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Veteran AFL journalist Caroline Wilson has responded to the Geelong Mad Monday sexism controversy involving star midfielder Bailey Smith – and hasn’t held back.
Smith courted controversy with several posts to social media during the Cats’ famous post-season gathering days after their grand final loss to Brisbane, where players prepare elaborate costumes for the event.
Teammate Max Holmes dressed as Wilson, continuing a long-running trend of the midfielder impersonating leading AFL journalists, having previously attended Mad Monday as Mitch Cleary and Sam McClure.
However, Smith’s post to Instagram featured the caption ‘Caro has never looked better’, with an added ‘dripping water’ emoji, typically used to indicate sexual arousal.
He also was roundly criticised, including by the first past or present AFL player to come out as bisexual, Mitch Brown, for captioning a picture of himself with captain Patrick Dangerfield, both who had attended dressed as cowboys, with a ‘Brokeback Mountain’ reference, adding that ‘this is what losing a granny does to ya’.
Writing in The Age, Wilson, who has frequently dealt with sexist comments and misogyny from both football clubs and media colleagues throughout her decades-long career, took aim directly at Smith, describing him as a ‘lawless selfish brat’ guilty of both homophobia and sexism.
“The club famous for turning lost boys into premiership players has hit a fork in the road with Smith and seems at a genuine loss to know what to do about him,” Wilson wrote.
“Speaking about the behaviour of AFL players through the lens of mental health can be tricky but Smith behaved on Monday like a lawless selfish brat with no thought for the club nor those teammates who have defended and, on occasion, covered for him this season.
“And those at the club who defend him because of his public history with those mental demons should acknowledge how offensive and hurtful his behaviour can be to others.
“Smith offended the gay community, briefly dragging down one of the game’s most respected leaders, the unwitting Dangerfield. He once again offended women across the industry and beyond by targeting me with a disgusting social media post.
“And the post was only taken down after my female colleague Jacqui Reed complained to the club.
“Geelong’s media team has been MIA throughout September, and where was football boss Andrew Mackie on Monday?”
“This is not a case of professional outrage. How dare Smith get away with sending such an insulting and sexist message to aspiring females with strong opinions working in the media or elsewhere in the AFL.”
Wilson went on to compare the lack of AFL punishment for Smith with the heavy sanctions handed down to GWS players for their own post-season function controversy 12 months ago, in particular young Giants Toby McMullin and Cooper Hamilton, who received two-match suspensions for dressing up as the Twin Towers, describing Smith as ‘untouchable’.
“Their costumes were in dreadful taste, but compared with Smith? He basically implied that losing a grand final turns you into a gay man – the implication being that’s a bad thing,” Wilson wrote.
“Most disappointing where Holmes was concerned was that he felt the need to apologise to me on Smith’s behalf. Bailey Smith is a player who seems to have a habit of lurking in the shadows, leaving others to pick up the mess when he does the wrong thing.”
““How does he get away with it?” journalists have asked on more than one occasion of the Cats this year. “It’s complicated,” say Cats bosses.”
Wilson added that, contrary to reports, Holmes had not informed her that he was attending the event dressed as Wilson, but has contacted her since to apologise.
She also criticised Geelong for their response, which has included a statement saying the club’s Mad Monday celebrations will change moving forward but included no direct punishment for Smith, saying their ‘generic’ apology was ‘a pathetic response which completely missed the point’.
Bailey Smith. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)
Smith enjoyed a career-best season on-field in his first year at the Cats since being traded from the Western Bulldogs at the end of 2024, earning his maiden All-Australian blazer, coming second in the club’s best and fairest and third in the Brownlow Medal.
However, the Mad Monday controversy was just his latest off-field indiscretion, having been roundly criticised for abusing photographer Alison Wynd during a Cats open training session midway through the finals series, while being twice fined for raising his middle finger at spectators.
Former Brownlow Medallist Adam Cooney has also criticised Smith, suggesting if he doesn’t ‘pull his head in’, his time at the Cats might be short-lived.
“I think Bailey Smith overstepped the mark with the comments that were deemed to be homophobic,” Cooney said on SEN.
“Bailey Smith has got to be careful. If he doesn’t pull his head in, in 12 months’ time he’s not going to be at Geelong.
“We’ll be talking about Bailey Smith in the trade period in 2026 because he is so high profile – everything Bailey does is magnified by a hundred. He’s getting just a little bit too big for his boots at the moment.
“Some of the comments that he’s been making, even walking into Mad Monday saying ‘I haven’t sunk p**s for a couple of days, I’m ready to go get in to it’ … he wouldn’t have said that four years ago.
“He just needs to temper it a little bit … Chris Scott gives his players an amazing amount of freedom, independence and responsibility; but if you don’t do the right thing by him, you’re gone.”