Footy and the Media: The Off-Field Game

Bill Birnbauer is an award-winning journalist and journalism academic. He worked for more than three decades as a reporter and editor at the Age and Sunday Age before moving to Monash University as a senior lecturer in journalism in 2008. He is a published author and has co-produced two television documentaries.

Bill is revising a PhD on the creation, operation and sustainability of non-profit investigative reporting centres in the United States. He is the executive editor of two online publications that feature student journalism, including mojonews.com.au. Bill also is a black belt in aikido, a non-violent martial art. 

Matt Pinkney is a Walkley Award-winning journalist who specialises in content strategy across digital, broadcast and print.

In 2012, he joined the AFL as its founding Head of Content. In this role, he has been responsible for creating a dynamic newsroom, setting content strategies across all platforms and implementing cultural change as the AFL moves from client publisher to major multi-media news and feature service. The AFL’s content platforms have grown to become Australia’s biggest digital sports network, with more than 4 million weekly unique viewers in-season. 

In a 23 year career with News Limited, he was a political bureau chief, senior writer, European correspondent and digital editor. He also created Australia's biggest sports fantasy game, SuperCoach.

Natalie is a barrister with a keen interest in media related and sports law matters.

Natalie has her own legal website called The Social Litigator. Her aim is to demystify the law, particularly in relation to sporting issues that have captured the public eye, such as the long running Essendon Football Club and ASADA saga.

A former partner of King & Wood Mallesons, Natalie has represented clients in all kinds of disputes, including in the sporting context. She has learnt that what is invisible to the human eye can be of greatest value to its owner (privacy, freedom, reputation and goodwill). 

Natalie has been recognised as a leading lawyer in such publications as Best Lawyers Australia 2010–2013, Chambers Asia-Pacific 2012–2014 and The World Trademark Review 1000 2013–2014.

Tom Heenan teaches sports studies at Monash University's National Centre for Australian Studies. He has written widely on sport, both academically and in the press. His articles have appeared in Fairfax and News Corporation publications, and he is a regular contributor to the New Daily. He has also provided comment on sporting matters for local, national and international radio and television outlets.

A historian by trade, Tom has written a biography on the radical Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett, and with David Dunstan has just completed a biographical study of Sir Donald Bradman that will be published by Routledge later this year.

He is currently writing a history of Australia's cricketing ties with South Asia, and investigating the impact of organised criminal and terror networks on South Asian and international cricket.

Louise Milligan is a multi-award-winning investigative journalist for ABC TV Four Corners and an author. Her investigation for ABC TV and her Walkley-award-winning book, Cardinal, broke international news. Her story “I Am ...

Terry Wallace is a former AFL player, former AFL coach, businessman and media commentator. As an AFL player who achieved great success with the Hawthorn Football Club, he was a key member of eight Grand Finals and five Premiership victories. Over his playing career, he also played for the Western Bulldogs where he achieved two Best and Fairest awards. As both a player and the coach of the Western Bulldogs, Terry received All Australian honours.

Terry was also the inaugural state sales manager of the first satellite television network in Australia, Sky Channel, born out of GTV 9.

Currently, Terry hosts nightly radio show SportsDay, appears weekly on Sky News and is a member of the Channel 9 Future Stars program.