AFL reporter Sam McClure has been stripped of his prestigious sports news Quill award amid fallout from coverage over the Adelaide Crows’ controversial 2018 pre-season training camp.

McClure authored an article for The Age in 2020 that provided intricate alleged details of the camp, first revealed by foxfooty.com.au, which was run by mindset training specialists Collective Mind and resulted in legal action from the Queensland-based company.

While The Age issued an apology this month to Collective Mind, the Melbourne Press Club board last week unanimously voted to have McClure’s award “annulled”.

Neither the Walkleys or Victoria-based Quills have ever retrospectively cancelled a winners’ trophy.

Collective Mind operators Derek Leddie and Amon Woulfe took a defamation action against McClure, The Age former chief football writer Caroline Wilson, The Age and Nine over allegations relating to details of the camp.

“The Age acknowledges that the camp was run in good faith and with the players’ interests front of mind,” it said.

“If the article was read to suggest otherwise, The Age withdraws that suggestion.”

Last year, an independent investigation conducted by SafeworkSA found no health and safety breaches occurred at the camp.

The Quill award has been retrospectively awarded to Herald Sun reporter Michael Warner for his article about the late AFL great Danny Frawley’s battle with CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), a disease linked to repeated head knocks.