Sports writer and photographer win Quill awards for work for Guardian Australia

## Summary
Chris Hopkins’ pictures of Kathy Rieger caring for her son Steven won him best features photograph at the Quills awards. Photograph: Christopher Hopkins/The Guardian View image in fullscreen Chris Hopkins’ pictures of Kathy Rieger caring for her son Steven won him best features photograph at the Quills awards. Photograph: Christopher Hopkins/The Guardian Sports writer and photographer win Quill awards for work for Guardian Australia Jonathan Horn scooped best sports feature prize for a series on AFL, while Chris Hopkins won for pictures of a cancer sufferer caring for her son Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Sports writer Jonathan Horn and photographer Chris Hopkins have won Melbourne Press Club awards for their work for Guardian Australia. Horn won the 2026 award for best sports feature for his series Mourning Three Beloved Footballers , while Hopkins’ images of a woman with metastatic cancer caring for her adult son won best features photograph.

## Article Content
Chris Hopkins’ pictures of Kathy Rieger caring for her son Steven won him best features photograph at the Quills awards.
Photograph: Christopher Hopkins/The Guardian
View image in fullscreen
Chris Hopkins’ pictures of Kathy Rieger caring for her son Steven won him best features photograph at the Quills awards.
Photograph: Christopher Hopkins/The Guardian
Sports writer and photographer win Quill awards for work for Guardian Australia
Jonathan Horn scooped best sports feature prize for a series on AFL, while Chris Hopkins won for pictures of a cancer sufferer caring for her son
Get our
breaking news email
,
free app
or
daily news podcast
Sports writer Jonathan Horn and photographer Chris Hopkins have won
Melbourne
Press Club awards for their work for Guardian Australia.
Guardian Australia was recognised with eight nominations in a range of categories in the 31st annual Quill awards, which were presented in Melbourne on Friday night.
Horn won the 2026 award for best sports feature for his series
Mourning Three Beloved Footballers
, while Hopkins’ images of a woman with metastatic cancer caring for her adult son won best features photograph.
The judges said Horn’s collection of features about deaths in AFL families “served as a powerful deep dive into the connection between life, mortality and the sport so many Australians love”.
Of Hopkins’ series
Kathy’s Last Wish
, the judges said the moving images captured the “intimacy, the love, beauty, pathos and patience” of a dying woman caring for her son.
Ellen Smith, an assistant picture editor and photographer at Guardian Australia, was highly commended in the photographic features category for her portrait of
Martu man Neil Bidu
in Parnpajinya in Western Australia.
Guardian Australia’s courts and justice reporter, Nino Bucci, and deputy picture editor, Blake Sharp-Wiggins, were highly commended in the excellence in Indigenous affairs reporting category for their story
The killing of Kumanjayi Walker
.
The Herald Sun’s Robyn Riley took home the top prize, the Gold Quill, as well as the award for best news report in writing for her scoop about an IVF mix-up that led to a woman unknowingly giving birth to a stranger’s baby.
ABC News journalist, Adele Ferguson, was named the 50th Graham Perkin Australian journalist of the year, for her investigative work exposing failures of Australia’s childcare system.
Guardian Australia’s Queensland correspondent, Ben Smee, was nominated in the prestigious category for his
Broken Trust series
, a two-year investigation into the handling of domestic violence cases that exposed how police failed
women who were killed
.
Former ABC journalist, Heather Ewart, received the press club’s lifetime achievement award, with the judges praising her outstanding career as a political reporter, overseas correspondent and more recently, presenter on the Backroads program.
Guardian Australia science reporter, Petra Stock, was nominated in the excellence in science, medical and health reporting category for her story about animal advocates arguing a domestic violence study that
strangled rats should not have been approved
.
Guardian columnist Ranjana Srivastava was nominated for the Keith Dunstan Quill for commentary for her
writing about palliative care
.
Selina Zhang, of 9News, was named young journalist of the year.
Explore more on these topics
Australian media
Melbourne
news
Share
Reuse this content

---

## Expert Analysis

### Merits
- Former ABC journalist, Heather Ewart, received the press club’s lifetime achievement award, with the judges praising her outstanding career as a political reporter, overseas correspondent and more recently, presenter on the Backroads program.

### Areas for Consideration
N/A

### Implications
- Guardian Australia science reporter, Petra Stock, was nominated in the excellence in science, medical and health reporting category for her story about animal advocates arguing a domestic violence study that strangled rats should not have been approved .

### Expert Commentary
This article covers guardian, australia, hopkins topics. Notable strengths include discussion of guardian. Readability: Flesch-Kincaid grade 0.0. Word count: 532.