Geelong’s Georgie Prespakis proud of sister Maddy’s handling of body-shaming trolls

Geelong star Georgie Prespakis has come to the defence of her sister Maddy after she was the victim of body-shaming from online trolls. See why she believes it could have a much bigger impact.

Geelong’s Georgie Prespakis. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Geelong star Georgie Prespakis believes the support shown to sister Maddy after she hit back at online body shaming has opened the door for people to feel more comfortable in their own skin.

The older Prespakis – a star of the AFLW competition in her own right at Essendon – received a “horrible message” sent to her online in the lead up to a game earlier this month.

Essendon star Madison Prespakis addresses the body shamers by pointing to her stomach after kicking a goal. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

It came after the 23-year-old had previously opened up about her struggles with body image, though the onballer responded with a best on ground showing as she defiantly lifted her jumper and pointed to her body after kicking one of her two goals.

Prespakis, 21, said she was proud of the way Maddy — a league best and fairest winner — handled the situation, as well as the wider support shown to her sister.

“Not nice to see anybody go through that, let alone your sister but she handled it like, just so well,” Prespakis said.

“She fronted up the next weekend and played really well and she’s just letting her footy do the talking.

“It’s so nice she’s had so much support along the way, and I think it’s just opened up a door for people to start to feel comfortable in their own skin and understand everybody’s body shape is different.”

Geelong Georgie Prespakis and Geelong will be looking for their third win of the season against Brisbane on Sunday. Picture: Kelly Defina/Getty Images

Prespakis said social media could be “brutal at times” but also acknowledged its value in showing support to others.

“It’s a fine line and sometimes you just need to get off it and ignore it, but there is also a lot of positivity that comes out of it too,” the All Australian midfielder said.

Geelong face a must-win game against top-four Brisbane Lions on Sunday afternoon, with the 10th placed Cats hitting the training track this week in a bid to arrest a troubling trend in front of goal which has limited them to just two wins this year.

“With the condensed (fixture) period, it’s so hard, you’re travelling, you’ve only really got a couple days in between so a lot of that goes to resting and recovering,” Prespakis said.
“This week it will give us more opportunity to put things in place for our game we want to work on and particularly our inability to finish our final touches in front of goal.

“I’m sure there will be lots of goalkicking practice this week.”

Originally published as Geelong’s Georgie Prespakis proud of sister Maddy’s handling of body-shaming trolls