How Port player Ollie Wines became a Brownlow-winning footballer

A tight-knit family, country upbringing, supportive partner and a warrior spirit all helped to produce Port Adelaide champion and Brownlow winner Ollie Wines.

Jane and Tony Wines cannot watch games of football together, it’s too stressful.

So every time their son, Ollie – Port Adelaide’s midfield “bull” – takes to the field, Jane sets herself up on one side of the couple’s Echuca home, while Tony is on the other.

“Tony watches football completely differently to me, it’s just not good for our relationship (to watch Ollie’s games together),” Jane says.

But on Sunday night, football united them and they watched, side-by-side – on Jane’s side of the house – as their 26-year-old son took home the AFL’s most prestigious individual award as the season’s fairest and best player.

“I’d done some mum calculations and I had Ollie two votes short,” Jane says.

“So, I was really calm during the count, but Tony with two rounds to go, looked at me and he said: ‘He’s won this, he’s won this!’.

“He told me to throw away my calculator, it’s broken.”

The Wines family – dad Tony, mum Jane, brother Harry and sister Sophie in Echuca. Picture: Sarah Reed.

Win, Wines, did, becoming the first Port Adelaide player in club history to claim the prestigious medal.

He polled a record-equalling 36 votes in a record 16 games, including eight best-on-ground performances, to finish three votes clear of Western Bulldogs captain Marcus Bontempelli in a thrilling count that came down to the last game.

Let alone the historic win, Jane says she and Tony enjoyed the telecast simply because they were able to see their son so settled.

“Tony and I were having fun just watching how happy he was, and he had beautiful Liv, his gorgeous (partner) Liv with him and he looked so relaxed and happy,” Jane says.

Seeing her son happy is what’s most important to Jane, particularly because she’s been separated from Wines for most of the year by Covid border restrictions and the tight AFL bubble.

Wines grew up in Echuca in regional Victoria, inside a close-knit family of six.

Ollie Wines as a toddler.

As a two-year-old Wines he loved nothing more than running around his backyard in Echuca in country Victoria with his nappy on and a stick in his hand.

At this point Jane, nicknamed him “Bam-Bam”, after the Flintstones cartoon character.

“He had that really strong body even back then and that blond, rugged little hair and he just always reminded me of Bam-Bam with the stick,” she says.

When Wines was drafted to Port Adelaide at the end of 2012 with the Power’s No. 7 pick, the family cried and cried – having assumed he’d be drafted to a Victorian club, it seemed unbearable they wouldn’t be close by anymore.

But Jane is proud of the resilience he showed as a teenager to move states, put his soul into his training and become one of the premier footballers of the competition.

She reveals that she’s only ever seen Tony cry twice over football: in 2012 when Ollie was drafted, and on Sunday night when he watched his son accept the Brownlow.

Ollie Wines following his 2021 Brownlow Medal win. Picture: Paul Kane/Getty Images

Now, the Wines family can’t wait to get him home to Echuca to celebrate – they don’t know when that will be, because it also needs to be when Wines can get back to South Australia safely – but it will be a big celebration.

Jane says she’s going to string paper hearts all over the house to symbolise the size of his “Phar Lap” heart.

“That’s what he is, he’s all heart,” she says.

Jane says that Wines’ partner, Olivia May, has also given him a happy heart which has contributed to his excellent 2021 season.

“He has always done well in footy, but as he got older, he’s just found that someone that he can go home to, that person he can see who is not part of football or the club, she has completed him and rounded him,” she says.

Port CEO Matthew Richardson says Wines had grown substantially as a person through 2021, establishing himself as a true leader in the side.

“It’s no coincidence his footy has improved, he’s really settled, has a great partner in Olivia, and when people are really settled and happy in their life, it leads to performance,” Richardson says.

Maddie and Harry Wines celebrating their brothers Brownlow win. Picture: Tim Carrafa

“The challenge for Ollie is that he’s been so close to his family and the last couple of years he hasn’t been able to see a lot of his family, so for him to be able to grow and mature in the way that he has over the last couple of years is outstanding.”

Port chairman David Koch describes the Brownlow win as a historic moment for Port.

“For every new batch of players that comes into the club, we go to great lengths to explain the 151-year history and to really challenge them to write their own page in our club’s history,” Koch says.

“And Ollie has written a chapter.

“I think on Sunday night, you saw an incredible example of an elite player, but also an elite human being and I think that is just as important.”

Koch describes Wines as a respectful, passionate individual who will go out of his way for others, pursuing involvement – rather than being told – in the club’s community and Indigenous programs.

“He came to the club when I took on the role (as chairman) … I was at Alberton, before the season started and I had with me my then four-year-old grandson and six year-old granddaughter and I introduced them to him and he got a photo with them and he was so nice to them,” Koch recalls.

“Even now, he still knows their names, knows their birthdays.

“We often say it’s hard to put a role model tag on a young bloke who’s a footballer, that it’s a hard thing for them to cope with and to be perfect at life because no one is perfect at life.

“But he takes that responsibility so seriously.”

Ollie Wines and his partner Olivia May arrive home to Adelaide Airport from Perth on Monday, September 20. Picture: Mark Brake

Koch says, without hesitation that Wines arrived at Alberton in a “really dark period” of the club’s history: in 2012 the club had lost $7 million and would have been declared insolvent were it not for the AFL’s support, with critics from the East speculating whether SA was big enough to have two teams.

“It was a really dark period for the club and here is this young boy, from a close family … going to what was, a lot of people thought, a (mess),” he said.

Jane recalls: “Ollie and Tony thought: ‘Wow, where am I going?’… it was tough to take him down and put him on a plane, but now, he’s resilient, he’s had such great people around him, the players who’ve been there from the start, Boaky (Travis Boak) and Robbie Gray, Tommy Clurey … the club has been amazing for him and he’s just so happy there now.”

Koch says Wines has been crucial in turning the Power into a destination club which has reached back-to-back preliminary finals.

And Koch loves watching him play: “He plays a brutal role in a game, it is put-your-body-on-the-line. But he has never done it in a dirty way … that’s his character.”

Jane agrees: “He’s a warrior, but he’s a fair warrior.”

“I’ve never seen him sledge an umpire, or talk back … and he’s never been reported, in his whole life and he’s got a body that could do some damage, but he’s very aware and he doesn’t want to hurt anyone.

“He’s only ever playing for the ball.”

Wines’ spectacular 2021 season has come on the back of a number of seasons of unfortunate incidents: firstly came a dislocated shoulder at the beginning of 2019 which happened while he was waterskiing on the River Murray with mates and hampered his pre-season. Then came him being given the co-captaincy alongside Tom Jonas only for it to be taken away a season later. Another shoulder injury hampered his 2020 start, and then midway through the year he was found guilty of breaching the AFL’s strict Covid-19 protocols when he invited a television reporter to his home and copped a one-match suspension.

In 2021, he’s put all of that behind him, as well as trade speculation and is contracted to Port until the end of the 2026 season.

He’s also Port’s inaugural Brownlow Medallist.

And is set to be a one-club player.

Jane says her son has shown great resilience throughout his career.

“Football, is not for the faint-hearted, but he’s performed so well in his industry and we’re so pleased for him and so proud of him,” she says.

Originally published as How Port player Ollie Wines became a Brownlow-winning footballer