Channel Seven star hits Bailey Smith with a blistering blast: ‘He’s gutless and he makes horrible comments about women’
Footy journalist Caroline Wilson has once again hit out at both Bailey Smith and the Geelong Football Club in the wake of the side’s Mad Monday scandal last year.
In a scathing address, the Channel Seven star branded Smith ‘gutless’ and claimed that he ‘makes horrible comments about women’.
It is not the first time that the respected reporter has blasted Smith and Geelong for their controversial post-season antics, which saw the Cats midfielder mock Wilson with a post on Instagram last year.
Smith, aged 25, had posed for a photograph with teammate Max Holmes during the team’s fancy-dress Mad Monday party, with Holmes dressed as Wilson.
Smith, meanwhile, arrived wearing a costume themed on Brad Pitt’s character Tristan Ludlow from the western film Legends of the Fall.
He had posted an image of himself and Holmes online with the caption: ‘Caro has never looked better,’ adding a sweat-droplets emoji, which often carries sexual connotations.
Channel Seven footy journalist Caroline Wilson has once again hit out at both Bailey Smith and the Geelong Football Club in the wake of the side’s Mad Monday scandal last year
Bailey Smith (right) quickly deleted this Instagram post showing him at Geelong’s Mad Monday party alongside teammate Max Holmes (left), who was dressed as Wilson
Wilson wrote in her column in October: ‘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.’
The 25-year-old midfielder had also enraged some members of the LGBTQAI+ community after he had published a photo of himself with Patrick Dangerfield on Instagram; Dangerfield had also been wearing a western-themed outfit.
The two players appeared to embrace each other in the picture, with Smith making a reference to the film Brokeback Mountain on his Instagram.
He added a caption on the image: ‘Or Brokeback Mountain, depends on how ya look at it. This is what losing a granny does to ya. Alright, phone away now. Bye.’
Geelong subsequently apologised for the inappropriate Mad Monday outfits, stating that the end-of-season function would no longer ‘continue in this current form’.
Three months on from the scandal, Wilson explained during an interview with 3AW that she was ‘disappointed’ in how the AFL club reacted to the social media scandal.
‘Geelong took a deeply troubled guy [Smith] with a history of terrible injury and he finished third in the Brownlow Medal vote and they made a Grand Final,’ Wilson said to 3AW.
‘You have to say, on field, it was a big success, even though there were several off-field issues.
Smith made a Brokeback Mountain reference on an Instagram photo of him being embraced by Geelong skipper Patrick Dangerfield (pictured), with both stars dressed as western characters
Wilson expressed her disappointment with the AFL player, claiming that he was ‘gutless’, ‘troubled’ and had ‘horrible comments about women’
‘My disappointment about Mad Monday is that Bailey Smith is troubled, he had a good season, but the emoji he put on an Instagram post about me was disgusting.’
Wilson had not understood the connotations around the ‘sweat droplets’ emoji at first, stating that she had to ask her daughter to explain what it meant.
‘Look, it was really embarrassing. I was overseas at the time. My youngest daughter had to tell me what it meant.
‘I thought it was horrible. I was just really disappointed in the reaction from the Geelong Football Club. The only person who contacted me after that directly was Andrew Dillon, who was very concerned.’
In the wake of the scandal, Geelong issued a statement that read: ‘Geelong Football Club sincerely apologises for the offence caused following our end-of-season gathering on Monday.
‘Certain costumes and associated social media posts were inappropriate and a significant error of judgment, and do not reflect our Team of All commitment.
‘The club has decided future post-season events will not continue in this current form, and we will take this moment to further educate our people on expectations and club and community standards.’
While the AFL issued a stern warning to Smith and Geelong, the league has since been slammed for its lack of action over the matter.
While the AFL issued a stern warning to Smith and Geelong, the league has since been slammed for its lack of action over the matter
The club’s CEO, Steve Hocking, told Channel 7 that the club intended to sit down with Smith to address his online presence and that they would not ‘tiptoe’ around the matter.
Smith’s Instagram post alongside Dangerfield angered ex-West Coast Eagles star Mitch Brown, who recently made history coming out as the AFL’s first openly bisexual player.
Wilson, meanwhile, was asked whether she had received a personal apology from the Cats. She told 3AW: ‘Finally, I did catch up with Grant McCabe, the chairman, a month or so later. He had tried to catch up with me overseas. We caught up back in Melbourne and he apologised on behalf of the club.
‘Max Holmes got in touch immediately, he’d dressed up as me, I didn’t have a massive issue with that. He was deeply embarrassed and apologetic.
However, she teed off again on Bailey Smith.
‘Bailey Smith is gutless. And he makes horrible comments about women, and irresponsible comments,’ Wilson explained.
‘What really disappointed me was leaders of that club have lowered their own standards in trying to build him up and defend him, including Chris Scott. I’ve had a long relationship with Chris Scott and in our lives, relationships with coaches have to be, to a point, transactional. Because I’m a journalist and he’s a coach.
‘But I thought there was a level of respect in our relationship and former friendship, and I was disappointed, because clearly there isn’t.
Wilson then hit out at Geelong coach Chris Scott (pictured), claiming he had tried to defend Smith
‘Chris Scott described it as a joke that fell flat. Now I hope no one ever does anything like that or makes a comment about anyone close to Chris Scott. I thought he was better than that. And I was disappointed in the response. He’s a coach, he’s got to stick up for his player, and maybe I misread some relationships.’
‘I had a chat with Steve Hocking at the season launch and we’ll catch up at some point. But all this: ‘We don’t understand social media and Bailey’s amazing on social media and we didn’t understand the emoji,’ well, you know what, you’re running a footy club, understand it.
‘I think there are a lot of women in the game who don’t think Geelong has the respect for women that it should have.’
Hocking has previously addressed the matter publicly
‘Mad Monday is absolutely on all of us. There is a range of people that were part of that. There’s certain individuals who dressed inappropriately.
‘We have apologised for that, particularly to Caro (Caroline Wilson), it was unacceptable how that was rolled out and treated.
‘In regards to Bailey, we have absolutely welcomed what he has done on the field. He finished third in the Brownlow. It’s an amazing comeback off the back of an ACL.
Hocking added: ‘There will be a time in my view this will involve all of us in the off-season, whereby we need to (talk to him).
‘It’s not about tiptoeing around someone like Bailey but more about tailoring it accordingly. I always talk about barnacles on a boat, if you end up with too many, it’s only going one way, we have to remove some of those.’
After Smith was sidelined for the entire 2024 season with an ACL injury, the midfielder joined up with the Cats in 2025 and starred to help take the Victorian club to the AFL Grand Final, where Scott’s side would ultimately come up short against Brisbane.
The 25-year-old was drafted to the Bulldogs in 2018 and has since gone on to make 127 AFL appearances, returning 52 goals.
