Why sportswoman Abbey Holmes thanks Shane Crawford for her career as an AFL broadcaster

Former gun netballer, footballer and Survivor star Abbey Holmes thanks Hawks legend Shane Crawford for changing the course of her life.

Everyone remembers their big league debut. For Channel 7’s rising star boundary rider Abbey Holmes it was Round 15, 2018 – a Sunday afternoon shootout between Essendon and North Melbourne under the closed roof at Docklands Stadium.

The self-confessed “footy head” and ex-AFLW star got her big break patrolling the sidelines for Seven’s AFL broadcasts after serving an apprenticeship calling VFL matches.

She was nervous but had her partner (and now fiance), former Gold Coast Suns ruckman Keegan Brooksby, supporting from the sidelines as commentators Brian Taylor and James Brayshaw threw down for her first live cross.

“I was up all night (but) when you get that first opportunity in the big time, with the Seven AFL team, you really want to make a statement,” Holmes recalls.

Now a familiar face on TV, the former Adelaide Crows premiership player, who once booted 105 goals in 14 games in a single season playing in the Northern Territory, has become a valued member of the Seven commentary team and will soon add Commonwealth Games coverage to her skill set.

“(Broadcasting) is something I have wanted for a very long time,” she says. “I remember getting that call from Gary O’Keefe, to know that they had the confidence to throw me into the deep end and that I was ready – that all that hard work had paid off.”

A lifelong sports junkie, Holmes, 31, recalls watching her dad play football and mum play netball on weekends growing up in Victor Harbor, South Australia.

She took up netball at age five and by 15 had travelled to New Zealand for the International Schoolgirls Netball Challenge, playing in the under 17s shortly after being selected to represent Australia in the inaugural Australian Netball League. “Netball was my entire world, I played for Australia at a junior level and South Australia from 14 to 21,” she says.

In 2012, a 21-year-old Holmes took a punt and travelled north to Darwin, joining the Waratah Football Club to spearhead the emerging women’s game.

“It was sport year-round in Darwin, with netball for six months, followed by footy for six months,” she says. “Heading out to my first footy training, my coach initially took one look at me and was like, ‘yep, you’re a midfielder, you can get in and under contests and win us the ball’. But they found when I was playing, I would naturally gravitate forward and I think I kicked 67 goals in my first year and we went on to win the flag.”

“Football is my jam,” says Abbey Holmes. Picture: Channel 7

In her second season, Holmes booted the ton to push the women’s league into the spotlight. But not everyone was convinced.

“In my first year, they had the first ever AFL women’s exhibition game between Melbourne and Western Bulldogs in 2013,” Holmes says. “Not one player from the NT was drafted. With that disappointment, I looked at my mum and said ‘we have so many amazing players up here’.

“I wanted to bring more attention and interest to the athletes in the women’s competition at the NTFL. There were some girls at that time that should’ve been playing in that exhibition match. I got a lot of no.”

A trailblazer for the NT division, she travelled between Adelaide and Darwin while working as a real estate agent between football commitments.

Then a Hawthorn legend changed the course of her life: “It was when Shane Crawford was up in the NT and caught wind that I had just kicked 100 goals and wrote an article on me in the Herald Sun,” she says.

The Herald Sun article was the start of Holmes’s regular media appearances, juggling life between Melbourne and Darwin.

“I was spending every dollar I earned to fly between Darwin and Melbourne to chase opportunities in TV and radio, and then jump on a plane Sunday night, working full time up there. A few weeks later, I got a call from The Footy Show and played in a few EJ Whitten Legends Games in Melbourne.”

In 2014, Holmes stole the thunder from retired high-flyer Tony Modra at a West End Slowdown charity match, leading the Crows team to a 31-point win over Port Adelaide at Alberton Oval.

“When you’re the only girl running around in these sides, with Hall of Famers and three-time premiership players, it was a surreal experience,” she says. “Growing up, I played in state championships but there was never that elite level to aspire to get to, I didn’t hear of any kind of leagues around Adelaide.

“Now knowing there is a pathway for young girls from Auskick all the way through to the big time, it’s pretty special.”

Holmes was the Territory’s highest-profile female footballer at the time, winning four consecutive flags with the Waratahs, before being drafted to “don” the Adelaide Crows jersey in her hometown for the inaugural AFLW season in 2017.

Abbey Holmes with Eddie Betts at AAMI Stadium in 2018. Picture: Dylan Coker

Playing for “the AFL club that I have adored and supported growing up was a dream come true”, she says.

“In the first year of the AFLW, the Adelaide Football Club’s licence bid to the AFL was a collaboration with the Northern Territory.

“So, we had nine girls based in Darwin in year one; to have the two places that have been a major part of my journey bound together for that experience made it extra special.

“(With the team split between Adelaide and Darwin) no one gave us a chance in the first year of winning the flag and then we went and did it.”

Holmes played two seasons with the Crows alongside superstar Erin Phillips – and against Seven stablemate Daisy Pearce – before a knee injury sidelined her AFLW career in 2018. She continued to push through, before making the decision to step away from the game and pursue a career in the media.

“To be honest, after flogging my body for 10 years, it was my body telling me I needed a break, everything was starting to hurt,” she says. “At this time, I started having big aspirations and chasing opportunities in Melbourne.

“It was certainly a hard time; when you have been in that sporting high performance world for so long, stepping out of it (the media) was probably what I needed.”

Holmes is a natural on the boundary line and a regular during Seven’s biggest matches.

“Being a part of two Grand Final broadcasts in a challenging 2020 and 2021 season, to be a part of the last couple of years on the road, was a real highlight,” she says.

Holmes, who has also dabbled in bodybuilding, is a backyard explorer at heart. When time permits, she travels to remote parts of Australia and jumps at any opportunity to help bring football to Indigenous communities.

“The Dreamtime game in Darwin was one of my favourite broadcasts to be a part of,” she says. “I know how much football means to the community up there, to have Daniel Rioli play in his hometown for the Indigenous round.

“I am a very passionate person when it comes to Indigenous community, culture and education and that is why I am so drawn to the NT.”

After years of living in Darwin, her love for the Australian Outback brought to life a social media account – “backyard bandits” – connecting Australians to glimpses of regional tourism and travel.

“The concept was born out of the frustrations that so many Australians who have spent thousands travelling the world … haven’t ever seen red dirt or an Indigenous community,” she says. “I started working on the project before Covid, before the 2019 bushfires … before domestic travel was really the only thing we could do.”

Abbey Holmes and AFLW Adelaide coach Bec Goddard with the premiership cup in 2017. Picture: Tom Huntley

From footy broadcasts and two seasons on reality TV show Australian Survivor, Holmes is now set to join Seven’s Commonwealth Games commentary team in Birmingham.

“Football is my jam, I can talk about it in my sleep, but Comm Games is a new challenge,” she says. “I’m a diehard sports fan and learning about the phenomenal athletes and the intricate details about each sport has been fun.”

As to what the future holds, the always on the move Holmes is now using her “down time” to focus on her newly founded brand Blindside, with plans to grow and expand the clothing range in the coming months.

“We launched in 2020, in the thick of when people wanted comfy things,” she says. “I did two seasons of Survivor back to back and was blindsided twice, so that is where the name came from.”