Community Football Media Award winners

By SANFL Media

SANFL is pleased to announce the winners of the 2022 Community Football Media Awards.

Best Coverage 

Winner: Ben Lennon, Murray Pioneer newspaper

Entries were judged on insight into football, depth of discussion/feature writing, quality of analysis and impact.

The judges praised Ben’s diverse set of three published stories which demonstrated skill in not only unearthing breaking news of interest to the Riverland football community, but also in capturing the feel-good element of the historic Russell Ebert tribute match played in Loxton.

Best Photography

Winner: Andrew Ausserlechner

The judges praised the versatility of Andrew’s portfolio of three photos which captured the high-flying mark, the rare event of a player having his guernsey removed in a tackle and the raw emotion of a player celebrating a goal in the Hills Football League These images creatively portrayed the true spirit and competitiveness of community football.

The judging panel, which comprised members of SANFL’s Media and Community Football departments and SA Football Budget Editor Peter Cornwall, were impressed with the number and quality of entries in both categories this year which captured the tremendous spirit of Community Football in South Australia.

“Overall, we were impressed with the high quality of entries in 2022. Entrants demonstrated a strong knowledge of their local football competitions while also injecting admirable passion into their coverage which brought Community Football to life this year,” the panel said.

“It was also particularly encouraging to see the broad mix of entries, which included traditional print articles as well as radio score updates, interviews, regular podcasts and live-streaming of matches. We look forward to receiving a similarly high level of entries in 2023.”

Ben and Andrew will be acknowledged at the 2022 SANFL Community Football Volunteer Awards night on Friday, October 14 at Adelaide Oval.