Caroline Wilson reflects after stepping down as chief football writer at The Age

It’s the end of an era at The Age, with Caroline Wilson stepping down as chief football writer.

Caro will still write for the Fairfax Media newspaper on a weekly basis, but will hand the top job to Jake Niall after 19 years of spearheading The Age’s AFL coverage.

She will continue her normal role as one of 3AW Football’s key newsbreakers.

“I know I’ve made the right decision,” Caro said on 3AW.

“I’m not quitting cold turkey – I couldn’t do that.

“As I said to Gillon McLachlan – he’s not getting rid of me that easily.”

The trailblazing journalist reflected on her career on Sportsday on Tuesday night.

She was asked by Jimmy Bartel about the “hardest” stories she’d written.

Unsurprisingly, the ongoing Essendon supplement saga featured at the top of the list.

“That was really hard,” Caro said.

“Even my own husband a couple of times said to me ‘are you sure you’re not going a bit hard?’ – but he backed me.

“That involved a lot of threats and press releases being put out by the club denying what I was writing.

“Most of the time, I’m proud to say, we’ve been proven 100 per cent right at The Age.

“The stories that make you feel sick to the stomach usually end up being the best stories.”

Wilson also spoke about life around football clubs as a woman in the 80s and 90s, as well as what else lay ahead.

Click PLAY below to hear Caroline Wilson on 3AW

Wilson has won two Walkleys, the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year award and the Harry Gordon prize as the Australian Sports Journalist of the Year. She has won multiple AFL media awards including the prestigious Alf Brown trophy. She was the first woman to be inducted into the MCG Media Hall of Fame and was honoured by the Australian Sports Commission with a lifetime achievement award.

More from The Age here.