{"id":231868,"date":"2025-10-22T07:09:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T07:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/231868\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T07:09:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T07:09:11","slug":"the-schoolboy-treatment-of-geelong-cats-superstar-bailey-smith-that-lets-him-escape-accountability-after-his-social-media-post-to-do-with-age-columnist-caroline-wilson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/231868\/","title":{"rendered":"The schoolboy treatment of Geelong Cats superstar Bailey Smith that lets him escape accountability, after his social media post to do with Age columnist Caroline Wilson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scott said that much of what had happened with Smith passed him by because he keeps himself away from social media. Implicitly, if you are someone who consumes social media, well, what did you expect, diving into the cesspit?<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

Scott reckoned the social media posts<\/a> were, like many other occasions when people find themselves in trouble, jokes that fell flat.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be clear what the joke was here: Smith, photographed with teammate Max Holmes<\/a> dressed as my colleague Caroline Wilson on Mad Monday, and posted<\/a> the picture with an emoji representing semen, with the line that she had never looked so good. Quite the gag. ROFL.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s doubtful that had Holmes dressed as Scott\u2019s wife, posed with Smith, and Smith posted the same image the coach would have been quite so sanguine about it being a bad joke.<\/p>\n

A schoolboy and his mates at the back of the class would find it funny. The teacher and principal, on the other hand, would variously call it bullying, misogynistic, and a breach of social media, but above all, a breach of decency. And not funny.<\/p>\n

Scott most likely hated the post and Mad Monday carry on (he admitted to being pleased that a silver lining was the club abandoned their annual dress-up).<\/p>\n

As is Scott\u2019s preference, he didn\u2019t want to buy into a public discussion of it.<\/p>\n

But private discussions appear to have had little change in public behaviour from Nose Beers<\/a> Smith (his \u201cnose beers\u201d line earlier this year was another example of a Smith joke that fell flat).<\/p>\n

Geelong have long insisted with a whiff of condescension that they are unlike other clubs because they treat their players like adults and do not punish them like schoolboys. But what happens when the players act like schoolboys?<\/p>\n

Adults posting as Smith did on social media \u2013 adults, for instance, working in administration at Geelong and not playing football for them \u2013 would breach every workplace HR rule and social media policy, and would be on written warnings or sacked. That\u2019s how adults are treated.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

Instead, Smith got an \u201coh Bailey\u201d roll of the eyes, like he was a naughty schoolboy. Again.<\/p>\n

Frank conversations were held with Smith and with the AFL, and Scott said it was right that those were not public but also understood why the public and media would extrapolate about what had gone on. But he was comfortable with where it was all sat with Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe point I would make, when I\u2019ve spoken to Bailey, is we think while it\u2019s imperfect at the moment, it\u2019s in a pretty good spot. I wouldn\u2019t fret too much,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n

Hear that, Caro? Don\u2019t fret.<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s Mad Monday postings came only weeks after he singled out, berated and abused a female photographer at a Geelong training session that she and the rest of the media had been invited to attend. That was no joke.<\/p>\n

Smith apologised. By text.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the Gen Xers and Millennials at the AFL were unaware of the meaning among Gen Zers of the water splash emoji when they offered Smith a shrug of the shoulders for his behaviour and shuffled it back to Geelong to deal with?<\/p>\n

Smith, far from castigated, doubled down by finding an old Footy Show clip of a Sam Newman tirade against Wilson and posted it before quickly deleting it.<\/p>\n

The AFL again ignored it but sent a warning to Geelong: one more time, Bailey, and we\u2019ll get really mad.<\/p>\n

But meanwhile, is it OK if you play for Victoria in the resurrected State of Origin, Bailey? And can you post about it on your socials, we know you have a lot of followers?<\/p>\n

Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scott said that much of what had happened with Smith passed him by because he keeps himself away…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-231868","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}