CHELSEA ROFFEY

Chelsea Roffey is a female first in football. Breaking through the sweaty glass ceiling, Chelsea is the first woman to have officiated at an Australian Football League Grand Final, in 2012, in the exacting role of goal umpire. Another female first, the then prime minister, Julia Gillard, personally congratulated her.

Chelsea learnt the skills of umpiring during the years she was studying clarinet as part of her Bachelor of Music at the Queensland Conservatorium. After five years of local apprenticeship in Brisbane she got her break on the AFL Umpires Panel in 2004.

She is an ambassador for Breast Cancer Network Australia, the Liptember Foundation and the AFL Umpiring Academy. In 2014 she was a guest at the APEC’s Women’s Leadership forum and awarded a Churchill Fellowship to explore strategies for influencing social change that enables and encourages girls to be the authors of their own lives.