Channel Seven’s sports reporter reveals the embarrassing sex plague that left her scarred as she talks about what women in football have to endure.

Abbey Gelmi has opened up about some of the embarrassing behavior she’s been subjected to during her career and how she received an unsolicited “f**k” after she started working for Fox Sports.

His revelations came during a discussion about the recent GWS Giants ‘Wacky Wednesday’ scandal on the Two Good Sports podcast.

Seven Giants players received suspensions and six others were fined for their costumes and participation in a series of schemes.

The AFL revealed last week that Josh Fahey would receive the most severe ban, with the league saying he had performed inappropriate acts on a sex doll during a skit.

Several of the team’s senior players, including captain Toby Greene, were fined $5,000 each for failing to show proper leadership.

The fallout from the match scandal has rippled across football and beyond, with GWS AFLW captain Rebecca Beeson claiming members of her side were “deeply hurt and angry” after learning of the events . Giants women’s coach Cam Bernasconi revealed the toll the events had taken on his side, saying it had been “a very difficult week” and that “the whole AFLW program was very disappointed with the actions of what happened.’

Alongside co-presenter Georgie Tunney, Gelmi also spoke about the aftermath of the Giants party and explained how he was sent crude messages during the early part of his career.

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

Channel Seven reporter Abbey Gelmi has told how she was once sent an unsolicited “fot***”.

“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, that’s fun’, all those kinds of things are our audience.

“When I was 22 or 23 years old … I read my first bulletin for Fox Sports News. I’ve done two degrees to get to this point. I’d moved interstate. I followed sports my whole life and I was very proud of myself and was very excited for this opportunity.

“I then went back to my desk where part of my role at the time was also to monitor the Fox Sports social media account … and I had received a direct message to my personal account, which at this point wasn’t even there. really a public figure in any shape or form, and I opened it up and there was a picture of ***… again (22 or 23 years old and I was just doing my job.

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

The players and the club have since “apologised unreservedly for their behaviour”.

There is no suggestion that any criminal act has been carried out by the GWS players. The club and the AFL had conducted an investigation into the incident, which occurred in a private room in a Sydney pub, and the findings cleared the players of any criminal activity.

But his actions were condemned by the club and AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon, who said “terrible decisions were made” by the players, adding that his actions were “completely unacceptable”.

GWS AFLW captain Beeson added in a statement on the club’s website: “As a group of AFLW players, we feel it is of the utmost importance to stress that the behavior which included references to gender-based violence is completely unacceptable under any circumstances.”

Gelmi, who hails from Western Australia, is one of the country’s leading television presenters. He currently works for Seven News and Seven’s AFL half-time and post-match programme.

In the past, he has also provided coverage for both the Summer and Winter Olympics and has worked across a range of sports from cricket to horse racing.

Gelmi spoke about the effects the recent GWS Giants match scandal is having on the Australian community

Gelmi, who hails from Western Australia, is one of the country’s leading television presenters. He currently works for Seven News and Seven’s AFL half-time and post-match programme

During the Two Good Sports podcast, he also discussed the effects this type of behavior could have, given Australia’s domestic violence crisis.

“The reason the ripple effect is terrifying to me is that there’s a Respect Victoria campaign going on at the moment to call it out,” she said.

There’s a line that goes, “Not all disrespect ends in violence, but all violence against women begins with disrespect.”

“We live in a culture in Australia where there is an increase in violence against women around the AFL Grand Final, around the NRL Grand Final and around the State of Origin, that are facts. And if they say, “That was behind closed doors,” do you know where women in this country are least safe. And that idea is funny to a group of men, and not just them women were victims of this, but as a rule they are minorities…

“And what made me sick to my stomach, again I consume a lot of it is in my work, and the people who call throughout the week, and even listening to my male colleagues who took a strong stand in the radio, saying that’s not funny, that’s not right, saying really we’re looking at the text line and the messages that come in, I have to be honest, they’re scary.

According to The Age, Fahey had allegedly dressed as former NRL player Jarryd Hayne, and the AFL did not reveal the full nature of his costume, but claimed in a statement that the GWS player had dressed as a former NRL player.

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

The AFL had also claimed two GWS stars Toby McMullin and Cooper Hamilton had dressed up as the World Trade Center and simulated the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York. Meanwhile, a reference to disgraced musician Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is also alleged to have been made during one of the skits.

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

He also opened up about some of the other nasty messages he’s received during his time on the show.

“I’ve gotten messages my whole career about how I’m doing,” Gelmi said.

“If I wear enough or if I wear too much, it’s always what I have. People say, ‘You’re a slob, wear less.’

“Even with this podcast, a few weeks ago, Laura and I did a topic about where the AFL Grand Final should be, and I argued that it should stay at the MCG, and somebody went think he was arguing against them.

“The line at the end was, ‘Stick to sports you know,’ and I’m just like, ‘If I was a guy, you’re not saying stick to sports, you know.’

‘The comments that come in direct messages as a woman in sport are always gendered. I see trailblazers, your Kelli Underwoods, these women who have weathered all this crap to play sports, no matter what they do, they’ll do it anyway 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 that sport is not for us, not for the girls

“It’s not for women and so that’s our response.

Gelmi (right) was speaking alongside Georgie Tunney (left) on the Two Good Sports podcast

“I’ve been trying to wrestle with why this case, these Giants players acting the way they did, has affected me more than others because it’s not the first time the codes have let us down.

“It’s not the first time teams let us down and it’s certainly not the first time and it won’t be the last time players let us down.

“It’s a bigger mirror, footy in general is a mirror to society. So what we’re seeing from these guys and what they find funny and trivial is essentially society telling us or telling us a again, that sport is not for us, sport is not for women, you are not really welcome here, unless you want to be the butt of the joke.’