Michael Long (born October 1, 1969) is a former Australian rules footballer of Aboriginal descent who became a spokesperson for Indigenous rights and against racism in sport in Australia.
Michael Long was born on 1 October 1969 to mother Agnes and father Jack Long.
Both were removed from their parents at a young age and taken to Melville Island, one of the Tiwi Islands.
Jack's half Chinese and half English father fought unsuccessfully for custody of his son.
Agnes was taken from Daly River near Darwin, and Jack was taken from Ti Tree near Alice Springs.
Michael was raised on the Tiwi Islands.
Long moved to Darwin to play with St Mary's, where he played in several premierships.
1988
In 1988, he represented the Northern Territory at the Adelaide Bicentennial Carnival in March, and his outstanding performances in the dominant NT team saw enormous interest in his recruitment from various first-class clubs throughout the country, including Essendon, which nominated him in the 1988 VFL draft.
Despite being drafted to the Victorian Football League (VFL), South Australian National Football League (SANFL) club West Torrens argued that Long was "contracted with the club and could not play anywhere else".
Recruiter Noel Judkins said, "I was guaranteed this wasn't the case, so I took the contract to Darwin and met with Michael's father Jack, and he was irate. He grabbed it and wrote the word 'bullshit' right across the front of it. When it became clear he wanted to play at Essendon, West Torrens agreed it wasn't a binding contract."
However, despite this, Long did play for West Torrens during the 1988 SANFL season, winning the club's best-and-fairest award, the third-last player to do so, as the Eagles merged with the Woodville Football Club following the 1990 season to become the Woodville-West Torrens Eagles.
1993
Long was an accomplished player, having played in dual Australian Football League (AFL) premierships with the Essendon Football Club, including a Norm Smith Medal for his 1993 grand final performance.
Long played perhaps the best game of his career in the 1993 AFL grand final.
Playing on Mark Athorn, Long ran amok, helping Essendon gain a healthy quarter-time lead and then maintain it.
By the end of the game, he had amassed 20 kicks and 13 handballs, totalling 33 possessions.
Long's performance was rewarded with the Norm Smith Medal, which was presented to him by fellow Tiwi Islander Maurice Rioli.
1994
In the pre-season of 1994, in a practice match against West Coast, Long injured his knee, which required 12 months of solid rehabilitation, and he was not seen for the entire home-and-away season.
1995
As an activist, he is credited with being instrumental in the introduction of a racial vilification code in the AFL in 1995 and the inspiration behind "The Long Walk" commemorating the Stolen Generations, now a strong AFL tradition.
In August 2023, Long began a 650 km walk between Melbourne and Canberra in support of the forthcoming Australian Indigenous Voice referendum.
He completed the walk in 20 days and arrived in Canberra on 14 September 2023.
In 1995, Long made a triumphant return to AFL football and played almost a full season.
In the inaugural Anzac Day match between Essendon and Collingwood at the MCG, an incident of racial abuse targeting Long occurred, which was to have a lasting impact on the game.
For the next two seasons, Long needed knee surgery and only took the field seven times.
In the inaugural Anzac Day match of the 1995 season between Essendon and Collingwood at the MCG, Long made an official complaint after he had been racially taunted by Collingwood ruckman Damian Monkhorst.
The AFL arranged a mediation session between Long and Monkhorst and held a media conference.
Although Long was clearly unsatisfied by the short-term outcome of their meeting, and both players received death threats, the long-term result was that it set a racial vilification code that held players to account for racist acts on the field.
An AFL investigation after the incident showed that at least 10 players from six clubs regularly racially abused players.
Consequently, since this incident, there have only been a handful of widely publicised accusations of racial taunts by a player on the AFL field in the following three decades, although racial abuse from fans has proved to be a recurring issue over the years.
1997
In 1997, Peter "Spida" Everitt also racially abused Long, which ironically drew a free kick to Everitt due to Long's enraged physical response.
Although nothing of consequence happened from the Long–Everitt incident, Everitt racially vilified Melbourne's Scott Chisholm two years later and undertook a racial awareness training program as well as donating $20,000 to a charity of Chisholm's choice.
1998
He missed the first half of 1998 while recovering from the surgery, but he finished the year strongly, playing in nine games.
1999
According to the round 3, 1999 edition of the AFL Record, between the beginning of the 1994 and the end of the 1998 seasons, Long played only 38 of a possible 119 games.
2000
Long had the honour of kicking the first-ever goal at the new Docklands Stadium when it opened in 2000.
He was also a member of Essendon's record-breaking premiership team in 2000 which lost only one game for the entire season.
Long faced heavy scrutiny for his bump on Troy Simmonds, which rendered Simmonds unconscious and raised the possibility of him losing mobility.
While this never eventuated, the incident prompted the AFL to introduce new rules protecting players with their heads over the ball.
Long was thus suspended for the afct.
2001
2001 was Long's final season, and although Essendon again made the grand final, Long aggravated a hamstring injury during training in the week leading up to the match and was forced to name himself unavailable on the eve of the game, which Essendon lost to Brisbane.
2015
Twenty years after the incident, at the MCG to launch the 11th Long Walk in 2015, Monkhorst and Long met and shook hands in a mutually respectful manner.
Long said that Monkhorst had since shown great leadership.
