Atlanta Kookaburras

The Atlanta Kookaburras presented their clubs first ever Life Membership Award on Saturday Night honoring Mike Powers who founded the club back in 1998. Powers who had also had a strong hand in the formation of two other Aussie Rules teams in the USA namely the Nashville Kangaroos and the Louisville Cats was very appreciative of the honor despite being rather ill on the night. He said "I have made many great friends and had many great times because of this sport which I love, thank you to everyone".

Like many others Powers first discovered the sport on ESPN back in the 80s, the days when ESPN would telecast any sport they could get their hands on. After bumping into a few guys wearing Aussie Rules Football jerseys from Australia in a Louisville pizza shop Powers was soon at local practice learning the game he till then had only admired on late night TV.

Powers is now the leading games record holder for the Kookas with 67 games over the past 7 years and also now umpires games both here in Atlanta and when required interstate.

The Kookaburras also honored their former President and founder by naming a Best & Fairest Player Medal (MVP) the Mike Powers Medal. The winner of the first Mike Powers Medal was interestingly the current President Wayne Kraska. After going neck and neck with USA representative BJ Gambaro for most of the night in the counting of votes for the year Kraska was able to pull away as Gambaro did not complete the season moving to Charlotte NC late in summer. Gambaro was R-up and also Best Non Australian the second time he has won that award. It was also Kraska's second MVP at the Kookas and he joins two other dual winners in Bjorn Farrugia and David Croft, as the three share all six MVP awards between them.

Rookie of the year went to Curtis Jones who made a great impact on the game after only a few training sessions and showed how quickly this game can be learned and mastered with the right attitude and plenty of enthusiasm. Best Clubman award went to the ever smiling Susan Graham who had worked hard for the club all year in merchandising, concessions and as a team trainer.