Former The Australian columnist Patrick Smith, winner of three Walkley Awards, has died

One of the greatest sports journalists Australia has ever produced died suddenly on Sunday.

Patrick Smith pictured at Caulfield Racecourse in 2011.

Patrick Smith, one of the greatest sports journalists Australia has ever produced, died suddenly on Sunday.

Former chief football writer and columnist for The Australian, he won three Walkley Awards (1997, 2002 and 2004) and was a regular recipient of the AFL Media Awards.

A fire-breathing fast bowler with Prahran in Melbourne’s grade cricket, Smith was born on January 20, 1952, and operated off the long run much of his professional life.

He started his career as a copyboy at Melbourne’s Sun in the early 1970s before moving to The Age, where he was sports editor for six years before moving to The Australian in 2000.

Funny and fearless, his columns set the tone for the way sport was played and administered in the state. In 2021 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to the press.

Kevin Bartlett, who was a good friend and a fellow commentator on SEN before both retired, spoke with sadness and admiration about Smith.

“He was a great friend, he was a great mentor, we worked on radio together for 20 years and I learned so much from Patrick,” the AFL legend said.

“He was an iconic writer, a legend in this country. There has been none better than Patrick Smith, none more admired, none more feared, he was an extraordinary writer.

“He had the amazing ability to write with humour when it was necessary, I think everyone in the sporting world read Patrick’s column every day, so did every sporting organisation and they all admired him. He wrote without fear or favour but with enormous fairness.”

Smith campaigned on many topics, including whips in racing, and Bartlett recalled his column in The Australian when Adam Goodes was being booed at every ground as one of his finest.

“To say you boo him – so ­loudly, for so long and so regularly – only because you don’t like him is a lie,” he wrote in July 2015. “It is a mask for your cowardice, your bigotry and racism.”

When riled, Smith was brutal, but he was a funny, gentle and thoughtful man who loved his family and their home in ­Sorrento.

He is survived by his wife of over 50 years, Sue, children ­Damien and Nicola, and four grandchildren.