Chelsea Roffey

Born in Wallaroo on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula, the self-confessed Aussie rules tragic moved to Queensland as a girl with her parents and two younger brothers. She learnt the skills of goal umpiring while studying under full academic scholarship for a Bachelor of Music (clarinet) at the Queensland Conservatorium, and later biomedical science at Griffith University. A switch to journalism coincided with her appointment to the AFL panel in 2004, after five years umpiring locally in Brisbane.

In her youth, goal umpires donning white overcoats and moustaches were cherished pillars of Australian football, alongside meat pies and yelling “Ball!” for holding decisions.

No moustache? No problem.
Chelsea’s journey in football has been fuelled by a tenacious desire to reach the top of her game in a highly scrutinised, starkly male domain.

Thriving on the challenges of training and competing while breaking the mould, she reached the heights of her craft eight years later, when she was selected to umpire the 2012 AFL Grand Final.

Chelsea has umpired 16 finals and sat the bench as the emergency umpire at five AFL Grand Finals. Her highlights reel includes games in London and Shanghai, Anzac Days being enveloped by the post-anthem roar of a packed MCG, goosebumps at Adelaide Oval during the unofficial Port Adelaide anthem, INXS’s ‘Never Tear Us Apart’ and executing a textbook hip-and-shoulder on Melbourne’s Oscar McDonald.

In season 2022, Chelsea stepped away from football, returning to the field the following year as a mother – the first in umpiring history – after giving birth to her daughter. In 2024 she is poised to achieve the coveted 300-game milestone, reached by only a handful of umpires in the game’s history.

Chelsea holds bachelor degrees in music and journalism, is a published author and Winston Churchill Fellow who has travelled the globe examining diversity, gender equality and storytelling. She has been named Sports Official of the Year in Victoria and Queensland, and listed among The Age newspaper’s top 100 most influential people.

She has been an invited guest of APEC’s Women’s Leadership Forum in Beijing, and attended the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York.

A former school captain, recipient of the Queen’s Trust Award and Pierre de Coubertin Award for Sportsmanship, her leadership and advocacy has extended to elected roles on the AFL umpires’ leadership group and Umpires’ Association Executive. She has sat on the AFL Diversity Council and been an ambassador for Breast Cancer Network Australia, the Liptember Foundation, the AFL Victoria Umpiring Academy and Change Our Game (Victorian Office for Women in Sport).

Combining her unique narrative with compelling science and literature, Chelsea captures themes of diversity as drivers of high performance, from the boardroom to the basketball court. Her story is a living example of self-belief, attitude and application, of using strengths to overcome obstacles and turn barriers into opportunities.

When not waving the flags at the ‘G, she consults organisations to create environments where people from all backgrounds thrive.

As a speaker, Chelsea inspires through her positive energy, warmth and humour, bringing passion and lived wisdom to audiences from all walks of life.