MELBOURNE, VIC. — Francis Leach was a former ABC Grandstand sports commentator and sports programming host. Kate Meade is the ABC Radio Melbourne (3LO) station reporter. Francis Leach describes a sports commentary box as a “hypermale environment” where mostly male sportcasters did not have the tools, the language, the education, the knowledge or the understanding of these issues to be able to honestly reflect on them.
FRANCIS LEACH (FL): And ABC reporter Kate Meade joins us to look at the news of the day, and Kate starts on a really bad note for the AFL and the same cycle of questions being asked, as it has been for the last couple of decades, about the behaviour of players.
KATE MEADE (KM): Yeah, look, and so, just to recap where this starts. It starts on Sunday afternoon really. It was a game of football. It was the Swans playing Essendon; they’d won that game by 36 points, and they’re sitting second on the ladder.
FL: Locked it in, yeah?
KM: It starts as a football story, right? It starts with a game of football. Then what we know has transpired is that there has been some players who went out on, um, Sunday evening into the early hours of Sunday morning. They were staying at a hotel in Melbourne. Now, the club [Sydney Swans] has confirmed that several players were involved in an alleged incident. The Victoria Police have separately issued a statement saying that “Detectives were investigating a report of sexual assault.”
KM: What we are at today is that the board of the Sydney Swans Football Club were meeting last night, and we’ll be finding out today what the outcome of that board meeting is. Now, they released a statement late yesterday, early evening and said that: “They will be meeting to agree on player penalties and sanctions now that the club has concluded its interviews with all the players involved in the incident in Melbourne. We suspect there is an ongoing investigation with Victoria Police and any actions we take are independent of this.”
KM: “The club believes the players are in serious breach of expected club behaviour and standards and it is appropriate to take firm action and highlight that any sanction we [Sydney Swans] impose relates solely to those breaches. The club also acknowledges that these serious allegations impact others and their wellbeing must be paramount. The Sydney Swans condemn all forms of abuse and disrespectful behaviour towards women. Any conduct that causes offence or harm to others is unacceptable and falls well short of our expectations. All women deserve to be respected and feel safe.
FL: So that’s the statement from the Sydney Swans. The AFL, ahh, actually took a while to put their heads above the parapet and state their position. But Andrew Dillon [AFL CEO] has done so in the last 12 to 14 hours as well.
KM: Yes. And I think it can be easy for us to go, where are your statements? Why aren’t you coming out and speaking to us? I think, ya know, in looking at all of this, they have to get this right. They so dearly have to get this right. So, I think if there’s a delay, I hope it’s becuase they’re doing this, ya know, how will we be putting our best foot forward and leading here? And ya, know he has said as part of his statement is that “we are clear about the standards we expect and the values we stand for and we need to uphold them,” so that’s what we’re looking for.
KM: Francis, in terms of the commentary online, I mean, this is the other aspect to this story. And I did lede with the football part first because it is what played out; this is what happened, I think. But last night I received a message from a father, and he is a father, and he is a father of young women; they’re in their twenties, and he messaged and said: “Kate, I think this is a line in the sand moment,” and I think he’s right. You know, in his message he talked about his daughter and his friends who are in their twenties; they love football, men’s and women’s, and he said [that] they’re thinking about boycotting games this weekend because they are just so disappointed.
KM: And he said it’s just not about the alleged sexual assault side of the story, but it’s around the commentary. Ya know, that, that, our media personalities have been putting the football part first and not that there’s women involved.
FL: Well, can I, I’ll give you a perspective on that. Having worked as a sports journalist for a long time, and, um, one of the reasons I walked away from that part of my broadcast career was because it was a hypermale environment and most of the men involved in that sports broadcasting environment did not have the tools, the language, the education, the knowledge or the understanding of these issues to be able to honestly reflect on them, articulate what was at stake and understand the consequences of the people who might be found to involoved in or linked to incidents like this.
FL: I would say that the intellectual capital within Australian sports broadcasting is as “shallow as a puddle in summer.” And it’s one of the reasons why I walked away from it [sports reporting/commentary] because it’s so frustrating and there should be more women involved in Australian sports broadcasting, to actually. No, that’s not fair, I take that back. It shouldn’t be up to women to drive that change. I actually apologise for that. That’s the wrong way to look at it.
KM: Thank you.
FL: But what I’m trying to say is, there should be more women in those roles to be part of that conversation. A conversation of four middle-aged white men sitting on a panel talking about sexual assault, you, ya know, might as well just go out and, ya know, tip a bucket of cold water over your head. That’s about as useful as it’s going to be. And that’s what we get. Why are we surprised? Why are we surprised? Is the culture of the media in that part of the industry that needs a massive shake-up because they don’t have the tools to deal with it. They don’t have the language to deal with it, and I’ll be honest. A lot of them never had to, or been asked to confront or deal with the realities of these situations.
FL: It’s a real, real problem and it’s why I quit.
KM: I think you’ve nailed it. In terms of, ya know, it’s your role now. If you’re in that role, where, ya know, you get to comment, analyse, and give your opinion, you need to be equipped now to handle these kinds of situations. And, let’s face it, domestic violence against women and then not enough, not enough- and we look to the AFL to be leaders. Leaders of men and leaders of women, but they set the bar on many, many occasion[s] of what is OK with community standards, and we need them to hold. Hold this moment and say, what are we going to do better moving forward?
KM: And that’s everyone, from our media personalities to the AFL that write the policies. Yes, you have a ‘Respect’ round but do more, do better, and as Simon said … [cutover]
FL: The most angry that some of them got, and I won’t name names, and I saw some of the commentary was that this was going to upend Sydney Swans’ season and that there were senior players within the Sydney Swans group who played in three or four losing grand finals and this was a disaster for them. Now, who’s got the emotional and intellectual IQ to go “ya know what, that might be a valid point but right now that is not what needs to be talked about.
KM: No. No.
FL: What goes on inside heads that that’s going to get my blood up. That’s what I’m going to get angry about?
KM: Well, the response has been, of course, that’s what we do. We only know how to talk football. Or no, no …
FL: It’s not good enough anymore. It hasn’t been for a long time.
KM: So this is the conversation and you know, this is the commentary that is happening online. This is what’s wrapped around this, ahh, this alleged sexual assault; this is an important conversation that can’t go away because it’s not just bubbled inside the AFL. This is an Australian-wide [sigh] pandemic, the domestic violence that we have in Australia, how we treat women, ya know, aren’t in the room to have the conversations.
FL: If you zoom out also from the perspective of the way the manosphere is operated, the so-called manosphere, in digital culture, where hypermasculinity and poor behaviour is celebrated as a model of masculinity as a way to be man. Are we surprised in these circumstances, this is the end result?
KM: So, don’t be surprised. Use your voice.
FL: Find your voice.
KM: Find it.
FL: Can we be brave enough?
KM: So, my son and my husband, they’re in the footy, in the group chats, going to meetings, going to pubs at night. I said to them both, “Listen to where the story starts when the group chat kicks off. Does it start with blokes or does it start with the blokes or does it start with outrage as to how we treat women?”
KM: And correct, if you hear something that is derogatory towards women in any capacity, step up and start talking. We’re begging you. And this is, you know, that chat, that I keep referring back to with this father that messaged me last night. Our young women are watching. Our young girls are watching. Our mothers are watching. Our aunts are watching. Do better. From now. So, you know, I can cope with a delayed response from the AFL now. Just do it now. Do better. Lead us now.
FL: Well, I just had to get that off my chest.
KM: I think we both did. It’s been a long time since Sunday morning.
FL: I’ve been holding off on that one for a few years. There was always going to be a moment like this, and once again it would show just how far behind the eight-ball that industry is in dealing with significant issues that are, still remain that are so ingrained in that industry and in that sport. It just … [sigh]
KM: So if you’re feeling like you can’t do something about this, we can, in how we talk to each other.
FL: We, as men, mostly, first and foremost, and in fact, only, need to do something about it. One woman a week gets murdered in Australia.
KM: Yeah.
FL: Maybe, I think it’s up to two a week now; that is never acceptable. It’s never been acceptable, but we find a way not to talk about it, to not connect to all the other behaviours that lead to an acceptance and a pathway towards violence which destroys lives in this country. It’s not good enough, and it starts with this, but it starts with men and. End rant.
KM: You’ve done well. I think it’s important this was said today. We’ll wait for the outcome of this [Sydney Swans] board meeting.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Kate Meade and Francis Leach were contacted for comment.
This transcript was transcribed manually from the broadcast audio recording of ABC Radio Overnights, August 19, 2026.
TRANSCRIPT (3h:07m:28s)
