertiser, where he recently completed a cadetship and has now moved into a full time role with the paper.
Michael Wilson
Throughout his career Michael has balanced work with football. He is a qualified physiotherapist, he has completed a Bachelor of applied science, and a certificate 3 in information technology.
David Neitz
David combined his football achievements with part time work in Marketing at Australia post. He now owns his own Marketing business, Outside Squared.
Shane Wakelin
Shane completed a Masters in Business Administration in 2002 and also studied finance in the AFLPA’s Next Goal program.

GNC LIVE WELL FOOTBALL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
The honours of the nominees for the GNC Football Achievement Award speak for themselves. Below are the nominees for the award:

Peter Bell- 250 games, 286 goals, 2 All Australian, 4 B&F’s, 2 Premierships
Michael Braun- 228 games, 66 goals, 1 Premiership
Scott Burns- 264 games, 149 goals
Shane Crawford- 305 games, 224 goals, 4 All Australian, 4 B&F’s, 1 Premiership, 1 Brownlow
Peter Everitt- 293 games, 383 goals, 3 All Australian, 2 B&F’s
Jeff Farmer- 249 games, 483 goals, 1 All Australian, 1998 goal of the year
Fraser Gehrig- 260 games, 549 goals, 2 All Australian, 2 Coleman
Shannon Grant- 301 games, 361 goals, 1 All Australian, 1 Norm Smith, 1 All Australian, 1 Premiership
Robert Harvey- 383 games, 213 goals, 8 All Australian, 4 B&F’s, 2 Brownlows
Jason Johnson- 184 games, 109 goals, 1 All Australian, 2 B&F’s
Nigel Lappin- 286 games, 250 goals, 4 All Australian, 3 Premierships, 1 B&F
Shaun McManus- 228 games, 95 goals
Mal Michael- 238 games, 33 goals, 3 Premierships
David Neitz- 306 games, 631 goals, 2 All Australian, 1 B&F, 1 Coleman
Scott West- 324 games, 104 goals, 5 All Australian, 7 B&F’