Sam Kekovich (born 11 March 1950) is an Australian media personality, sports commentator, Australian meat lobbyist and former Australian rules football player.
He is well known for his controversial behaviour, both on and off the field, and most recently for his series of satirical advertisements as the spokesman for Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) to promote the lamb industry.
The Kekovich brothers
His older brother is the former VFL full-forward Brian Kekovich, who played two seasons of senior VFL football with Carlton, including kicking four goals in Carlton's 1968 Grand Final victory.
Brian's career ended immediately after the Grand Final, due to a serious back injury he had sustained earlier in the 1968 season.
His younger brother, Michael, recruited from Trinity Grammar, who was showing great promise at North Melbourne at the age of 16, played for the North Melbourne First XVIII on Thursday, 10 September 1970 against Footscray, in the first round of the 1970 VFL night premiership. North Melbourne lost 6.7 (43) to 14.13 (97).
Michael also played in the North Melbourne Second XVIII team that lost the 1970 preliminary final to Melbourne, and he kicked one goal in a losing team.
Michael was killed, aged 17, when he was hit by a car whilst on a training run in High Street, Doncaster (near Curnola Avenue), on Saturday evening 26 June 1971.
Football career
Kekovich started his senior football career with Myrtleford in the Ovens & Murray Football League and kicked 55 goals in 1967 prior to playing in the Victorian Football League (VFL) with club North Melbourne (Kangaroos) in 1968. The following year he won the club's best and fairest award and was the top goalkicker with 56 goals. He played a key role in the club's first premiership win in 1975 by assisting ruckman Mick Nolan by contesting boundary throw-ins, in which he won most of the hit-outs against Hawthorn's top ruckman Don Scott. and played in the 1978 VFA Premiership side against Preston at the Junction Oval. Kekovich coached the Cobras for three seasons and he left the club after its winless 1989 season. Kekovich has performed these 'rants' in commercials for North Melbourne Football Club membership drives and Dan Murphy's bottle shops.
From 2005 to 2014, Kekovich headed a well-known annual advertising campaign for Meat and Livestock Australia in the lead-up to Australia Day encouraging people to eat more Australian lamb. The advertisements were delivered in the style of Kekovich's deadpan rants, and often made satirically outlandish statements regarding un-Australianism. The first such advertisement drew particular controversy, when he labelled vegetarians as being un-Australian for not eating lamb on Australia Day, provoking outrage from animal rights activists and groups such as the Australian Vegetarian Society; but the Australian Advertising Standards Bureau allowed the ads to remain on the air, ruling them to be satirical, despite viewers' complaints. Many of the subsequent ads have also drawn complaints from viewers, but all have been dismissed by the Bureau. In the Australia Day commercial promoting lamb for the BBQ, which featured Richie Benaud, Kekovich made an appearance along with "Captain Cook", "Ned Kelly", "Burke and Wills", and Ita Buttrose.
He continued in the Lambassador role into the next decade, appearing in the Australia Day lamb advertisements as knocking down the interstate walls in 2021 and as the head of the National Lamb Rollout in 2022.
Kekovich was an executive producer on the Australian film Blinder released in 2013. Shot around Torquay, Victoria, the film is about a legendary former local footballer, Tom Dunn of the Torquay Tigers.
In October 2018 Kekovich appeared on Facebook advertising supporting the Australian Conservatives political party, with an aim to air the ads on TV. The MLA criticised the use of the term "lambassador" to describe Kekovich in the Australian Conservatives ads.
Albums
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+ List of albums
! scope="col" rowspan="1" style="width:14em;"| Title
! scope="col" rowspan="1" style="width:20em;"| Album details
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! scope="row"| You Know It Makes Sense: The Wisdom of Slammin Sam Kekovich
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- Released: 2001
- Label: ABC Audio (ABC12262)
- Formats: CD
|}
Awards and nominations
ARIA Music Awards
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony held by the Australian Recording Industry Association. They commenced in 1987.
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| 2002
| You Know It Makes Sense: The Wisdom of Slammin Sam Kekovich
| Best Comedy Release
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