| Abbey Holmes | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Holmes working withSeven Network in April 2019 | |||
| Personal information | |||
| Date of birth | (1991-01-07)7 January 1991 (age 34) | ||
| Place of birth | Victor Harbor,South Australia | ||
| Original team(s) | Waratah (NTFL) | ||
| Draft | No. 103,2016 AFL Women's draft | ||
| Debut | Round 1, 2017,Adelaide vs.Greater Western Sydney, atThebarton Oval | ||
| Height | 170 cm (5 ft 7 in) | ||
| Position(s) | Forward | ||
| Playing career1 | |||
| Years | Club | Games (Goals) | |
| 2017–2018 | Adelaide | 11 (3) | |
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of the 2018 season. | |||
| Career highlights | |||
| |||
| Source:AustralianFootball.com | |||
Abbey Holmes (/hɒlmz/HOLMZ;[1] born 7 January 1991) is a formerAustralian rules footballer who played for theAdelaide Football Club in theAFL Women's (AFLW). She began playing football for theWaratah Football Club in theNorthern Territory Football League in 2012 and won four consecutive premierships with the club, along with being the league's leading goalkicker the same four seasons. In 2014, she became the first woman to kick 100 goals in a season in an established football league, and in 2016 she was drafted in theinaugural AFL Women's draft by Adelaide.
In 2019, Holmes competed in thesixth season ofAustralian Survivor. She was eliminated on day 46 and finished in fifth place.[2] She would then return toAustralian Survivor All Stars the following season where she placed nineteenth.
Holmes was born inVictor Harbor inSouth Australia. Her father was the president of the Victor Harbor Football Club and her mother was heavily involved in the localnetball club. She started playing netball in Victor Harbor and continued when her family moved toAdelaide when she was ten years old.[3]
At the age of 15, Holmes made her debut inSouth Australia's state netball league and in the same year she representedSouth Australia at theAustralian National Netball Championships. By the age of 16, she was representingAustralia in an international schoolgirls tournament. She continued playing netball at a high level and was going to represent South Australia in a national under-19 championship, but she injured her knee two weeks before the tournament and was unable to participate.[4]
Holmes moved toDarwin in theNorthern Territory with her partner, Nathan Brown, in 2012 so that Brown, who had previously played in theSouth Australian National Football League forWest Adelaide andNorth Adelaide, could play in theNorthern Territory Football League (NTFL) during the summer (most Australian rules leagues are played in winter).[4] Holmes had planned to continue playing netball in Darwin, but she also began playing football forWaratah Football Club in the women's competition of the NTFL. She played football in the summer and netball in the winter, as the seasons did not overlap.[5] Holmes immediately had success in the NTFL. In her first four seasons, she was both the league's leading goalkicker and a premiership player with Waratah,[6] becoming one of the highest-profile female footballers in the Northern Territory.[7]
In 2014, Holmes became the first woman to kick 100 goals in a season in an established women's football league, kicking 105 goals across 15 games in the 2013–14 NTFL season. She kicked seven or more goals in a single match on nine occasions and kicked ten or more thrice, including kicking 16 goals and five behinds in a match against Tracy Village.[4][5][6][7] As a result of her achievement, she was mentioned by name inFederal Parliament.[4]
Holmes' success in the NTFL led to her being selected to play in various exhibition matches. She played in aWest End Slowdown, sharing player-of-the-match honours withAdelaide legendAndrew McLeod[3] and played in twoE. J. Whitten Legends Games.[6] Despite this, she was consistently overlooked by theMelbourne Football Club and theWestern Bulldogs, who played annual exhibition matches.[5] After missing out on the 2014 match, she asked then-Melbourne coachMichelle Cowan what she needed to do to improve her game and she was told that her game was too one-dimensional. Rather than staying at full-forward she needed to be able to help her team further up the field, so she started to work on this.[8]
During the 2016 NTFL Grand Final, in which Holmes won her fourth consecutive premiership, she suffered torn rib cartilage. The nature of the injury meant there was no rehabilitation beyond just resting and waiting for it to heal. In 2016, she played two exhibition matches representing the Northern Territory, but in both matches she re-tore the cartilage. She was meant to play for the St Kilda Sharks in theVictorian Women's Football League in the 2016 season, but the recurring injury meant she was unable to do anything beyond train.[7] Instead, Holmes started to work for theSeven Network as the boundary rider for their coverage of theVictorian Football League.[7] At the end of the year she also presented theGoal of the Year award to Adelaide playerEddie Betts.[9]
Holmes was drafted by theAdelaide Football Club with their thirteenth selection and 103rd overall in the2016 AFL Women's draft, the team she had been supporting for her entire life.[3][5][10] Going into the inaugural2017 AFL Women's season, she was expected to be one of Adelaide's star players, but for the first match of the season she wasn't initially selected to play, only being listed as an emergency replacement.[6][11] She was a late inclusion into the team and made her debut in the thirty-six point win againstGreater Western Sydney atThebarton Oval.[12]
Holmes played every match of the season to finish with eight matches,[13] leading the team in handballs.[12] Her best performance came in round four againstFremantle when she accumulated 15 possessions, three tackles and kicked a goal.[12] She was part of Adelaide's premiership side after the club defeatedBrisbane by six points atMetricon Stadium in theAFL Women's Grand Final.[14][15]
Adelaide re-signed Holmes for the 2018 season during the trade period in May 2017.[16] She was delisted by Adelaide at the end of the 2018 season.[17]
Holmes primarily plays as aforward. She is capable of taking strong marks both overhead and on a lead.[12] Since 2014, she has also worked on adding more to her game, and now she is able to rotate through themidfield.[12]
In addition to playing Australian rules football and netball, Holmes has also participated inbodybuilding contests.[5] She is areal estate agent[3] and has done work as a part-timemodel.[6] She also participated inAustralia Survivor.[18] Since 2018, Holmes has been a commentator for theSeven Network for its AFL and AFLW coverage working as expert commentator and boundary rider, in July 2022 she was a part of the commentary team for the network's coverage of the2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.[19] Holmes got engaged to former AFL playerKeegan Brooksby in November 2020.[20]
