The Chairman of the AFL Commission, Mike Fitzpatrick has issued the following tribute to the late Stephen Phillips who passed away on Wednesday.

Stephen Phillips had a distinguished career as a journalist covering football and cricket primarily before joining the Seven and Nine television networks as a producer.

As a member of our Australian Football Hall of Fame selection committee, Stephen had a deep understanding of the history of our game and the individuals who have made the game what it is today. We greatly appreciate his contribution to our Hall of Fame deliberations.

With fellow journalists Greg Hobbs, Scot Palmer and Ian McDonald, he founded the Victorian Football Writers Association in the 1970’s which later became the AFL Media Association.

His newspaper career began with The Sun in 1970 before later moving to The Australian and The Age newspapers.

In more recent years, Stephen hosted pre match functions for a number of Victorian based AFL clubs while his strong working relationship with Lou Richards saw him co-author the book about Lou’s life, ‘Kiss of Death’ during the 1980’s.

We greatly value his contribution to our game and on behalf of the AFL Commission, I wish to extend our deepest sympathies to Stephen’s wife Jill and their children Grace and Tom.

Mike Fitzpatrick
Chairman