Sam Kekovich
Encyclopedia
Sam Kekovich is an Australian media personality, sports commentator
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.
, 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 motor-car whilst on a training run in High Street Doncaster (near Curnola Avenue) on Saturday evening 26 June 1971.
(VFL) 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
.
After playing 124 VFL games for the Kangaroos, between 1968 and 1976, he moved to Collingwood
in 1977, but only played four games, retiring from the VFL that season. His football career did not end, as he switched to play in the Victorian Football Association for the Prahran Football Club and played in the 1978 VFA Premiership side against Preston at the Junction Oval
.
He was included in the North Melbourne
Team of the Century, on the interchange bench.
show The Fat
, a breakfast show on Melbourne
radio
station 3AK
, as a radio presenter on Melbourne Sports Radio Station SEN 1116
, in pre-match AFL
coverage on Triple M
, and on PTI Australia on ESPN
. Kekovich is a columnist for sports website The Serve.
Kekovich's direct-to-camera TV monologue
s are done deadpan
and use wide-ranging cultural references
. Created by the writers of the Fat the monologue's were first piloted with AFL player John Platten
and boxer Spike Cheney before the ABC asked Kekovich to perform. The 'rants' normally place in contrast many disparate or incongruous verbal images and ideas, ending with the trademark, "You know it makes sense. I'm Sam Kekovich." The ABC released a spoken word album 'You Know it Makes Sense' which was nominated in the 'Best Comedy' category of the ARIA
awards.
Kekovich has performed these 'rants' on commercials for North Melbourne Football Club
membership drives, Dan Murphy
bottle shops, and, perhaps most famously, encouraging people to act less 'unAustralian' on Australia Day
by eating lamb.
2005, Kekovich headed an advertising campaign
encouraging people to eat more Australian lamb. In this particular ad campaign, he labeled vegetarians as being "un-Australian", provoking outrage from groups such as animal rights
activists. The Australian Advertising Standards Bureau
allowed the ads to remain on the air, as they were considered satirical, despite viewers' complaints.
Kekovich did a similar ad in 2006, and although he did not target vegetarians, he did claim that many of the tragedies befalling Australians in 2005, such as the 2005 Cronulla riots
and a scandal at the 2005 Ashes series
, may have panned out differently if Australians had more lamb. The 2008 series of the ads includes a 90 second address to the nation, and calls for the replacement of Australia Day with an "Australia Week"; after claiming that New Zealand
former Prime Minister
Helen Clark
does "a passable impression of a man" he also suggests that "tree-huggers" head to the "refugee processing centre" Nauru
; the mock stock ticker
below his desk features "National Australia Shank" (NAB
) and "ABN Lambro" (ABN Amro
); the last slogan used is "Yes we can" (per Barack Obama
's campaign.). In 2010 Kekovich was featured in a TV advertisement created to promote cooking lamb for mothers on mothers day. This ad featured a 'young' Sam Kekovich and ends with the phrase; "You know it makes sense, I'm Sam Kekovich's Nephew".
Sports commentator
In sports broadcasting, a commentator gives a running commentary of a game or event in real time, usually during a live broadcast. The comments are normally a voiceover, with the sounds of the action and spectators also heard in the background. In the case of television commentary, the commentator...
and former Australian rules football
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
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
Meat and Livestock Australia
Meat & Livestock Australia is a producer-owned company which promotes and provides research for the red meat and livestock industry in Australia.Its marketing activities include appearances by "Lambassador" Sam Kekovich.-References:...
(MLA) to promote the lamb
Lamb (food)
Lamb, mutton, and hogget are the meat of domestic sheep. The meat of a sheep in its first year is lamb; that of a juvenile sheep older than 1 year is hogget; and the meat of an adult sheep is mutton....
industry.
The Kekovich brothers
His older brother is the former VFL full-forward Brian KekovichBrian Kekovich
Brian Kekovich is a former Australian rules footballer in the VFL/AFL, who played for two seasons with the Carlton Football Club....
, who played two seasons of senior VFL football with Carlton
Carlton Football Club
The Carlton Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club competes in the Australian Football League, and was one of the eight founding members of that competition in 1897...
, 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 motor-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 Victorian Football LeagueAustralian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
(VFL) club North Melbourne
North Melbourne Football Club
The North Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Kangaroos, is the fourth oldest Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League and is one of the oldest sporting clubs in Australia and the world...
(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
Mick Nolan (footballer)
Mick Nolan was an Australian rules football player for North Melbourne. Because of his weight of 135 kg and height of 194 cm, Nolan was dubbed the "The Galloping Gasometer" by commentator Lou Richards. Until the emergence of Aaron Sandilands in the early 2000s, Nolan was the heaviest...
by contesting boundary throw-ins, in which he won most of the hit outs against Hawthorn's top ruckman Don Scott
Don Scott (footballer)
Don Scott is a former Australian rules footballer in the Victorian Football League. Scott was a fearless ruckman and premiership captain for Hawthorn Football Club....
.
After playing 124 VFL games for the Kangaroos, between 1968 and 1976, he moved to Collingwood
Collingwood Football Club
The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
in 1977, but only played four games, retiring from the VFL that season. His football career did not end, as he switched to play in the Victorian Football Association for the Prahran Football Club and played in the 1978 VFA Premiership side against Preston at the Junction Oval
Junction Oval
The Junction Oval is an historic sports ground in the suburb of St Kilda in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its location near the St Kilda Junction gave rise to its nickname...
.
He was included in the North Melbourne
North Melbourne Football Club
The North Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Kangaroos, is the fourth oldest Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League and is one of the oldest sporting clubs in Australia and the world...
Team of the Century, on the interchange bench.
Media career
He has carried on his flamboyant style into the media sector, being most notable for his 'rants' on the ABCAustralian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
show The Fat
The Fat
The Fat was an Australian sports based talk show television series, broadcast and produced by ABC TV.The series began on 6 March 2000, and ended on 18 November 2003....
, a breakfast show on Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
station 3AK
3AK
3AK is the call sign of SEN 1116 and earlier the on-air name of a former Melbourne talk-back radio and music station, which, in 2003, leased its licence to sports network SEN 1116...
, as a radio presenter on Melbourne Sports Radio Station SEN 1116
SEN 1116
SEN 1116 , the acronym standing for Sports Entertainment Network, is a commercial AM radio station based in Melbourne, Australia, operating on 1116 kHz...
, in pre-match AFL
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
coverage on Triple M
Triple M
The Triple M Network is an active rock radio network in Australia owned by media company Austereo, who also own the Today Network.- History :...
, and on PTI Australia on ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
. Kekovich is a columnist for sports website The Serve.
Kekovich's direct-to-camera TV monologue
Monologue
In theatre, a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media...
s are done deadpan
Deadpan
Deadpan is a form of comic delivery in which humor is presented without a change in emotion or body language, usually speaking in a casual, monotone, solemn, blunt, disgusted or matter-of-fact voice and expressing an unflappably calm, archly insincere or artificially grave demeanor...
and use wide-ranging cultural references
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
. Created by the writers of the Fat the monologue's were first piloted with AFL player John Platten
John Platten
John Patrick "The Rat" Platten is a former Australian rules footballer. With his unruly tangle of curls he was a distinctive figure on the field with tremendous tenacity and the ability to accumulate possessions week after week.-Career:Platten began his career with the Central District Bulldogs...
and boxer Spike Cheney before the ABC asked Kekovich to perform. The 'rants' normally place in contrast many disparate or incongruous verbal images and ideas, ending with the trademark, "You know it makes sense. I'm Sam Kekovich." The ABC released a spoken word album 'You Know it Makes Sense' which was nominated in the 'Best Comedy' category of the ARIA
Australian Recording Industry Association
The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956...
awards.
Kekovich has performed these 'rants' on commercials for North Melbourne Football Club
North Melbourne Football Club
The North Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Kangaroos, is the fourth oldest Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League and is one of the oldest sporting clubs in Australia and the world...
membership drives, Dan Murphy
Dan Murphy
Dan Murphy is best known as the guitarist for the American band, Soul Asylum. He is also a member of Golden Smog.-History:...
bottle shops, and, perhaps most famously, encouraging people to act less 'unAustralian' on Australia Day
Australia Day
Australia Day is the official national day of Australia...
by eating lamb.
Controversy
In the lead-up to Australia DayAustralia Day
Australia Day is the official national day of Australia...
2005, Kekovich headed an advertising campaign
Advertising campaign
An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication...
encouraging people to eat more Australian lamb. In this particular ad campaign, he labeled vegetarians as being "un-Australian", provoking outrage from groups such as animal rights
Animal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
activists. The Australian Advertising Standards Bureau
Advertising Standards Bureau (Australia)
The Advertising Standards Bureau is an Australian organisation that investigates breaches of advertising standards in the Australian media...
allowed the ads to remain on the air, as they were considered satirical, despite viewers' complaints.
Kekovich did a similar ad in 2006, and although he did not target vegetarians, he did claim that many of the tragedies befalling Australians in 2005, such as the 2005 Cronulla riots
2005 Cronulla riots
The 2005 Cronulla riots were a series of sectarian clashes and mob violence originating in Cronulla, New South Wales and spreading, over the next few nights, to additional Sydney suburbs....
and a scandal at the 2005 Ashes series
2005 Ashes series
The 2005 Ashes series was that year's edition of the long-standing and storied cricket rivalry between England and Australia. Starting on 21 July 2005, England and Australia played five Tests, with the Ashes held by Australia as the most recent victors...
, may have panned out differently if Australians had more lamb. The 2008 series of the ads includes a 90 second address to the nation, and calls for the replacement of Australia Day with an "Australia Week"; after claiming that New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
former Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Helen Clark
Helen Clark
Helen Elizabeth Clark, ONZ is a New Zealand political figure who was the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand for three consecutive terms from 1999 to 2008...
does "a passable impression of a man" he also suggests that "tree-huggers" head to the "refugee processing centre" Nauru
Nauru
Nauru , officially the Republic of Nauru and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country in Micronesia in the South Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba Island in Kiribati, to the east. Nauru is the world's smallest republic, covering just...
; the mock stock ticker
Stock Ticker
Stock Ticker is a now out of print board game that was popular upon its release and is still played today. It was released by Copp-Clark Publishing, a venerable Canadian publisher.-Game play:...
below his desk features "National Australia Shank" (NAB
National Australia Bank
National Australia Bank is one of the four largest financial institutions in Australia in terms of market capitalisation and customers. NAB is ranked 17th largest bank in the world measured by market capitalisation...
) and "ABN Lambro" (ABN Amro
ABN AMRO
ABN AMRO Bank N.V. is a Dutch state-owned bank with headquarters in Amsterdam. It was re-established, in its current form, in 2009 following the acquisition and break up of ABN AMRO Group by a banking consortium consisting of Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Santander and Fortis...
); the last slogan used is "Yes we can" (per Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
's campaign.). In 2010 Kekovich was featured in a TV advertisement created to promote cooking lamb for mothers on mothers day. This ad featured a 'young' Sam Kekovich and ends with the phrase; "You know it makes sense, I'm Sam Kekovich's Nephew".