{"id":475229,"date":"2026-02-12T14:12:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T14:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/475229\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T14:12:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T14:12:18","slug":"kerry-stokes-awarded-life-membership-of-the-afl-for-his-significant-contribution-to-the-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/475229\/","title":{"rendered":"Kerry Stokes awarded Life Membership of the AFL for his significant contribution to the game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Respected Australian businessman Kerry Stokes has been awarded Life Membership of the AFL for his significant contribution to the game, whose positive impact on the sport \u201cwill be felt for generations to come\u201d.<\/p>\n

AFL Commission chairman Richard Goyder, presenting the honour to the Seven West Media chairman at Thursday night\u2019s official Origin opener at Crown Ballroom, said Mr Stokes was \u201cone of football\u2019s great supporters\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said from his earliest days growing up close to Arden Street where his love for North Melbourne blossomed, Mr Stokes was someone who had long understood what brings Australians together.<\/p>\n

The Life Membership is an honour normally reserved for players who have passed the 300-game milestone or won three Brownlow medals.<\/p>\n

\u201cKerry, you have said sport is the great unifier, and our game is a powerful part of Australia\u2019s DNA and through your leadership you\u2019ve backed innovation that helped bring footy into more homes, more towns and more hearts, from broadcast evolution, to showcase fixtures, to giving the audience deeper insight into the game and the people in it,\u201d Mr Goyder said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou also believed in the AFLW from day one \u2026 and that matters. Right here in Western Australia, you have supported the WAFL, and all things WA footy for decades, playing a crucial role in the game\u2019s strength and growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour contribution to Australian football has helped shape the game we love today and will be felt for generations to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn behalf of everyone in our code, thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PicturesCamera IconCredit: Ross Swanborough\/The West Australian, James Brayshaw Abbey Holmes Ben Cousins Luke Hodge.<\/p>\n

Mr Stokes was handed a Life Membership pin and certificate from AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon on the night.<\/p>\n

Seven, which has been televising the game continuously since 2007, was the key partner in the richest broadcast deal in the history of Australian sport in 2022, signing off on a $4.5 billion contract that began in 2025 and ends in 2031.<\/p>\n

The heavy hitters of Australian football slipped into cocktail suits on Thursday night for the official opener to AFL Origin, 17,659 days since the concept was born, on October 8, 1977, at Subiaco Oval.<\/p>\n

From the league\u2019s biggest stars \u2014 WA\u2019s Chad Warner, Luke Jackson and Kysaiah Pickett alongside Victoria\u2019s Nick Daicos, Matt Rowell and Patrick Dangerfield \u2014 to Mr Stokes, WA Premier Roger Cook and his deputy Rita Saffioti and the administrators behind the country\u2019s biggest code, an industry that reaped more than $1 billion in revenue this year.<\/p>\n

The 50-combined players from both teams, led by captains Bontempelli and Cripps, WA coach Dean Cox and his Victorian rival Chris Scott, adorned blazers in state colours before being presented with their playing jumpers on stage.<\/p>\n

Mr Cook, speaking at the event gave the Victorian side a warm welcome to the State, but warned them a parochial 60,000-strong crowd may not be as embracing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love our footy in Western Australia, we are a footy state,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll take you back to 1977, where a 12 year old local Tigers fan was immensely proud that Graham Moss, that legend of Claremont Football Club, was going to be the captain of the original WA team.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I remember the even greater pride the fact that we whooped the Victorians\u2019 arse that particular year.<\/p>\n

\u201c. . . We know this is going to be a great day, we know this is going to be a great celebration of footy, and those 60,000 plus fans who will pack our Optus stadium, it will be such an incredible opportunity to really embrace one of the great traditions of AFL in Australia, and we are so proud to be at the forefront of bringing it back to the footy calendar.\u201d<\/p>\n

It will be the first official game played under state of origin rules since 1999 and the first WA-Victoria clash since 1992, the year West Coast won the first of its four premierships.<\/p>\n

The cocky Victorians arrived in Perth on Wednesday night and trained together for the first time on Thursday at Mineral Resources Park.<\/p>\n

Victoria chairman of selectors Garry Lyon, who on Thursday likened the elite 25-player Big V squad to \u201cfooty porn\u201d, said Scott had left his players under no illusions over his expectations in Saturday\u2019s sell out game at Optus Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing he said was \u2018If you think this is a Mickey Mouse situation, then you\u2019re in the wrong place\u2019,\u201d Lyon said.<\/p>\n

The two proud football states have met 19 times, with Victoria holding a 12-7 advantage.<\/p>\n

The brainchild of Subiaco Football Club marketing manager Leon Larkin, Origin was \u201cborn\u201d on October 8, 1977 when a WA team led by Max Richardson, Ron Alexander and Graham Moss won by 94 points.<\/p>\n

The Sandgropers were coached by late WA great Graham \u201cPolly\u201d Farmer. A cup named in his honour will be presented to the winning team by Farmer\u2019s daughter Kim on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Moss will present the medal named in his honour to WA\u2019s best player, while Ted Whitten Jnr will present Victoria\u2019s best player with the EJ Whitten Medal, named after his late father Ted.<\/p>\n

After a win over WA in 1990, Ted Whitten famously uttered the words: \u201cStuck it right up \u2019em! That\u2019s what you did. You stuck it right up \u2019em.\u201d<\/p>\n

WA chairman of selectors Glen Jakovich, a decorated Origin player and dual premiership Eagle, will be hoping to say something similar after Saturday night\u2019s big game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Respected Australian businessman Kerry Stokes has been awarded Life Membership of the AFL for his significant contribution to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,44,588,85,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-475229","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-sport","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-wa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}