The Australian Sports Commission media awards were held in Melbourne, and the winners were named, with News Corp Australia claiming titles in several major categories.
Tim Morrissey, national deputy sports editor, said the Australian Sports Commission awards recognised the company’s strong journalism and its editorial approach to covering sport.
“These awards vindicate our decision in creating the biggest sports network in the country, which has been up and running for just over two years.
“We have plans to build on this by working and collaborating even more closely with our regional sports teams and Code Sports.”
National News Network Veteran Olympic reporter Julian Linden claimed the top prize for Best Reporting of an Issue in Sport for his exclusive on world swimming’s plans to ban transgender athletes from elite competition.
Linden revealed FINA’s plans for the transgender vote after months of secret talks and then as the only Australian journalist on the ground in Budapest he led the way on detailing the key issues and roadblocks for all sports as they attempt to pass legislation on sport’s most divisive topic.
Fellow News Corp Australia journalist, basketball writer Matt Logue, and Code Sports senior writer Linda Pearce were among the finalists for the category.
Logue was recognised for his work revealing Liz Cambage’s Opals Olympic camp meltdown while Pearce was a finalist for her detailed expose on abuse in Australian gymnastics.
Brisbane-based chief rugby league reporter Peter Badel won the award for best written sport coverage by an individual for his forensic coverage of the major issues impacting Queensland’s NRL clubs.
Badel’s relentless pursuit of big breaking news stories dominate and set the agenda for the rugby league news cycle while his tireless work is often balanced by his sensitive writing style telling highly emotional stories such as his coverage of Paul Green’s shock death.
It is the second time in three years that Badel has won this award, having previously claimed the prize in 2020 for his coverage of the collapse of the Brisbane Broncos.
News Corp Australia’s commitment to major events was rewarded when the Birmingham Commonwealth Games team, led by Sunday Telegraph editor Mick Carroll and national sport deputy editor Morrissey, was awarded best coverage of a sporting event.
The Birmingham coverage included daily 8-page liftouts in every metro masthead while News Corp unveiled a stunning 20-page daily digital print edition throughout the Games which enabled the audience to catch up on the overnight news from the UK and read all about the medals won while the rest of Australia was sleeping.
It was the first time such a project had been undertaken by News Corp and showed the commitment towards cementing our status as the No.1 major events news service.
News Corp’s growing strength in audio journalism was highlighted by The Australian’s Head Noise podcast, featuring journalist Jess Halloran and former NRL hard man James Graham, won Best sport podcast.
Halloran and Graham’s ground-breaking series on concussion in rugby league led the news agenda and detailed the horrific impact years of impact sport has had on the brain of the former NRL captain.
Fox Sports Matty Johns was highly commended by judges in the award for best broadcast sport coverage by an individual, which was won by ESPN’s Neroli Meadows for her Ordineroli Speaking podcast series.
All up 17 News Corp reporters, presenters or group entries featured as finalists in 10 of the 12 categories, recognising the depth of coverage and analysis the national sport network and Fox Sports provides the Australian audience through their multiple publishing channels.
Award-winning journalist and ABC presenter Tracey Holmes was announced as the latest recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, recognising her more than 30 years in journalism with the national broadcaster starting in 1989.
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Top image, left to right: Matt Kitchin, Julian Linden, Tim Morrissey, Peter Badel, James Graham, Lia Tsamoglou and Jessica Halloran