Sam Lane

Sam’s a sports broadcasting pro, and her award-winning work spans print, television, podcasts, and radio. She spent 13 years writing for Melbourne’s The Age and Sunday Age, and The Sydney Morning Herald newspapers, and in that time reported from three Olympic Games.

She has also reported from the men’s Tour de France and the landmark first women’s Tour de France, in print, on radio and ABC television, and has also covered men’s AFL on Channels Seven and Ten for more than 15 years. She was part of Seven’s record-breaking broadcast of the 2018 Commonwealth Games, a panellist on Channel Ten’s Before the Game for 10 years, has covered every season of AFLW since its inception in 2017, hosts a weekly ABC podcast, and has featured in the ABC’s Agony Aunts series. 

In 2018, Sam published her first book, Roar, which is the definitive account of the birth of the Australian Football League’s elite competition for women, and is formally endorsed by Australia’s first woman Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

That topic has been the subject of numerous keynote presentations for Sam – including one at the Australian Embassy in Paris. 

Sam’s won a raft of journalism awards, including two Melbourne Press Club Quills, a Walkley, the AFL Players’ Association and AFL Coaches Association media prizes, and an Australian Sports Commission media award. Throughout 2022, she co-hosted the Australian national speaking tour of basketball legend Luc Longley in sold-out shows, and moderated live events with Australian of the Year Adam Goodes in 2019.  

Throughout Sam’s career, she’s never been afraid to ‘think differently’ about sport – and we’re delighted that she’ll be hosting our 2023 NIBA Convention.