Join BCNA, Abbey Holmes and the Hockey Community at our 2025 Women & Girls Breakfast
Published Sat 08 Mar 2025
On International Women’s Day, Hockey Victoria are excited to announce registrations are open for the 13th edition of the Hockey Victoria Women & Girls Breakfast!
Continuing on our long and amazing partnership with Breast Cancer Network Australia (BCNA), on Friday, 9 May 2025, we will lead into Mother’s Day with a plated breakfast and guest speakers at River’s Edge in the City.
We are very thrilled to share that our keynote guest this year is the incredible Abbey Holmes!!
Abbey has a remarkable story and career across sports and media, from netball to footy, to Survivor, to the big stage on Channel 7’s AFL and AFLW commentary teams. Her passion shines through in every role she undertakes. As an expecting mother, we are very thankful for Abbey joining us this year and we cannot wait to hear her speaking at the 2025 Breakfast.
In line with this year’s International Women’s Day campaign, we are excited to announce the theme of our 2025 Women and Girl’s Breakfast; “Breaking Barriers, Accelerating Action”.
This focus revolves around addressing the systemic barriers and biases that women face both in their personal and professional spheres. All the challenges, triumphs, goals, or motivations experienced, alongside the obstacles women face in life can feel impossible to manage and overcome. Our guests will be opening up about the barriers they have faced, lessons they have learned and strategies that can elevate women’s advancement in sport and beyond.
One way we are encouraging you to Accelerate Action is to support the supporters, and BYO Ally in 2025! An ally could be a mother, father, sibling, grandparent, friend, etc. We would love for you to bring someone in your life who supports you no matter what.
As is the vibe at the Women & Girls Breakfast, food, coffee, tea, and a raffle will be plentiful. We will release more information about the event over the coming weeks. Please see below for more information on the location, time, ticketing, and more:
Date: Friday, 9 May 2025
Venue: River’s Edge, Level 1, 18/38 Siddeley St, Melbourne VIC 3005
Time: 7:30am-9:30am (networking opportunity 7:00am-7:30am)
Ticket & Table Registration:
Firstly, we would like to emphasise that there is a hard cap on tickets numbers this year, so please register as early as possible to ensure that you lock in your tickets or table/s.
From assessing the venue’s floor plan, we have decided to vary ticket prices and provide options depending on the view of the presentation area. Reliant on the table and its placement, there is the possibility that 1 – 2 seats could be impacted by structural pillars within the room.
These pillars are mirrored and won’t affect views to monitors and projectors spread around the room to view the presentation. The placement may simply have an impact the view of the speakers on the day.
Although we welcome impacted viewers to stand or move around their table if they wish to view the speaker, we believe these tables should be offered at a discounted price due to 1 – 2 seats being slightly affected.
Please see below regarding pricing structure for tickets to the 2025 Women & Girls Breakfast:
- Individual tickets = $95.00 (incl. GST)
- Table of 10 = $899.00 (incl. GST)
- Impacted View – Table of 10 = $850.00 (incl. GST)
There is no upfront payment required for ticket/table orders at the point of registration. Instead, invoices will be sent out closer to the event.
Ticket/table registrations will close on Thursday, 24 April 2025 at 11.59pm.
Cancellations: Hockey Victoria will allow cancellations of individual and table bookings up until Thursday, 1 May 2025 at 12.00pm. If you submit a cancellation request post this date, the booking contact will be invoiced and required to pay the ticket price above.
We look forward to seeing you at the breakfast. If you have any questions in the lead up, please reach out to Keegan Watson at kwatson@hockeyvictoria.org.au or call on 03 9448 2124.
Keynote Guest Speaker - Abbey Holmes
Abbey loves all things sport, adventure and travel and is wild about the Outback.
Abbey’s passions take her all over the country. She has been seen pounding the pavement as a Real Estate Agent, kicking goals on and off the footy field (playing and commentating for Channel 7 and Triple M), hosting her own adventure TV and content series, starring in the two seasons of Australian Survivor and a SAS Australia season on Channel 10, while also speaking at numerous events. Her commitment to outstanding professionalism, down to earth communication, hard work and a can do attitude have established her reputation as a leader, mentor, and recognized public figure.
Originally from South Australia, but having lived all over the country over the last 10 years – the multitalented sports star has always overachieved from a young age. She represented Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory in Netball, but really found her niche when she began playing football competitively in the NTFL.
Abbey was first launched into the media spotlight after becoming the first Female Australian Rules Footballer to kick 100+ goals in an established women’s league season.
This is an achievement that Abbey is very proud of, however she is prouder of the attention and interest that this achievement bought to women’s football around the country at a time of need.
Since then, she has accepted invitations to play in a number of charity football matches, the EJ Whitten Legends Game & the Slowdown raising much needed funds for prostate cancer research and children’s oncology treatment. It was her work here, that Abbey really cemented herself as a role model and respected figure nationwide.
A lifelong dream came true for Abbey in October 2016, when she was drafted to the Adelaide Football Club for the inaugural AFLW Competition in 2017 where the girls went on to create history by winning the premiership in the first year of competition.
With a passion for sports broadcasting, Abbey has worked with notable networks around Australia for the last 5 years and has her home with Channel 7 in their AFL and AFLW Commentary Team. Her Channel 7 role sees her on the boundary, interviewing players in the heart of the action and hosting.
Abbey also enjoys a role in radio with Triple M Footy and was also be a key member of the Channel 7 broadcast team where she co-hosted the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
In 2022, Channel 7 launched a new travel show – Discover – showcasing the best travel destinations around Australia. As a presenter on the show, shoots took Abbey around SA, VIC and WA.
Abbey also has a passion for indigenous education and culture, and has worked with AFL Northern Territory out of the Michael Long Learning and Leadership Centre. She also works closely with NT Tourism on a range of initiatives.
Outside of the AFL, Abbey’s drive for adventure and her competitive spirit has seen her appear in two series of Australia Survivor on Network 10. In 2019, Abbey lasted 46 days in the Fijian Jungle to finish 5th and returned in February 2020 for Season 5 – ALL STARS. The Aussie public fell in love with her down to earth attitude, her competitive nature and her loyalty. This extended into SAS Australia where Abbey endured the heat in Jordan to make it to the finale in the final 4.
With a wealth of knowledge in a number of different fields, Abbey is particularly focused and passionate about travel and tourism and showcases everything that Australia has to offer to local and international markets through various projects. She is a ‘Friend of Tourism Australia’ and also collaborates with local, State and National Tourism bodies to bring travel to life via media projects, social media campaigns and via her own travel marketing platform – Backyard Bandits.
Beyond the TV screen, Abbey has a passion for health, fitness, and growing he career. She has participated in bodybuilding contests, done work as a part-time model, while also becoming a real estate agent. Currently balancing various footy related roles, partnerships with multiple companies, and being the founder of Esnetica, Abbey is becoming a first time mother later in 2025.
Abbey's journey is an inspiring testament to her unwavering commitment to her passions and her dedication to making a positive impact in the realms of sports, travel, and indigenous culture across Australia.
