Channel Seven sport reporter reveals the disgraceful sex pest who left her scarred as she opens up about what women in footy have to put up with

Abbey Gelmi has opened up about the shameful behavior she has been subjected to during her career and how she once received an unsolicited ‘d*** pic’ after just starting work for Fox Sports.

Her revelations came during a discussion about GWS Giants’ recent ‘Wacky Wednesday’ scandal on the Two good sports podcast.

Seven Giants players were given bans and a further six fines for their fancy dress outfits and participation in a series of skits.

The AFL announced last week that Josh Fahey would be given the toughest ban, with the league alleging he performed inappropriate acts on a sex doll during a skit.

Several of the team’s senior players, including captain Toby Greene, were each fined $5,000 for not showing sufficient leadership.

The effects of the party scandal have sent ripples through football and beyond, with GWS’ AFLW captain Rebecca Beeson claiming members of her side were “deeply hurt and angry” after hearing of the events. Giants women’s team coach Cam Bernasconi revealed the toll events had taken on his side, claiming it had been “a very difficult week” and that “the entire AFLW program was very disappointed with the actions of what happened happened. .’

Alongside co-host Georgie Tunney, Gelmi has also spoken out about the aftermath of the Giants’ party, telling how she once received rude messages early in her career.

“We mentioned, Georgie, the flow-on effect of this,” the broadcaster said in reference to GWS’s celebration.

‘We’ve both worked in sports and we both started in sports as very young women and the people who say “let boys be boys, this is funny”, those kinds of things are our audience.

“When I was 22 or 23… I read my very first bulletin for Fox Sports News. It took me two degrees to get to that point. I had moved to the highway. I have played sports all my life and I was so proud of myself and very excited about that opportunity.

‘I then went back to my desk, where part of my role at the time was to monitor Fox Sports’ social media account… and I had received a direct message to my personal account, which I that moment I wasn’t even really a public figure in any form, and I opened it and there was an ad*** photo… again [aged] 22 or 23 and I was just doing my job.

“And that for me was the beginning of more than a decade of realizing that if I want to be a woman in sports, these are things that I’m just going to have to tolerate.”

The players and the club have since ‘apologized unreservedly for their conduct’.

There are no indications that the GWS players have committed criminal acts. The club and the AFL had launched an investigation into the event, which took place in a private room of a Sydney pub, with the findings clearing the players of any criminal activity.

But their actions were condemned by club and AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon, who said ‘terrible choices were made’ by the players, adding their actions were ‘completely unacceptable’.

GWS AFLW captain Beeson added in a statement on the club’s website: “As an AFLW playing group, we feel it is extremely important to emphasize that behavior that includes references to gender-based violence is completely unacceptable in all circumstances.”

Hailing from Western Australia, Gelmi is one of the country’s leading television presenters. She currently works for Seven News and Seven’s AFL halftime and post-game show.

In the past, she has also covered both the Summer and Winter Olympics and has worked on a variety of sports from cricket to horse racing.

During the Two Good Sports podcast, she also spoke out about the effects this type of behavior could have, given the domestic violence crisis that exists in Australia.

“The reason the ripple effect is terrifying to me is there is a Respect Victoria campaign going on right now to provoke it,” she said.

“There’s a sentence in there that says, ‘Not all disrespect ends in violence, but all violence against women starts with disrespect.’

“We live in a culture in Australia where there is a spike in violence against women around the AFL Grand Final, around the NRL Grand Final and around State of Origin, those are facts. And when they say, “Well, this was behind closed doors,” do you know where women are least safe in this country? In their house. And this idea that it’s funny to a group of men, and it’s not just women who have been victimized by this, it’s minorities as a rule…

‘And what made me sick, I’m consuming a lot of it again, in my work, and the talk-back callers during the week, and even listening to male colleagues of mine taking a strong stand on the radio and saying: this isn’t funny, this isn’t okay. Really saying that we look at the text line and the messages that come in are, quite frankly, scary.

According to The eraFahey had reportedly dressed up as former NRL player Jarryd Hayne, with the AFL not revealing the full nature of his outfit but claimed in a statement that the GWS player had dressed up as a former NRL player.

The ex-Parramatta player was sentenced to a maximum prison term of four years in 2023 for sexual assault. Earlier this year, the rape and assault charges against him were overturned by an appeals court, after which Hayne was released from prison and the charges against him were dropped.

The AFL had also stated that two GWS stars, Toby McMullin and Cooper Hamilton, had dressed up as the World Trade Center and simulated the September 11 terrorist attack in New York. Meanwhile, a reference is also said to have been made to disgraced musician Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs during one of the skits.

Gelmi added: “Jokes about rape, terrorism and racism, in any context, are not funny. It’s 2024.’

She also spoke about some of the other unsavory messages she received during her broadcasts.

“My entire career I’ve received messages about the way I look,” Gelmi said.

“If I wear enough or if I wear too much, that’s always what I get. People say, “You’re a prude, wear less.”

“Even with this podcast, Laura and I had a topic a few weeks ago about where the AFL Grand Final should be, and I was arguing that it should stay at the MCG, and someone thought I was arguing with them.

“The line at the end was, ‘Stick to the sport, you know,’ and I just say, ‘If I was a guy, you don’t tell me to stick to the sport, you know.’

“As a woman in sports, the comments that come in direct messages are always gendered. I look at pioneers, your Kelli Underwoods, these women who have gone through all this s*** to be in the sport, no matter what they do, they’ll still be able to do it because of their gender.”

Tunney, who works for Network 10’s The Project and also appears on ABC’s News Breakfast, added: ‘This is just another example of the world telling us the sport is not for us, not for girls.

“It’s not for women and that’s why this is our response.

“I’ve been trying to grapple with why this case, where these Giants players behaved the way they did, has affected me more than others, because this isn’t the first time codes have failed us.

‘This is not the first time that teams have let us down and this is certainly not the first time and it will not be the last time that players have let us down.

“It’s a bigger mirror, footy in general is a mirror to society. So what we see from those guys and what they think is funny and an inconsequential skit is essentially society saying or telling us again: that sports are not for us, sports are not for women, you are actually not welcome here. , unless you want to be the butt of the joke.’