Caroline Wilson
Caroline Wilson is a Walkley award-winning columnist and former chief football writer for The Age.
Analysis
AFL 2024
‘It’s bigger than that’: The match the AFL wants to revive after a decade in the wilderness
The AFL is pushing to stage an Indigenous exhibition game on the eve of next season in a bid to address the decline in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander footballers playing the game.
- by Caroline Wilson
Latest
Exclusive
AFL 2024
‘Every day I wish I could take it all back’: Finlayson’s shame over homophobic slur
What happened 26 nights ago against Essendon at the Adelaide Oval was, says Jeremy Finlayson, a moment in time he cannot fully explain and one that still keeps him awake at night.
- by Caroline Wilson
The family toll at the heart of an AFL coaching crisis
Five AFL assistant coaches are living away from their families to pursue their careers, and one big factor is the prohibitive cost of the housing market.
- by Caroline Wilson
Exclusive
AFLW
Once banned from playing, AFLW’s new boss will launch next phase of footy
AFLW general manager Emma Moore will report to the game’s football boss, Laura Kane. Both say they would not be expanding the AFLW season further until TV and match-day audiences justify it.
- by Caroline Wilson
Exclusive
AFL 2024
Burnt out and rocked by the death of his legendary dad, Marsh takes a break
Paul Marsh is reluctantly taking a three-month sabbatical. “It wasn’t a negotiation, it was an ultimatum,” says AFLPA president Patrick Dangerfield.
- by Caroline Wilson
Opinion
AFL 2024
Clayton Oliver and the Demons walking a tightrope
As star Melbourne midfielder continues his cautious behavioural rehabilitation, his club is also trying to overcome six months of on- and off-field horrors
- by Caroline Wilson
In the game of the father: The blood ties complicating footy’s feel-good stories
One of dozens of senior coaches and football bosses to have their judgment blinkered by blood ties, Denis Pagan coached his own son at AFL level. He believes Anthony Stevens has done the right thing by stepping away from the Kangaroos board.
- by Caroline Wilson
Analysis
AFL 2024
Where have all the CEOs gone? Footy’s problem with finding new leaders
As the competition has expanded to include a national women’s league and soon 19 teams, veteran club bosses have lamented the dearth of emerging off-field leaders across the competition.
- by Caroline Wilson
Exclusive
AFL 2024
The casual lunch that brought a club favourite’s time at Tigerland to an end
Neil Balme, a key part of Richmond’s return to AFL prominence, talks about the “briefly awkward” discussion that made it clear this would be his last year at the club.
- by Caroline Wilson
Opinion
AFL 2024
Another AFL boss goes soft on Clarkson as history keeps repeating
For too long the competition’s governors have been sticking Band-Aids on Alastair Clarkson’s behavioural problems, only for the troubled coach to rip them off again.
- by Caroline Wilson
Exclusive
AFL 2023
Hawks face massive financial settlement to Clarkson
Hawthorn are facing a significant financial settlement with Alastair Clarkson, while he and his former football boss Chris Fagan also want public apologies from the club over the impact of the cultural safety review on their professional and private lives.
- by Caroline Wilson