At the end of each home and away AFL season an annual Australian Football League Mark of the Year award is given to the player who is judged to have taken the most spectacular mark. A mark is the action of a player cleanly catching a kicked ball that has travelled more than 15 metres (49 ft) without the ball hitting the ground. The winning mark will usually be a spectacle that will include a high level of talent or courage.
Originally known as the “VFL Mark of the Year” and selected by a panel of football experts on Network Seven’s World of Sport program, the contest was renamed the “AFL Mark of the Year” following the competition’s renaming in 1990. Since 2001 it has been run by the AFL. It is open only to players within the AFL and applies to marks taken during official AFL season matches.
A famous VFL footballer, Alex Jesaulenko, unofficially won the first award for a “spectacular mark” during the 1970 VFL Grand Final, a mark that has been frequently called “The Mark of the Century”.
AFL Mark of the Year Winners
Year | Winner | Team | Note |
1970 | Alex Jesaulenko | Carlton | Spectacular mark over Graeme Jenkin during 1970 Grand Final. |
1971 | Alex Ruscuklic | Fitzroy | “High flyer” by centre-half-forward Alex Ruscuklic. |
1972 | Peter Knights | Hawthorn | Half-back Peter Knights threw a screamer against Collingwood. |
1973 | Alan Atkinson | Collingwood | Atkinson took “Mark of the Year” over Leon Rice on the wing. |
1974 | Billy Picken | Collingwood | Billy Picken took a screamer during the John Greening comeback game. |
1975 | Peter Knights | Hawthorn | Juggled mark before Carlton player swung his leg, causing Knights to fall onto his chest. |
1976 | Billy Picken | Collingwood | Overhead mark by Billy Picken against St Kilda. |
1977 | Peter Knights | Hawthorn | Chest mark over the pack. |
1978 | Phil Baker | North Melbourne | High mark above Hawks defenders, Kelvin Moore and Ian Paton, in the 1978 Grand final. |
1979 | Michael Roach | Richmond | Chest mark over Kelvin Moore, Terry Moore and Ian Paton. |
1980 | Graham Teasdale | South Melbourne | Graham Teasdale took a “marvellous mark” over Collingwood’s Billy Picken. |
1981 | Peter Bosustow | Carlton | Chest mark over the pack. |
1982 | Geoff Raines | Richmond | Leapt high above Fitzroy’s David McMahon before falling forward with the ball firmly in his grasp. |
1983 | Ken Hunter | Carlton | Overhead mark ran into a pack. |
1984 | Denis Banks | Collingwood | Mark ran with the flight of the ball. |
1985 | Gary Ablett, Sr | Geelong | Specky over the pack. |
1986 | Alan Ezard | Essendon | A towering chest mark over 6 ft 9 Justin Madden. |
1987 | Warwick Capper | Sydney | Used Chris Langford as a stepladder to take the ball while lying on his side. |
1988 | Stephen Silvagni | Carlton | Chest mark with long hang-time over Craig Starcevich. |
1989 | Alastair Lynch | Fitzroy | Juggling mark over the pack. |
1990 | Michael Mitchell# | Richmond | A juggled mark against his Fitzroy opponent. |
1991 | Brett Allison | North Melbourne | Specky over Gavin Crosisca. |
1992 | Nicky Winmar | St Kilda | A “breathtaking” mark at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. |
1993 | Tony Modra | Adelaide | Spectacular mark over Ian Fairley and Glenn Archer of North Melbourne. Adelaide came from behind to record a two-point win. |
1994 | Gary Ablett, Sr. | Geelong | Took a magnificent leap, basically sitting in Magpie Gary Pert’s arms and took a one-handed juggling mark. |
1995 | Shaun Smith | Melbourne | “High leap” over teammate Garry Lyon. |
1996 | Ben Hart | Adelaide | Intercepted Peter Everitt’s inside-50 entry by jumping and lying on his back three metres into the air, at the northern end of Football Park against St Kilda. |
1997 | Tony Modra | Adelaide | Against North Melbourne, Modra rode high on Mick Martyn’s shoulders facing towards the crowd with the ball coming in from behind. Turned in midair and grabbed the ball. |
1998 | Winston Abraham | North Melbourne | An overhead mark over Port’s Brendon Lade. |
1999 | Matthew Lappin | Carlton | A courageous overhead mark over the pack in the opening match of the season over Judd Lalich. |
2000 | Tony Modra | Fremantle | From within a pack, Tony Modra rose on the back of his opponent to take a spectacular, from the kick by team mate Ashley Prescott. |
2001 | Gary Moorcroft | Essendon | An overhead mark at full stretch after leaping onto and then springing a further metre into the air off Western Bulldogs player Brad Johnson. |
2002 | Jonathan Brown | Brisbane | A courageous chest mark running with the flight of the ball, launching into the oncoming Jade Rawlings. |
2003 | Chris Tarrant | Collingwood | A towering chest mark over Geelong defenders, Matthew Scarlett and Max Rooke. |
2004 | Ashley Sampi | West Coast | Rose high with a chest mark over Paul Wheatley and Adem Yze, landing catlike on his feet. |
2005 | Luke McPharlin | Fremantle | A chest mark at knee height on the shoulders of an opponent in a pack of players. |
2006 | Brad Ottens | Geelong | A high flying mark in a pack over Darren Jolly who cushioned Ottens’ fall causing additional ‘hang-time’. |
2007 | Michael Newton | Melbourne | High leap in Melbourne’s forward fifty over David Neitz and Kangaroos defenders, Glenn Archer and Leigh Brown. |
2008 | Matthew Lloyd | Essendon | A screamer over a pack of five players late in the third quarter. |
2009 | Brett Burton | Adelaide | Jumped early on a pack consisting of team mate Kurt Tippett and Carlton’s Ruckman, Matthew Kreuzer, and received an extra lift off of Carlton backman Bret Thornton to take the mark on his chest. Commentator Dwayne Russell dubbed it one of the marks of the century. |
2010 | Liam Jurrah | Melbourne | Huge leap over a contest between Melbourne’s Jack Watts and Port Adelaide’s, Nick Salter. |
2011 | Andrew Krakouer | Collingwood | Very high leap on the shoulders of Adelaide’s Luke Thompson.The decision created outrage the football community, as the unanimous view of players, fans, the media, and even Krakouer himself was that Andrew Walker of the Carlton Football Club was robbed of the award and deserved to win for his mark in round 18 against Essendon, which received international media attention. |
2012 | Jeremy Howe | Melbourne | Huge screamer over Heath Grundy. One of Howe’s many high marks throughout the 2012 season. Howe taking a contender for mark of the year was almost a weekly occurrence. |
2013 | Jamie Elliott | Collingwood | Jumped through a pack of several players to take a spectacular chest mark. |
2014 | Chad Wingard | Port Adelaide | Jumped high above Sean Dempster, falling backwards as he took the mark above his head. |
2015 | Nic Naitanui | West Coast | Jumped high in a pack with Mark Blicavs, Jared Rivers and teammate Callum Sinclair. |
2016 | Majak Daw | North Melbourne | Used Collingwood’s Jonathan Marsh as a springboard to take the ball over his head. |
2017 | Joe Daniher | Essendon | Used St Kilda’s Jake Carlisle as a springboard and took a large pack mark over his head in the forward pocket. |
2018 | Isaac Heeney | Sydney | Incredible high-flying grab turns star Demon into a stepladder. |
2019 | Liam Ryan | West Coast | Incredible high-flying grab in the goal-square turns the Demon Ruckman into a stepladder. |
2020 | Sam Walsh | Carlton | Sam Walsh went running back with the flight into a pack, marking the footy, while getting knocked to the ground. |