Michael O'Donoghue has been awarded the prestigious AFL Merit Award for outstanding service to the sport of Australian Football, joining less than 600 winners over the past 81 years.
The award recognises O'Donoghue's committment to football as a volunteer throughout the past 15 years. He began with the Toowoomba East Stingers in 1997 helping out in a multitude of roles from first aider to Vice President to statistician.
From there he moved into assisting the league, running the canteen and helping to run local representative carnivals when they were held in the region.
It is the work with representative squads which is where Mickers has had the most impact however, acting as the first aider, runner and trainer for many teams in the past 10 years.
O'Donoghue has seen many of Queensland's recent AFL draftees come through the junior ranks including the Downs two recruits, Brad Howard & Steve Kenna.
O'Donoghue, who was awarded life membership to the AFL Darling Downs Juniors just a couple of months ago, received his award from AFLQ CEO Michael Conlan last Saturday night.
"This is just fantastic", O'Donoghue said upon receiving the award.
"This has probably been my busiest year to date, with the Under 14 Crows and the (Queensland Country) Stockmen."
It wasn't until it was pointed out that the award had been personally signed by AFL CEO, Andrew Demetriou that O'Donoghue quite grasped what the award truly meant.
Michael's name will be added to the honour board, alongside names such as David Parkin and the Downs own Marj Shaw.
Picture: Michael O'Donoghue (right) receives his award from AFLQ CEO Michael Conlan.
Last Modified on 29/01/2013 15:32
