Oh, Brodie.
We’d only just forgotten that cringeworthy ‘end of an era for Brodes and Bucks’ Instagram post after your split from AFL legend Nathan Buckley.
Was it a tad dramatic? Yes. Did I make fun of you for it? A little. But – as I noted at the time – heartbreak makes us do silly things.
I get it. You were probably still in the crying-into-your-ice-cream phase of the break-up and it must’ve hurt like hell to realise you were no longer a WAG.
You’re a Mildura girl at heart, after all. You went from a wide-eyed, country chick who once lived on a farm, to the dazzling lights of the Melbourne footy bubble.
It must’ve been exciting. And, I’ll admit, there was a certain gauche earnestness to your posts back then that made me smile.
Amanda Goff has her ear to the ground in Melbourne – and she’s heard some groans from footy circles after Nathan Buckley’s ex-girlfriend Brodie Ryan compared being a WAG to being a CEO
But now you’ve done it again. Clanger number two. And this one’s a doozy.
During a podcast interview, you declared being a footy player is a ‘tough job’ that requires ‘support at home’, and that WAGs ‘look after a home which is hard’.
Fair and accurate – no problems so far.
Then you said you had cut back your hours as a hospital business manager – not for childcare reasons or any personal crisis, but to support your partner.
‘I scarified my career trajectory to be available to him and be a part of his life,’ you explained, like joining him on the red carpet was some kind of terrible burden.
But then, without a hint of irony, came this corker…
‘Being a stay-at-home mum and keeping a home and supporting an AFL footballer would be harder than being a CEO of a company.’
Oh, sweetie.
‘Being a stay-at-home mum and keeping a home and supporting an AFL footballer would be harder than being a CEO of a company,’ Brodie said on a podcast recently
You seem like a nice country lass at heart, but that has to be one of the most unintentionally tone-deaf things I’ve heard.
And I can only assume it’s rattled a lot of women.
Single mums must have spat out their cold coffees reading that quote – that’s if they had time to check the news in between updating spreadsheets, ordering Coles online, wrangling babies and managing male corporate egos.
Female CEOs smiling through Zoom calls while toddlers scream at their knees can only dream of having the most taxing decision of their day be choosing which gown to wear for a footy awards night.
I’ve got to say this now before you drop clanger number three: wise up, Brodes.
Having recently moved to Melbourne, I can confirm this city with a population of 5.35 million is pretty much a small town when it comes to gossip. Everyone knows someone who knows a footy player or ex-player – and people talk.
Whenever I bring up the subject of ‘Brodes and Bucks’, the response is invariably the same.
‘She seems like a nice girl – but it’s all so cringe!’
Is it surprising? If you insist on speaking publicly about your short-lived relationship with a retired footy player more than three months after you broke up, people are going to roll their eyes.
It wasn’t a particularly long relationship. The couple didn’t marry or have children together. But Brodes appears to have taken it to heart that she is no longer a WAG
And your latest musings can’t be written off as a heartbroken ex having the last word. You have – inadvertently – annoyed a fair few people.
Simply put, being a WAG is not harder than being a CEO – or any demanding profession, for that matter. I mean, try saying that to a working mother who just clocked off a 12-hour night shift as a public hospital nurse.
Yes, that’s an extreme example but the point still stands: being a WAG is not a job. That said, I’ll concede it’s probably tougher than it looks.
At the end of the day, dating a top-tier footballer usually comes hand in hand with the sort of luxury lifestyle most women envy.
It’s spray tans, Brownlow red carpets and sipping champers in corporate boxes.
Yes, women who run Fortune 500 companies have perks too – but they also juggle punishing workloads, tight deadlines and demanding shareholders, in addition to their personal lives.
‘Being a WAG is arguably not harder than being a CEO – or any demanding profession, for that matter. I mean, try saying that to a working mother who just clocked off a 12-hour night shift as a public hospital nurse’
That kind of pressure is a world away from the emotional labour of keeping a professional athlete’s home life on track.
I’m sure WAG life can be exhausting – I mean, look at how many kids Bec Judd has – but when you try to reframe a relatively short relationship with an AFL star as the hardest job there is, people are going to groan.
Even the WAGs are groaning, darl.
And the fallout hasn’t been pretty. One Melbourne society insider told me bluntly this week: ‘Brodie is a sweet girl, but this feels like milking it.’
Another said: ‘I was surprised to find out they even lived together.’
Ouch.
There’s a reason why the likes of Bec and Nadia don’t talk about the struggles of looking hot at the MCG. It’s because they know, in the grand scheme of things, that it’s not very hard, and saying so would annoy a lot of women.
If you wish to continue dining out on your few years with Nathan – on podcasts and on social media – I strongly recommend you stop saying it was a tough gig.
What’s that one rule all the WAGs live by? Oh, yes: ‘silence is golden’.
I don’t believe being Brodes of ‘Brodes and Bucks’ was the same as a full-time job.
In reality, it was probably a fleeting time in your life when you got to wear designer dresses, attend swanky events, and go to bed each night with a grizzled former athlete with rather nice thighs.
The real tough gig is learning to accept that chapter’s over.
