89: First Female in History to Umpire an AFL Grand Final by Chelsea Roffey

Today, we continue the conversation with the first ever female AFL Grand Final Umpire.  Chelsea Roffey recounts the goosebump-worthy moment in 2012 when thousands of fans at Melbourne Cricket Ground cheered her on for her presence on the field as the historical female first in sport.  

She may always have been sporty yet she started out as an aspiring musician with a scholarship at the Queensland Conservatorium and transitioned into journalism due to her love of language and communication. 

As a Churchill Fellow exploring “social change that enables girls to be authors of their own lives”, she’s gone on to be a Gender & Diversity Facilitator, a journalist, a speaker and an author. It’s her experiences as female in a non-traditional domain however that revealed the untapped potential for driving performance through diversity.

Creating an online program to help businesses climb out of Covid-19 on “How to Attract and Retain Greater Diversity”, she seems to constantly be creating new and different ways to contribute to society. 

The Goods on Chelsea:

Gender and diversity facilitator | Churchill Fellow | First female AFL Grand Final umpire

Born in South Australia, raised in Queensland and cultured in Melbourne,  an innate interest in uncharted territory lured me to the intrepid world of goal umpiring at age 17. In my youth, moustached middle-aged men in overcoats were as much a fixture of Australian football as meat pies and yelling "Ball!" for holding decisions.

No moustache ... no problem! Jumping head-first into waving the flags for gender equality, it became evident that playing to my strengths would enable me to thrive. Lived experience has since proved the nature of diversity of thinking to drive both individual and collective performance.

In 2012 I became the first woman to umpire an AFL Grand Final. But the true breakthrough was becoming the first umpire in history to be cheered (yes, cheered!) by the crowd ahead of that epic battle between Sydney and Hawthorn.

Before my weekend hobby became a profession, I was an aspiring musician, having received an academic scholarship to study a Bachelor of Music at the Queensland Conservatorium. Following a stint studying biomedical science, I switched to journalism, combining a love of language and communication with the adrenaline-charged life of AFL football.

I have explored themes of culture, equality and performance in a

The Podcast's 7th Season
Welcome to In the Game, a podcast where we aim to touch, move and inspire you to what's possible in life. My name is Sarah Maxwell and I am a self-proclaimed relationship engineer. Ever since I was a little girl, I was curious about how people work and how they interact with one another. With a degree in biopsychology representing my country of Canada in beach volleyball. With a degree in biopsychology representing my country of Canada in beach volleyball, retiring from sport into mindset and purpose coaching, I now spend my days running Chatta-box Media, where we aim to story-tell for brands through the medium of podcasting, all while raising an eight-year-old daughter with my partner of 24 years. We are now in season seven of this podcast, featuring a special series on women called who Knew that Was Work aimed at young women who want to broaden their horizon when it comes to career choosing.

Go deeper into the pod and discover incredible stories of changemakers who manifest their dream lives. Gain tangible tools to apply to your own life by scrolling back to that initial season where we were more workbook focused. Have a laugh when we initially were coined the Nat and Sarah show, when my five-time Olympian partner, natalie Cook, and I bantered and had loads of fun interviewing and discovering our common passion individuals who rise to the occasion in life. Okay, now it's time to dive on in to this episode.

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