King’s Birthday honours

Gareth Andrews (OGC 1960) has been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the King’s Birthday Honours List this year. The accolade acknowledges his significant contributions to the AFL, men’s health, and the broader community.

Gareth Eliot Tremayne Andrews AM (OGC 1960), former AFL footballer, businessman, media writer and commentator has devoted much of his later life to charitable pursuits.

Reflecting on his AM, Gareth expressed deep gratitude.

“I was very honoured, more than anything,” he said. “It’s a different sort of recognition, I guess; it’s a validation of maybe doing something differently.”

Gareth had a long football career, first playing for the Geelong Football Club, before moving to the Richmond Football Club. He played 136 games including the 1967 Grand Final with Geelong and 31 games with Richmond. During this period he was joint founder of the VFL (now AFL) Players’ Association.

He became Chief Executive of the Richmond Football Club in 1978. His association with football continued as an ABC commentator from 1980 to 1989, and as the Sunday Age Football Analyst from 1989 to 1997.

He was Vice-President of the Geelong Football Club from 1998 to 2013 and is a Life Member of the Australian Football League (AFL), the Australian Football League Players’ Association (AFLPA), the Geelong Football Club (GFC) and the Richmond Football Club (RFC). He is also a Director of the AFLPA Players Injury and Hardship Fund and the GFC Foundation. In 2013, he was awarded the R J Hickey Award for services to Australian football.

Involvement in community activities has been a prominent feature in his life.

He has chaired the Victorian Division of Lord Taverner’s, a charitable association supporting indigenous, disadvantaged, deaf and blind young people to play cricket.

He has been a Committee member of CASSE, working with aboriginal people in Central Australia addressing mental health problems and assisting to establish healthy futures, independent of Government financial support; a Director of the ‘Northern Journeys Foundation’, assisting indigenous people to develop empowering social and activity networks; and is a Director of the Board of ‘Project Rozana’ which raises funds for health services and the treatment of critically ill Palestinian children in Israeli Hospitals.

In 2013, he founded the ‘Life Again Foundation’. A notfor-profit organisation, it empowers men to face the challenges of mid-life, and make the appropriate changes to help them navigate their way through this period.

“It’s about doing something for other people, recognising that men struggle, and realising we don’t struggle alone,” he explained.

The foundation now delivers positive mental health programs to men and women, organisations, and communities.

Gareth started at The Geelong College in 1958. He was a McArthur House Prefect in 1963, and McArthur House Captain and School Prefect in 1964.

His sporting achievements at College were comprehensive. A member of the Athletics team, 1st XI Cricket team and 1st XVIII Football team, he was the APS leading goal kicker in 1963 and 1964.

In recognition of his achievements, Gareth was inducted into the Old Geelong Collegians’ Association (OGCA) Notables Gallery at The Geelong College in 2018.