Mark of the Year

Mark of the Year
Awarded for	The best mark taken each season in the Australian Football League
Sponsored by	Four'N Twenty
Country	Australia
Presented by	Australian Football League
First awarded	2001
Currently held by	Harry Himmelberg
Website	afl.com.au/mark-of-the-year
Related	Goal of the Year

In Australian rules football, a player can take a mark by catching the ball from a kick, which earns protection from tackles. In the Australian Football League (AFL), the mark subjectively judged the best in each season is named Mark of the Year.

The award is almost always given to spectacular marks – those where one player jumps upon another's back to reach the ball. Although there are no formal rules prescribing what a good mark is, some important factors are how high the player leaps, how long he stays in the air, whether his catch is clean, whether he catches the ball with extended arms, and how dramatic his fall is.^[1]

The competition was inspired by a famous mark taken by Carlton's Alex Jesaulenko in the 1970 VFL grand final. Following Jesaulenko's mark, two football television shows – Channel Seven's World of Sport and The Winners on the ABC – began awarding the title "mark of the year" to the best marks as judged by their panels of football experts. The two shows would often choose different winners. Seven's award was more prestigious because the winning player received a car, but the ABC's edition only bestowed lesser prizes like mugs and bicycles – a disparity bemoaned by several players who only won the latter.^[1]

The award is run in conjunction with the Goal of the Year contest, which recognises the best goal kicked during an AFL season. Two players have won both the mark and goal awards in the same season: Peter Bosustow (1981) and Michael Mitchell (1990).