Nicole Hayes, co-founder of the all-female AFL podcast The Outer Sanctum, has described the moment her 12-year-old daughter saw Sam Newman calling her and her colleagues "perfumed excrement" on national television. The remarks came after the podcast helped expose the controversy surrounding Eddie McGuire's drowning "joke" about journalist Caroline Wilson.
In a personal account, Hayes said Newman's comments, made on The Footy Show, referred to the podcasters as "cowardly excrement" and "second-tier media". She said the team was shocked but also found the predictability of the attack unsurprising, given they were "treading on privileged and typically all-male turf".
Hayes described how the six members of the podcast supported each other through the ensuing media storm, sharing interviews and messages. She said the bond was forged through laughter, even in the height of the madness. However, seeing the abuse through her daughter's eyes was "confronting and unexpectedly upsetting", as her daughter was horrified that an adult would speak that way about her mother.
The Outer Sanctum formed as a podcast focusing on AFL and felt an obligation to monitor mainstream footy media. Hayes said they viewed The Footy Show as a "necessary evil" and took turns watching it, often turning it off after 20 or 30 minutes. She also praised the Marngrook Footy Show on NITV as a more thoughtful and entertaining alternative.
Erin Riley, whose blog about the podcast amplified the story, was also targeted with abuse. Hayes said she worried that Riley, operating under her own name, was a "wider, more vulnerable target" for trolls. Riley refused to be silenced, conducting interviews and delving deeper into the issue in follow-up articles.
