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Wendy Page, Australian Story, ABC TV, "Man of the Century"

If you’ve watched any footage of the Australian cricket team over the past few decades, chances are you’ve seen Barry "Nugget" Rees. But he’s not a trainer, or coach, or even an official; he’s a man in his sixties who rose from unlikely circumstances to be welcomed into cricket’s inner sanctum for many of the game’s biggest moments in recent history.

For almost five decades now, generations of test cricketers have embraced Rees, crediting him with special motivational qualities. Rees tours at least once a year with the South Australian and Australian teams, who all chip in to pay his way, always sharing a room with a team member.

Page gently teases out a secret world behind the slick sportsmen we’re used to seeing: their superstitions and their absolute reverence for men like Nugget who embody the value of true sportsmanship.

A latecomer to journalism, Wendy Page was 43 when she joined The 7.30 Report as a researcher and eventually a producer. She has been a reporter and a founding producer for Australian Story since 1995, and has produced many ground-breaking stories on justice issues, particularly in Western Australia. This is Page’s second Walkley win; she won with Ian Harley in 2002 for the Australian Story program that brought John Button face-to-face with the family of the girl he had been wrongly convicted of murdering in 1963.

Judges’ comments

It gave a surprising insight into the Australian cricket culture over a long period of time through a small, emotive story based around an unlikely character. While it put sport in perspective, it also showed its power. An astonishing, multifaceted story with great human interest; truly entertaining.