Former AFL WAG Amie Rohan was on my radar at the gym weeks before we spoke. I clocked how one minute she’d be deadlifting hilariously heavy bars, the next hoisting her newborn from his pram and handing homemade yoghurt cups to her two daughters. I didn’t realise who she was but told her she was ace.

I’m older than her mum, but we became unlikely friends. One day, Amie needed an emergency babysitter. I was gobsmacked by the 5 million socks drying neatly in her laundry and the fact her kids’ playroom had no electronic toys. Walls were hung with the periodic table and world maps.

Lachie Neale celebrates winning the 2025 grand final between Geelong Cats and Brisbane Lions. Credit: Jason South

My lasting fascination with Amie though was, and is, that she survived a public humiliation and a private grief with dignity when her then-Geelong Football Club player husband Gary Rohan left her when their youngest was months old, amid rumours of a romance with a club physio.

Amie was suddenly a single mum and Gary earned a spot next to Wayne Carey in the AFL’s ranks of marital drama grubs.

Which is why, when the

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