Sam Kekovich
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Sam Kekovich | ||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Sam Kekovich | |
| Date of birth | 11 March 1950 | |
| Place of birth | Myrtleford, Victoria | |
| Recruited from | TBA | |
| Height/Weight | 187cm / 95kg | |
| Position(s) | Midfielder/Forward | |
| Club information | ||
| Current club | None | |
| Number | None | |
| Playing career1 | ||
| Years | Club | Games (Goals) |
| 1968-1976 1977 |
North Melbourne Collingwood |
124 (228) 4 (4) |
|
1 Playing statistics to end of 1977 season . |
||
"Slammin'" Sam Kekovich (born 11 March 1950) is an Australian media personality 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.
Contents |
[edit] Football career
Kekovich started his senior football career with VFL club North Melbourne 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.
His brother Brian also played in the VFL for Carlton.
[edit] Media career
He has carried on his flamboyant style into the media sector, being most notable for his rants on the ABC show The Fat and a breakfast show on Melbourne radio station 3AK.Kekovich also is a radio presenter on Melbourne Sports Radio Station, SEN 1116. He also appears on Triple M's pre-match AFL coverage and is on PTI Australia on ESPN.
Kekovich's direct-to-camera TV monologues 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 it. 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's.
Kekovich has performed these 'rants' on commercials for North Melbourne FC membership drives, Dan Murphy's bottle shops, and, perhaps most famously, encouraging people to act less 'unAustralian' on Australia Day by eating lamb.
In the lead-up to Australia Day 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[who?]. The Australian Advertising Standards Board allowed the ads to remain on the air, as they were considered satirical, despite viewers' complaints. There were also complaints that the ads were a direct and assumedly unpaid rip-off of the rants Kekovich did on 'the Fat'. The ads did look remarkably similar to 'The Fat' raves; in language, phrasing, content, shooting style and appropriation of the line 'You Know It Makes Sense'.
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"[1] 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.).
Kekovich is also a columnist for sports website The Serve[1].
[edit] References
- ^ NZ issue a lamb challenge, ABC Rural. Accessed 10 March 2008.
[edit] External links
[edit] External links
- View the Kekovich Lamb Ad and more at the Meat and Livestock Australia website
- Vote Lamb Website
- Meat and Livestock Australia
|
|||||
