Veteran AFL journalist Mark Robinson slams Geelong star Bailey Smith for Caroline Wilson post

Veteran AFL reporter Mark Robinson has slammed Geelong superstar Bailey Smith for his “disgusting” post about Caroline Wilson at the Cats’ infamous Mad Monday celebrations.

Smith posted a series of photos from the event, including one of him with teammate Max Holmes, who had come dressed up as respected journalist Wilson.

Smith said Wilson “never looked better” in the caption and added the dripping water emoji.

He was also in hot water for a separate post with captain Patrick Dangerfield, referencing the movie Brokeback Mountain, which depicts a complex romantic relationship between two cowboys.

Geelong were forced to apologise for the offence caused and conceded the iconic day will not continue in the future.

The posts came less than a month after Smith verbally abused a female photographer at an open training session.

The club and Smith escaped sanctions, but former Herald Sun chief AFL reporter Robinson didn’t hold back in his assessment of the situation.

“Some of the players are really starting to s*** me,” Robinson told AFL Trade Radio.

“I want to talk about Bailey Smith and everyone is going to call me a woke, silly old fool, but for Bailey Smith to abuse the photographer is one thing, that’s really poor.

“For Bailey Smith to be a part of an Instagram photo with (Holmes dressed as) Caroline Wilson and put a (colloquially) semen emoji up there is one of the most disgusting things I’ve seen a player do.

“If it was my mother, or my sister, or my wife ... I can guarantee you myself and my three brothers would be going around to say hello to Bailey Smith.

“Who does he think he is to put a semen emoji on a photo of (Holmes dressed as) Caroline Wilson.”

Robinson then called out the AFL for sparing Smith of any punishment.

“It’s not woke to call it out. It’s decency. Be a decent person. And for the AFL to allow that to go unpunished is one of the most disgusting inactions by the AFL in my time in football.

“We can all laugh at Bailey Smith and say he’s just a young man, you can have fun without being a pig.

“I’m disappointed in Greg Swann and in Andrew Dillon for allowing that to go through to the keeper without punishment.”

Curiously, Robinson’s chat on Trade Radio disappeared from podcast feeds shortly after it was published.

Robinson’s strong comments come after Wilson called Smith a “selfish brat” and said the football club’s response (to their players’ misguided Mad Monday antics) was “pathetic”.

In a column headlined “Bailey Smith’s social media post about me was insulting and sexist. How dare he?”, the award-winning Wilson did not hold back.

Wilson also called out Geelong chief Steve Hocking, saying he had “remained silent since the Mad Monday disaster”.

Hocking addressed the situation on Thursday morning.

“If you’re referring to Mad Monday, it’s on all of us. There is a range of people that were part of that. There’s certain individuals that dressed up inappropriately,” he said on SEN.

“We have apologised for that, particularly to Caro (Caroline Wilson), it was unacceptable how that was rolled out and treated.”

Hocking went on to say that they will likely need to have a chat with Smith over the off-season.

“When you come off-field, the interest in him is just unbelievable. He has a very different relationship with social media to ... our age profile,” Hocking said on Thursday in a wide-ranging SEN interview.

“I don’t understand it at all.

“He works that exceptionally well. There will be a time, in my view, and this will involve all of us over the off-season, where we just need to have some reflection.

“It’s not about tiptoeing around someone like Bailey but more about tailoring it accordingly.

“We’re really, really early in the relationship.”