AFL Ontario: 33 Years of Footy Award Ceremony

[Music] thank you so much everybody for coming here it is an absolute pleasure to see a vision that i had in my head along with uh to make this happen and we're all here celebrating together as a footy family and we appreciate and love every single one of you so thank you all for coming tonight to celebrate every day of the more than 13 000 players across canada you know this league in itself over the years over the 33 years have seen more than 5 000 participants and that's an incredible um and staggering statistic considering that we're just six of us that meant for that one time to have a kid and i think more than anything that was the impetus for us tonight to to really think about a year ago to start thinking about how do we celebrate the history of the game in canada because the other thing that's really not very well known is that canada is the second oldest league of australian football in the world now it's played in 60 countries but we were number two so that's pretty amazing in itself as well so i think you should guys the other thing was that all of this was volunteer work and you know we spent more than 40 hours of zoom calls just in the last couple of months just to be able to ratify and get the statistics right for the inductors making sure that it was checked and balanced and there's just been a ton of work done by lots and lots of people so we really want to celebrate tonight we're so happy to have you here and we're looking forward to enjoying the evening so so we sat down and talked about who are some of the people who've been influential on the league and we want to name some of the awards after them so you will see these tonight in your program is an opportunity to fill in the blanks uh you'll recognize names and faces and all that as we go along so uh on to the awards great team ontario team canada with northwind some international cups gold umpire at 15 years old you should be getting warmer with that guess first of all to play in men's league in 1993 at 18 and she got up every single time and earned her respect in the league okay for a long time as a leader all of the ladies in here who play footy you owe a nod to this woman for guts determination and breaking a path so we had a gentleman who played 1990 to 2009 toronto panthers and eagles 154 game 126 goals he was a captain of the panthers and eagles premierships my team had a couple undefeated seasons and we lost a grand final these guys after an undefeated season wonderful assistant coach ontario best and fairest rookie of the year best membership with the eagles northman captain northland coach and with the nickname this guy had oh yeah he looked up to him my most memorable game in the league was trying to tag flash nicole baker i'm going to apologize right now if i say anybody's names wrong because i didn't read this ahead of time hamilton wildcats christa julosso from the hamilton wildcats jacqueline holliday kangaroos sarah mcarthur [Applause] center line from the hamilton wildcats please keep her [Applause] from the central blues haley jones from the hamilton wildcats narelle day leah thank you thanks appreciate it from the hamilton wildcats kelly kruey amanda erwin from rex from the togo kangaroos [Music] and on the interchange from the ottoman swans we've got evelyn harmsen that's all right thank you help from my friends from the high park demons from your august ones charlotte field i'm watching wildcats melissa mancini i'm going to uh just talk a little bit about bill franklin and jim cornish neither can be with us both of these guys were the brains trust really they were the two that got together and said do you want to have a check of the footy let's newspapers across the neighborhoods and um that's what generated the first eight people to come together and then from there we agreed that following week we'd start doing some training we'd meet and have a kick and uh 15 people showed up and we said today's people bring a friend and uh within the next couple weeks we had about 35 people out training so that was good but uh bill was really the driving force he was a canadian and uh very proud uh aussie rules fan and so he really wanted to get something going with richard cornish and jim uh now he lives in cooper and couldn't be with us tonight but again uh a really important part of our history because without these two guys coming together none of us would be here tonight so a really important part of our history [Applause] interviews kingsley kingsley can't be with us tonight kingsley i know you're watching by zoom from melbourne australia um it gives me great pleasure to introduce kingsley to the hall of fame without kingsley the league would not have happened but we've not been able to move forward after the first two seasons players are important however without umpires leads to players having played in the vfl during 19th and 1960s with detroit kingsley brought a lot of experience as a newly formed cap playing coaching not buying but a few things that kingston took on over the course of his involvement of the league kingsley provided the location for the first meeting which we mentioned he was co-founder wildcats in 1990 kappa director in 1990 director of unfiring 89 and then again in 95 to 96 kingsley alice this is from my heart is one of the true gentlemen of australian football canada and australia this will be kingly kingsley's second qualifying conducted production he was also inducted in 2016 for the southern football netball league and in the same league the best repair is named after a true inspiration here is kingsley himself i'm honored to consider kings their friend back in january we're able to catch up for lunch in melbourne please welcome kings alex your next inductee for the hall of fame international entity and humbled to be included with the normal hall of fame induct induction alongside such revered figures as the visionary bill frampton irreversible jim cornish inspirational terry wallace congratulations to all the players umpires volunteers and officials and supporters who've worked so hard to make that ontario such a success thank you thank you kingsley for your great speech it gives me great pleasure to introduce the next inductive hall of fame jury the part of the group of seven first captain meeting played the first game in 1989 the guy was renowned in 90s as the nice guy footy looking under jury right now until he stepped over the white line and became a super competitive individual jury went wherever he would help him lead grow during start in the united states mustangs in 92 he moved to balmy beach from startup 1997 he joined toronto bingo when they needed extra bodies and then he was called back to mississauga as a coach of 2005. jury was prepared to change the color of his jersey for the betterment of the league jury was the editor of the monthly mississippi newsletter from 1991 jury was the original creative distribution distributor of the kappa grand final program from 201989-2007 please welcome jerry clanco the next is up here and that's all i really wanted that's why i moved around uh just just to get my information all the people i met along the journey of great people that was the boys [Music] [Music] all i can say is that like jury for me it was just a memory seeing this is just incredible the everyone has a vision that one day we would be able to grow this sport uh throughout the country and beyond to see it today's is not just it's hard for you in those days though i mean it was a lot about work and the one thing that was difficult was that trying to stay when you're building a league uh i was one of those people that was kind of pushed down to get clubs going and i was a proud founder of the scarborough rebels uh with jeff and glenn black and rebels you'll be happy to know that i trumped them because they wanted to call it the scarborough sharks and i i put my foot down and said absolutely not so to see the rebels uh doing what they're doing today what was in hemingway's the other night seeing it adorned with rubble's uh jerseys and uh all kinds of accolades was was amazing uh i didn't stay there very long uh and went off to found one of my you know heartfelt favorite i've been going to the hall the baltimore states um we put together a very different philosophy of play which was when i was looking for records greg asked me to find and carry you know you have all the gold kickers and the award winners all i could find was the record of beer consumption um and who won those rewards because we actually granted the worst consumption and if sean collins um at the end of the day i i have to give my thanks also to the kingsley uh terry wallace um the guys who coached and took on all these canadians and just tirelessly you know put into the sport and all the guys that i've ever played with but particularly them for what they granted us it was an opportunity to play a great game we all know that you still play it congratulations to the lead congratulations to all of you and my fellow inductees well he did whatever the league needed to do and when this came up he was right at the front of it again it was my honor to be his friend and a lifetime friend we are still today i thank him for bringing me into the league and i can't tell you how much you should all understand that this man was vital to where your league is today it is my honor to present eric's balls [Music] thank you sandra that was very generous um it was a labor of love i love football from when i was a small small boy in australia growing up played a bit of a journeyman role and lots and lots of clubs my only claim to fame was i got involved to pre-season training in the western bulldogs but of course i didn't make that i ended up going to darwin and playing in darwin set before moving to canada so uh and i coached the uh territory school boys team at the australian championships so when i got an opportunity to go to that first meeting and they were looking for someone who has experience in coaching i'm like i'm you man um so john pearson and i were the two inaugural coaches and uh really we just had a blast it was um from day one it was great everybody who came out had a really good spirit about them willing to play and try their best and learn a new sport because aussie rules wasn't really uh a common thing for most people you know volleyball hand pass so it was fantastic and so you know as sandra said um it took a lot of time and effort but i think there were many who wanted to help in those early days it was really my honor and pleasure and i really uh i appreciate this honor as well and uh i will cherish it always thank you i would like to call up kevin murray to please present and speak about the um some of you think it's a necessary evil in the game um we have a little community and we work at it because it takes a while to develop enough you have to be arrogant enough to think you're going to be right most of the time you have to be humble enough to realize i have a lot to learn and and the last couple years have been a stretch with trying to put bodies out there keep people safe get mostly calls right and accommodate you know the fact that we don't want to work every weekend sometimes and anyway so our little community has struggled at times um before we talk about who's going to be the fire of the year for this year uh regular guys who helped out greg edward in the back works by himself most of the time in ottawa jeremy kennealy in hamilton has done a few games for us this year had a baby and tried to do real estate another saturday occupation not great um and then we have a lot of vote this year paul barron from the swans andrew gersey from the rebels bruce parker put his hand up a number of times for us kyle from the gargoyles tim bulldog wilson from the wildcats saved us one day kent billing formerly in etobicoke kangaroo uh today from the rebels uh obie from the blues jacqueline halliday as a name should be up there he did a phenomenal afternoon in hamilton it doesn't happen without people coming up and saving us uh two other people on that list brian duncan at the front was not able to empire this year he continues to mentor coach and make all of us better by you know pointing stuff out and making us think about things that's really important uh canoes back there with the eagles table uh we missed david this year he's been a standout i canvassed the teams this year for empire boats and there were a number of situations names came up and um so when it came down to it basically what did we learn from who's a role model who sets a standard and makes the rest of us better it's a hard game it's like nothing else out there and uh did the swans uh rebels games this afternoon it was more intense than the canada us games last weekend and it was a blast you're not going to get it all right but it was great and i was really really glad that i was able to work with a partner i trust completely and i look up to and i've learned from for many years mr greg everett come on hey [Music] nicole baker 2022 oh all right moving right along we're going to look at the men's division we have quite a slate of rookie nominations this year from the central blues braden walker from the grand river guard rules jonathan hodge from the hamilton wildcats kelvin uh sir kevin mcgowan high heart demons owen flynn out of the swarms matthew macon conor digress harry shelton eagles jelly mullet and the tournament rebels lucas struggling with brady can't be with us [Music] okay so we're just going to announce the lifetime membership awards and the first one is bill connolly the second lifetime of lifetime membership is eric painting joshua [Music] all we're about to introduce now the builders category for the hall of fame as you know there are three categories the founders for the original six members the next group this builders group this group constitutes a group of people who joined us very soon after the start of the league but were huge contributors and really had a massive impact on the success of the league particularly in the early years and so um i've got a number of uh lifetime a number of builders to talk talk through first one is grant built so graham just wanted to say thank you he was very taken aback uh he said you know i don't know i didn't really stand out that much uh which is not true he was an exceptional player a fantastic coach and uh for those of you know hemingway's is the i guess the default bar of the league it is so because huey was the manager of hemingway's back in the day in those early years he did want to say this though his claim to fade was that he was the umpire for the first grand final which would seem odd considering he was a member of the toronto panthers but unfortunately in a lead up a couple weeks prior to the grand final as he says his knee came into contact with uh jury's head and for those of you know jury he said you will know there is nothing harder uh on the field than jerry's head uh he sustained an injury came back well enough to be able to at least limp around the field um as a plane for the panthers and here obviously is a huge loss but he was uh proudly there with whistling and uh you know umpire in that first grand final he wanted to say thank you to all the uh folks that were there in the in the day and uh just said carry on and good luck with the rest of the week he's very happy so that's from you another person and i think he's um on the zoom call tonight so hi peter uh welcome to the trailer tonight we're sorry to be with us i know that you are a um you're a legendary character in those early days peter was uh one of the founders of with the north york hawks but he played for many clubs he was the guy that would say oh my team short okay well i just finished i'm wearing the name i'll throw on your jersey and play and so he did that so he played i think for every club over the course of those first couple of years um but he also coached uh he took on a number of executive roles including president of the league in the early years umpiring was his forte and director of alpine for many years he's a lifetime capri uh award winner and uh founder of the northern north york hawks he also used to publish the peter gordon report from 94 through to 99 before the internet and it's hard to believe that there's some time before the internet anyway peter used to do it he used to go and interview players after the game take sound bites and then make up stories about those players in the game so it was a bit of a rag to be honest but uh but peter was a great sport but he more than anything was a connective tissue to keep keep the conversations going between the players between the clubs and sort of got the some of the rivalries going early on so we take we take our hat off to you here and we wish you all the best and good help and we wanted to say thank you i'm going to uh now introduce stephen williams stephen was a wildcat from 1990 but uh as you can see from his quite long and storied career he was very influential in the early years um particularly with wildcats he in fact secured the first uh ground outside of the gta with mobile sports park and i believe it's still in operation today so um terrific uh piece of work and he also uh was able to get us a half time game at a cfl game so we played a shortened game twice uh at the cfl game in front of quite a serious crowd down in hamilton so that was fantastic and and stephen was the driving force behind us getting in front of all of those cfl fans so fantastic so congratulations stephen if you'd like to come up i'm truly humbled to receive this award it's in my name but it takes a family to build a football club and one of the greatest clubs in this league is the hamilton wildcats and i'm so proud to be up here representing this team i can't believe the number of players that i've coached and captained over the years i thank them for their support i think there's their partners for letting them play the crazy game to be played to the umpires who've never gave me a free kick in my life the capital board members who i shared many feisty meetings with i'm looking at you greg at the back i've had a few arguments over the years the members of the humming executive have shared with them vials here right now and i appreciate your time and effort into the spot as well so the presence of the hound wild cat wild cats who have followed me who've kept the club going okay my got me here today without them it wouldn't happen so i don't know everybody's names i'm gonna just name with you kingsley lyle chuck tim and the late jeff fish we're all past presents for the club and i know there are present presents here tonight i apologize when i know your name so please sorry thank you and finally just a few more people just want to mention apart from everybody else that's here because my daughter kate is here from australia on the boundary of the football field game after game because jane was working at the hospital and it was without her i wouldn't have been out of play my son michael if he mouse played a place for hamilton he couldn't make it tonight he's not well and hopefully he'll plan his first grand final in a couple of days guys don't let him down and finally my beautiful wife jane who's right there is brian duncan brian's been an integral part of the umpiring scene since he's come uh into the league of the oaf and the afl ontario so he's undefined 435 games division one two and women's games uh and including uh 13 grand finals um he's had executive roles as director of from 2001 to 2004 and 2007 to 11 and 2013. um he's been on par of the year twice in 2011 and 18 and he's an ontario air for ontario life member this year as well so frank good evening [Music] like other recipients i've humbled that absolutely until you see this award um [Music] a lot of games uh a lot of faces here that i recognize in the crowd and i can remember all of the things that you said to me i'm looking forward to uh as soon as all possible the um the last person i'd like to um to talk about in the builders category is malcolm played malcolm was a character beyond beyond what anyone could imagine he was uh he'd roll up the sleeves and do anything for anybody he was an incredible uh incredible guy to have around the lead had an enormous sense of humor and a best for life and unfortunately malcolm did pass away in 2017 but his wife barbara is here or atmosphere to accept his award as you can see he did play in the first game as well he kicked the first goal in catholic history in that game um he played the toronto panthers and then came over to the mississippi mustangs where he coached him for a couple of years as well he uh he played a total of 30 games and it was part of the toronto panthers premiership in 1989. he held all of the roles in the kafir executive secretary treasurer president and he was also president of the mississippi mustangs in terms of vampirina he applied a host of games 177 in all and uh he was leading goalkeeper in 1989 very first year of the league and was made a life member of kappa in 1995. he was also the driving force behind installing the first penalty goal post at centennial park in 1991 so barbara gonna ask you to come up and accept [Music] my son helped me put a few words together some of you here would know matt he played for a couple of years with the league and he helped me put these words together the recognition of malcolm through the valletti cup and his induction into the hall of fame is an honor to our family that's a husband and a father teams don't win premierships solely by what they do on the field they win by how they conduct themselves off the field how they interact with one another how they train you look after each other on the field and you're part of each other's life off the field teammates can become family young knew this and loved this so many of you were spoken of off the field and in our home inviting us into yours and becoming part of our family as an ambassador and an umpire he loved taking new players under his wing teaching the rules developing the skills and most of all ensuring they were getting the same enjoyment that he did from the game it was also about welcoming traveling aussies into our home so that they could have a game or bring or we brought a batch of meat pies forever the inaugural inductees are all people who were held in highest we're held in high esteem by malcolm and it is with great pride seeing him alongside those for his impact on the league the players and the game and for malcolm it was always about the game [Music] this is my son's words i've thought about how malcolm would have reacted to this nomination and there's one word that stands up he would have said oh [Music] can you believe this he would have said disbelief because it was never about the recognition it was always about the game well malcolm passed too soon without goodbyes being said having him still in our lives three rousey rules a love and a passion of his has made saying goodbye substantially easier the laughter the love the passions of the game he will never be forgotten leaderboard after round ten amanda irwin with 46. 19. amanda smith as we were starting the gala and i got an email saying oh we're going to be a little bit late hold some food for her she's her cast is drying as we speak and i thought you know what that's heart that's guts and we would like to congratulate amanda on her award 2022 men's division leading dog cooker [Music] okay yeah so this year we're renaming the middle to the mick pearson medal and um i'm gonna have mix come up in a moment and uh present the award so just wanted to give everyone just a quick snapshot of nick's career prodigious is the word i'd use so uh mick played from 1990 to 2002 and trying to answer end eagle played 154 games it kicked a whopping 525 goals and was the all-time leading goalkeeper he won eight premierships and he won the uh four times league goalkeeper award and he also coached uh with an incredible record of 52 games 40 wins and 12 losses we'd like to come wildcats jim smith 19 men's division one led into another block from there from 1990 to 2009 full 19 season he played 154 games kicked 126 goals and won apprenticeships eight of them uh he also coached the campus for 139 games with a record of 100 wins 31 losses he was the assistant coach in 2003 in the old ontario team head coach in 2004 of your ontario team and the team canada northwind head coach from 2006 to 2009 he also was part of the national team uh north wind in the atlantic alliance cup in 2001 and also the international cup in melbourne australia in 2002 for a total of 10 games played in terms of honours he was rookie of the year in his very first year in 1990 he was mvp of the league in 1993. he was best and fairest in 1992 and 93 and he was club captain from 91 to 94 and he's an oafl life member and he just made that in 2002. unfortunately mark is up north camping and hiking and canoeing across northern ontario and he couldn't be with us tonight but as you can see he's a legendary character in our informative years in our league [Music] thank you i am humbled by the opportunity to really accept it from behind flash um he's a special guy a brilliant footballer he introduced myself and sauce to foodie one day and it's changed our lives so um it's a massive honor for me to be up here today to accept this on behalf of him he sent me something specific so i just want to read that out and then i'll leave that with you so um as you said yeah he's driving his motorbike he did that last year he did it this year so the energy in which he loves his life is how he played his footy so um he's fantastic so i'm going to start with uh just what he wrote i'm just going to read it verbatim accepting this award it's worth mentioning the epic battles and the rivalries we had in those days and how much footy meant to all of us the camaraderie shared by our team and all the others was really something special haven't experienced anything like it i look back at it now with joy and appreciation for the magnificent magnificent experience it was with this effort i can see footy taking massive steps of expansion throughout the country through club footy women's studies junior developments and the national program one of my proudest achievements was representing canada as captain and coach of northwind i learned so much about myself through that experience about perseverance dedication leadership friendship management and accomplishment i wouldn't be the man today if it wasn't for foodie special thanks to all the opponents who made plain footy so important in my life if it wasn't so hard it wouldn't be so special to me to greg everett a fierce opponent on the field league builder northwind coach international umpire afl executive member and whose efforts have helped make afl canada what it is today finally to erin felicioni and the rest of the toronto eagles who have formed a brotherhood by standing by each other marching on that field and battling for footage i just love it read and accept this honor with great gratitude ass i will be thinking of you all so i couldn't be there thanks um the next person i'd like to induct into the [Music] but he also had a lot of other attributes and as you can see here from the number of games he's played 154 kicking those 525 goals um a part of the eight tournament of panthers and eagles premiership years as coach from 91 to 94 uh of those 52 games he won 40 almost 12. uh he was vice president of the kappa league in 1992 and the toronto panthers president in 1992 awards and honours he was best in paris in 1993 trying to panthers goalkeeping award 93-97 in 2001 that should be 2004. um kappa league goal kicker from 1993 to 97 uh the australian all-star team in 1993 afl ontario life member in 2022 which is part of tonight's award for you and also coached the toronto panthers to an undefeated season 14 1991. i'm very happy to introduce [Music] this is just wow like incredible um it's a great honor to accept this this award and also my congratulations to the fellow inductees here tonight um you surely deserve this and um you've been an important part of the building and the performance of the game in canada which is truly amazing and should be very proud thank you and greg greg everett you're out there buddy greg on the field and off the field i've [Music] given you a hard time but uh when you contacted me uh about this hall of fame idea i'll admit at the beginning i was a little bit skeptical and this is really going to get off the ground but because of your inspiration we're all here tonight celebrating this and thank you very much thank you to the founders uh sandra you called my name out earlier so i'm going to call your name thanks buddy um and the people that started this league uh surely we didn't think that we'd be here tonight 33 years later um celebrating this event when you first started this so that's fantastic we all appreciate it very much and uh sandra i don't know if you know this but i was almost a rabbit did i tell you this story so i arrived at canada 33 years ago and the first week i'm here there's a game of afl in what they call the sky dome back then and i thought this is cool in this country they play a film on the skybox every week but it turns out it was a once off event and i don't think they've ever done it since so i went to this afl game it was melbourne and geelong thank you very much on uh no no one you've got a chat a memory than me [Music] what are you saying so um the um the next week i saw an article in the toronto star and it said if you're interested in playing aussie rules football give sandra mancini a call of this number so i did this is pre-internet so no email so i called him left a message on the answering machine and about an hour or two later i get a call back hi my name's graeme hewitt you're going to come and play for the toronto panthers so that's how i became a panther and not a rebel because sandra didn't get home before he went so thank you very much thank you terence thank you terrell it's a great honor it was a member of the mississippi mustangs and high park demons from 1994 note that ed came in in our premiership season so you know came straight into a winning team and then lasted all the way through to 2014 he played 183 games in total and he also was part of that apprenticeship team in 94. he was a demons coach in 1997 and he was president of 2008 and director of communications from 2004-2009 he was also part of the national team canada team canada north wind in the atlantic alliance cup in 2001 where he played four games and also for a north wind in the international cup in melbourne in 2002 for a total of 10 games for canada he was the captain of mississauga mustangs from 2000 to 2008 and he was also most improved in 1996 and o-f-a-f-l all-star 2005 and 2006. i'd like to welcome ed up to the stage and present him with his induction i'm in i'm living in brisbane and i get a i get a i get a message on linkedin from a guy who says he's ed's cousin okay so i look at his profile and i thought it was it he looks spitting image red so we went up had coffee had a chat seriously when it walked into a note i thought it was chris you were identical twins my friend what can i say i want to thank everyone who's been part of this this is an amazing event just put your hands together for everyone who's organized this a few event and i went back to the game a couple weeks ago and i just started shaking because i wanted to play so bad and lobby tried to get me to play but my wife told me don't play i know you want to play just don't play you know i talked to greg before the game and said craig floggy told me that you know maybe i should play it and craig's like don't play so little voice of reason thanks greg for uh the words of wisdom but but i i had the poster from the the 89 game in my university dorm in first year university i've got obviously family good segue in australia all my cousins are there so i've always had a fascination with the game and in 94 when i was working uh i played rugby in high school so they they thought he played rugby but you know how many people confuse rugby and aussie rules it's one of those things we get really angry with him so he's like hey he plays he plays rugby no no i play aussie rules so i'm like oh is it there's an aussie rules lincoln it's like yeah well give me some more information so that weekend i was i was in mississauga mustang so i didn't look back and that was 94 and that was the year we won the premiership so that was an amazing that was amazing and so i want to i want to thank everyone who i played with everyone who have played against all the folks that have i played with the national team all the umpires everyone has been a part of my wife who's been part of you know dedicated and letting me play and you know my mature years and you know we're probably worrying about me getting hurt but i just this community is amazing and i just want to thank everyone for being a part of it i'm just so my soul is being full of his happiness and seeing all the faces of him i haven't seen in so many years it's just making me feel so good and i really appreciate everyone being here and i appreciate this award i'm very humbled by all the players that i didn't pick a lot of goals but you know i had a lot of fun and i i played hard and i really appreciate all this so thank you very much chris connor uh i'd like to say uh thank you to the hall of fame committee for all the work they've done this is amazing everyone involved greg called me up and asked me or told me about this uh initial idea um and i'm sure it was probably well on its way by that time and i just thought everything's come full circle it's pretty crazy where we started with the with the league and i wish i'd started earlier um the people had started in 89 terry and the whole bunch that everyone spoke about already i don't think they ever saw this happening and and turning into something where we're seeing commercial sport on tsn now and and footy is being shown um on tsn every week and it's pretty incredible when you think about it and we're quite happy and we're all obviously big fans of the game so um keep pushing for people to play and join and show them this great sport um i'd like to thank everyone ever played against all the coaches i ever played for all the places we went and all the parties we had and all the beers we drank and which were a lot and uh some strange and crazy old faces in here that i've seen i haven't seen for a long time some people have come from australia uh and other park places to be here it's amazing so i i really applaud that um you guys put out an incredible effort a long time ago i started playing in 1992 and i got approached by someone uh held his brother was working with a gentleman that um playgrounds football for the probably hawks and you need some extra players so i walked into the room of course he goes like hey you gotta play and i don't even know what this is i don't know what it is sure i'll play we have a plan so learning the new sport and all these new skills all i can say is the aussies are the most patient people in the world despite being here teaching canadians to play footy is has to be one of the most daunting things in the world um and i really applaud uh all of those australians that helped us out even in the middle of a game watching an australian help out an opponent who's new to the sport show them how to kick how to hold the ball better how to play a little bit better every time they play is is a really cool thing to see so um you don't get that in any other sports i don't think that i've ever seen and i played most of them there's just not that camaraderie so i'm i'm really uh privileged and proud to be able to play a sport like this i'd like to thank helga for putting up with all the times we had to play on weekends and every weekend pretty much between may 2 4 to labor day every summer for years and get involved with the league at the club level the league level and the national level um her organizational skills are equivalent and shows again tonight with the with the work that er and sherelle have put into this this gala so i'd like to just thank everyone for all the work they've done and [Music] appreciate everything that's ever happened with football thanks last but not least through our induction into the hall of fame for the player category craig stewart craig was a toronto dingo from 2000 to 2014 he played a total of 182 games for a total of 358 goals he played in uh four premierships for the dingos he was the coach in 2002 and 2006. he was assistant coach 2001 335 and 2007. he was the aofl uh vice president 2002-2003 and again in 2013 afl afl and canada treasurer in 2013 dingo's president from 2008 to 2013 he was made a life member of the dingoes in 2009 he was the best and fairest winner 2003 to 2006 and again 2010 to 2001 for total six he was also the leading club goal kicker for the bingos again for six seasons and uh club captain from 2003 to 2009 and again in 2012. he is the oafl best and fairest in 2004 for the league of l all-star team 7 10 and 13 and the afl ontario life member this year with your induction um and the toronto dingo's best and fairest award is named after him as a craig stewart award and so i have the privilege of asking craig to come and accept thank you so much i'm so honoured to be uh to be inducted in the inaugural year thank you to all the organisers um you know again greg reached out i was so honored um just to be just to be a part of this to be a part of this night so i wasn't sure what i was going to do but i just had to come over for it because you know it was just it just this league just meant so much to me over the years i first came over in 1998 and i didn't actually play football straight away because i didn't realize there even was a league here in 1998 at 99 and it wasn't until my wife found it on the internet in 2000 and said hey there's footy here let's do it i wanted to play for the eagles actually because i'm from as you mentioned um and so sorry i talk about it all the time um and i i spoke to bruce parker actually was the first person i spoke to and i i said i would like to play for the eagles and he said oh they trained their humber north i said i don't have a car so does anybody train on the subway or street power line and he says dingo so i joined up with the dingoes and um and i guess the rest is history so sorry but i do i do want to thank really you know football is such a massive part of my life it has been a huge part of my life for a long time and it's really not so much the games and the awards and the accolades when you're a young man and you have a family and younger kids you really do rely on the support of your family so i just want to recognise them as well so thank you so much to everyone i really appreciate it all right women's leaderboard after round eight handsome wildcats leo with 11 votes etobicoke kangaroos amanda irwin with 10 votes central blues haley jones with six votes hamilton wildcats please keeper with six votes toe cocaine groups carter berrigan five hamilton wildcats jacqueline holiday five votes hamilton hamilton wildcats narelle day with five folks women's round nine three boats wildcats jacqueline holiday two boats wildcats cali gruel one vote hamilton wildcats abby clark high park demons versus the chocobo kangaroos three votes topical kangaroos two votes etobicoke kangaroos sarah macarthur juan vote tobacco kangaroo amanda erwin from women round 10 free votes tomoko kangaroos amanda erwin two chocobo kangaroos laura and hillary one vote central blues haley jones leaderboard after round ten kangaroos amanda erwin 14 votes wildcats leah with 11 votes hamilton wildcats jacqueline halliday with eight votes chocobo kangaroos laura helmy seven central blues hayley jones seven and hamilton wildcats lead keeper with six women's round 11. three votes toco kangaroos claire warren two votes from toko kangaroos mabel dunn one vote hamilton wildcats lead keeper hybrid versus ottawa three boats high park demons sarah enorm two boats sarah fabry oh [Music] irwin 14 votes hamilton wildcats leah with 11 hamilton wildcats jacqueline with eight togo kangaroos laura with seven central blues haley with seven and hamilton wildcats leaves with seven 2022 women's best affairs [Music] okay so we have two more awards so the afl ontario overall league best and fairest candidate that this award is being named after playing career of 2001 to 2008 2010 to 2015 with clubs lawrence park lakeshore and toronto rebels 111 games 386 golds 2001 premiership all-star team 2003-2014 awards equal catholic best and fairest in 2001 leading goalkeeper in 2001 with 71 goals 2002 with 59 2003 with 88. 88. you heard me right coaching 25 a.m 2015 to 2018 140 lost 14 wandra one partnership in 2016. all ontario team head coach 2016 and 2017. we are now renaming the damon bagner medal [Music] then we also have another renaming of an award for the ontario league best and fairest canadian award candidate profile playing career 94-2010 brought broadview hawks 200 games 31 goals captain of the hawks 97 in 2009 president of the broadca hawks 99 to 2009 capita secretary 99 capita president 2000 secretary 2003 oafl president 2004 all ontario team 2003 vice captain 2004 captain 2005 vice captain 2006 vice captain 2007. deputy vice captain thank you 2008 vice captain in 2009 awards catholic rookie of the year 1994 robbie hawkes rookie of the year 94 robbie heart hawks best and fairest 1997 broadview hawks life member 2010 team canada north wind 39 games 2001 to 2008 as a player 2005-2008 as a captain named the afl international club all-star team 2002. stephen lee okay men's division leaderboard after round eight toronto rebels rocked hamilton wildcats jim smith five points hamilton wildcats chris morning five points men's division round nine three votes ottawa swans corey harrington two votes hamilton wildcats all rodrigo one vote ottawa swans jeffrey coventry toronto dingoes vs hyde park three votes toronto dingoes ben sinclair two votes toronto dingoes michael lag one vote toronto dingoes benji copeland toronto rebels versus grand river three votes toronto rebels harrison chrystal knees hamilton wildcats jim smith five points hamilton wildcats chris morning five points no women's division teams in row 10. men's division round 11 grand river versus central blues three points grand river gargoyles jacob martin two points grand river gargoyles james bradner one point central blue san tyro eagles versus high park three points toronto eagles jared watson two points toronto eagles jay heimet one point toronto equals sean thank you toronto rebels versus ottawa three points ottawa swans jordan harcourt two points toronto rebels nick edwards robert men's division final leaderboard hamilton wildcats all rodrigo eight votes toronto rebels from tirsinghi eight votes toronto levels michael fabry seven votes toronto tingo's ben sinclair seven points toronto eagles give a huffle eight hamilton wildcats jim smith five and hamilton wildcat chris morning five yes it is it is a three-way time for the 2022 gaming so i had the privilege of playing for or with pretty much every inductee tonight and definitely four with or against every deductible right uh my name is chandra woltensburg for those who don't know me sean door-walking is my given name at birth the story i want to tell is why i'm called skip my first season in the nfl was with the balmy beach saints which was founded by and people could not understand that my name is spelt s-a-n-d-o-r and pronounced shondor and his name is spelled s-a-n-d-o-r sandro so hall-of-famer graham hewitt decided that i would be called skip since 1991 that's all i had going to add a small moment here so we found out this morning that we lost another one of our members we lost josh mcmillan yesterday from the toronto rebels and we want to take this moment to remember all of those that have lost before and we're going to have a moment of silence so i'm just going to read off the names of all the members we have lost from our football family and we're going to take about a minute of silence to remember and reminisce broadview heart hawks marcus minoak mark gregson central blues jared hostas grand river gargoyles brian carrera hamilton wildcats jeff fish and sasha kokonovic mississauga mustangs malcolm felletti and steve berry branson wolverines steve berry toronto dingoes mike liszewski tim shaw alex adkin toronto eagles gary finch toronto rebels david hein sam mcmahon paul and no josh macmillan so we'd like to take a moment just a minute to reminisce and remember our lost family members you