Michael Long (born ) is a former Australian rules footballer of Aboriginal descent who became a spokesperson for Indigenous rights and against racism in sport in Australia.
Long played in dual Australian Football League (AFL) premierships with the Essendon Football Club, including a Norm Smith Medal for his 1993 grand final performance. As an activist, he is credited with being instrumental in the introduction of a racial vilification code in the AFL in 1995 and the inspiration behind "The Long Walk" commemorating the Stolen Generations, now a strong AFL tradition. In August 2023, Long began a walk between Melbourne and Canberra in support of the forthcoming Australian Indigenous Voice referendum. He completed the walk in 20 days and arrived in Canberra on 14 September 2023.
Early life
Michael Long was born on 1 October 1969 to mother Agnes and father Jack Long. Both were removed from their parents at a young age and taken to Melville Island, one of the Tiwi Islands. Jack's half Chinese and half English father fought unsuccessfully for custody of his son. Agnes was taken from Daly River near Darwin, and Jack was taken from Ti Tree near Alice Springs. Michael grew up in a mixed community in Darwin as one of nine children was raised on the Tiwi Islands.
Early career
Long moved to Darwin to play with St Mary's, where he played in several premierships. In 1988, he represented the Northern Territory at the Adelaide Bicentennial Carnival in March, and his outstanding performances in the dominant NT team saw enormous interest in his recruitment from various first-class clubs throughout the country, including Essendon, which nominated him in the 1988 VFL draft.
Despite being drafted to the Victorian Football League (VFL), South Australian National Football League (SANFL) club West Torrens argued that Long was "contracted with the club and could not play anywhere else". Recruiter Noel Judkins said, "I was guaranteed this wasn't the case, so I took the contract to Darwin and met with Michael's father Jack, and he was irate. He grabbed it and wrote the word 'bullshit' right across the front of it. When it became clear he wanted to play at Essendon, West Torrens agreed it wasn't a binding contract." However, despite this, Long did play for West Torrens during the 1988 SANFL season, winning the club's best-and-fairest award, the third-last player to do so, as the Eagles merged with the Woodville Football Club following the 1990 season to become the Woodville-West Torrens Eagles.
Australian Football League career
Long played perhaps the best game of his career in the 1993 AFL grand final. Playing on Mark Athorn, Long ran amok, helping Essendon gain a healthy quarter-time lead and then maintain it. By the end of the game, he had amassed 20 kicks and 13 handballs, totalling 33 possessions. Long's performance was rewarded with the Norm Smith Medal, which was presented to him by fellow Tiwi Islander Maurice Rioli.
In the pre-season of 1994, in a practice match against West Coast, Long injured his knee, which required 12 months of solid rehabilitation, and he was not seen for the entire home-and-away season. In 1995, Long made a triumphant return to AFL football and played almost a full season. In the inaugural Anzac Day match between Essendon and Collingwood at the MCG, an incident of racial abuse targeting Long occurred, which was to have a lasting impact on the game. Since this incident, there have only been a handful of widely publicised accusations of racial taunts by a player on the AFL field in the following three decades, although racial abuse from fans has proved to be a recurring issue over the years.
Twenty years after the incident, at the MCG to launch the 11th Long Walk in 2015, Monkhorst and Long met and shook hands in a mutually respectful manner. Long said that Monkhorst had since shown great leadership. Although nothing of consequence happened from the Long–Everitt incident, Everitt racially vilified Melbourne's Scott Chisholm two years later and undertook a racial awareness training program as well as donating $20,000 to a charity of Chisholm's choice. In addition, Everitt lost $50,000–$60,000 in match bonuses (depending on sources) from the incident.
The incident came a week after Sam Newman infamously donned blackface to mock Nicky Winmar for declining to come on The Footy Show. He later said: "I wanted to make a change. It was about challenging the government about some of the issues Aboriginal people were facing and still face – education, employment, health, housing, the Stolen Generations." The walk takes place in late May or early June before the annual Dreamtime at the 'G match, starting at Federation Square and ending at the MCG. Long is patron of The Long Walk, an organisation inspired by his walk and which works for the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians. He completed the walk after 20 days, arriving at Parliament House in Canberra on 14 September. He reported that he had experienced "overwhelming support" from people he met in regional Australia.
Other activities and roles
In July 2011, Long signed up as ambassador for weight-loss agency Jenny Craig, partly to highlight Indigenous health.
In 2015, he became board member of the newly founded Michael Long Foundation (MLF), and in 2016 the Michael Long Learning and Leadership Centre (MLLLC) opened in Darwin. MLF funds education and football programs for indigenous people, and the MLLLC, funded by the federal government and managed by AFL Northern Territory, aims to nurture talent and improve lives and communities.
Recognition, honours and awards
In 2002, an Essendon panel ranked Long at number 23 in their Champions of Essendon list of the 25 greatest players ever to have played for Essendon.
Long was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in the 2021 Queen's Birthday Honours, for "service to Australian rules football, and to the Indigenous community".
He received the 2025 NAIDOC lifetime achievement award.
Personal life
Long is renowned for his sharp wit. In an incident recalled by Long's only VFL/AFL coach, Kevin Sheedy, there was a fundraiser to reconstruct Windy Hill that was under way, and Sheedy was conducting a serious training session in front of a whiteboard and 200 people, mostly money donors. He paused to ask if anyone had a question. To the surprise of all that knew him, Long, who apparently hadn't spoken up during a training session in five years, raised his hand, causing people to fall silent to hear Long speak. Long asked, "What was wrong with the blackboard?"
In 2006, Long was charged with assaulting a man at a football club function in Darwin. He pleaded guilty when the case came to trial in 2009, saying he had struck a man who had attacked his sister. No conviction was recorded, with the magistrate saying that he was unlikely to reoffend.
In 2018, Long was treated for a life-threatening infectious disease, melioidosis, in a hospital in Darwin; however, this did not stop him from announcing plans for a second Long Walk, as he was honoured for the Sir Doug Nicholls Round at Dreamtime at the 'G in May 2019.
Playing statistics
:
|- style="background-color: #EAEAEA"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1989
|style="text-align:center;"|
| 4 || 24 || 19 || 10 || 233 || 203 || 436 || 68 || 63 || 0.8 || 0.4 || 9.7 || 8.5 || 18.2 || 2.8 || 2.6 || 8
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1990
|style="text-align:center;"|
| 4 || 25 || 13 || 9 || 221 || 184 || 405 || 58 || 51 || 0.5 || 0.4 || 8.8 || 7.4 || 16.2 || 2.3 || 2.0 || 5
|- style="background:#eaeaea;"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1991
|style="text-align:center;"|
| 13 || 18 || 13 || 6 || 170 || 132 || 302 || 26 || 34 || 0.7 || 0.3 || 9.4 || 7.3 || 16.8 || 1.4 || 1.9 || 6
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1992
|style="text-align:center;"|
| 13 || 17 || 13 || 8 || 182 || 157 || 339 || 56 || 34 || 0.8 || 0.5 || 10.7 || 9.2 || 19.9 || 3.3 || 2.0 || 7
|- style="background:#eaeaea;"
| scope=row bgcolor=F0E68C | 1993<sup>#</sup> ||
| 13 || 18 || 12 || 4 || 228 || 188 || 416 || 72 || 40 || 0.7 || 0.2 || 12.7 || 10.4 || 23.1 || 4.0 || 2.2 || 1
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1994
|style="text-align:center;"|
| 13 || 0 || — || — || — || — || — || — || — || — || — || — || — || — || — || —
|- style="background:#eaeaea;"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1995
|style="text-align:center;"|
| 13 || 22 || 27 || 18 || 294 || 221 || 515 || 80 || 40 || 1.2 || 0.8 || 13.4 || 10.0 || 23.4 || 3.6 || 1.8 || 16
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1996
|style="text-align:center;"|
| 13 || 2 || 2 || 0 || 9 || 6 || 15 || 1 || 2 || 1.0 || 0.0 || 4.5 || 3.0 || 7.5 || 0.5 || 1.0 || 0
|- style="background:#eaeaea;"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1997
|style="text-align:center;"|
| 13 || 5 || 4 || 6 || 37 || 39 || 76 || 19 || 3 || 0.8 || 1.2 || 7.4 || 7.8 || 15.2 || 3.8 || 0.6 || 2
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1998
|style="text-align:center;"|
| 13 || 9 || 9 || 4 || 54 || 60 || 114 || 30 || 9 || 1.0 || 0.4 || 6.0 || 6.7 || 12.7 || 3.3 || 1.0 || 2
|- style="background:#eaeaea;"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 1999
|style="text-align:center;"|
| 13 || 20 || 12 || 12 || 223 || 122 || 345 || 62 || 27 || 0.6 || 0.6 || 11.2 || 6.1 || 17.3 || 3.1 || 1.4 || 9
|-
| scope=row bgcolor=F0E68C | 2000<sup>#</sup> ||
| 13 || 23 || 18 || 18 || 230 || 135 || 365 || 72 || 59 || 0.8 || 0.8 || 10.0 || 5.9 || 15.9 || 3.1 || 2.6 || 2
|- style="background:#eaeaea;"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | 2001
|style="text-align:center;"|
| 13 || 7 || 1 || 4 || 42 || 30 || 72 || 16 || 16 || 0.1 || 0.6 || 6.0 || 4.3 || 10.3 || 2.3 || 2.3 || 0
|- class="sortbottom"
! colspan=3| Career
! 190
! 143
! 99
! 1923
! 1477
! 3400
! 560
! 378
! 0.8
! 0.5
! 10.1
! 7.8
! 17.9
! 2.9
! 2.0
! 58
|}
Honours and achievements
AFL
Team
- 2× AFL premiership player (): 1993, 2000
- 5× McClelland Trophy (): 1989, 1993, 1999, 2000, 2001
- 2× NTFL premiership player (St Mary's): 1986–1987, 1987–1988
Individual
- Norm Smith Medal: 1993
- Essendon Captain: 1999
- 2× All-Australian team: 1988, 1995
- State of Origin (Northern Territory): 1988
- State of Origin (QLD/NT): 1993
- Essendon Team of the Century 1896-1997 – Wing
- Australian Football League Indigenous Team of the Century 1904-2003 – Wing
- Northern Territory Team of the Century – Wing
- Australian Football Hall of Fame - 2007 Inductee
- West Torrens Football Club – Best & Fairest: 1988
Other
- National NAIDOC Lifetime Achievement Award 2025
Footnotes
References
Sources
- Main, Jim. The Big Aussie Rules Book, Bombers have too Long to wait, Rugby Press Limited 1994 page 67
- Hobbs, Greg. AFL Record, A mighty Long performance to offset a captain's pain, Australian Football League, Progress Printers & Distributors, Round 3 1999, page 61
- Football Record, AFL Grand Final Football Record, 1993
- Main, Jim. & Christison, Darren, 1989 Football The Year in Review, Century Magazines 1989
- The 90's: The Decade that Delivered (video/DVD)
- The Long Walk – History
- Give us some hope Source: The Age 4 December 2004
External links
- [https://stmarysfc0.tripod.com/id37.html]