Roar

About the Author

Multi award-winning journalist and author Samantha Lane is a media trailblazer. A member of the Seven Network's Australian Football League television broadcast team, Sam's experience and reach across mainstream and social media platforms is unique. Her first book, Roar, is an unparalleled piece of journalism telling of the culture transformation generated by the new AFL women's league. Sam's pioneering coverage of the competition gave her a front-row seat to history. Roar won a Quill Award from the Melbourne Press Club in 2019 in the Best Reporting on Women's Sport category. Sam is a pre-match show co-host and boundary rider for Channel 7 on AFLW games and she has been engaged nationally to speak about the phenomenon since Roar's 2018 release. She has also been a Channel 7 regular on television broadcasts of the men's AFL competition, having joined the network's Saturday Night Footy team in 2013. A three-time Quill winner from the Melbourne Press Club, Sam's reporting on the AFL and National Rugby League's doping scandals was part of a Fairfax team entry that won a Walkley award. The Australian Sports Commission (now Sport Australia), AFL Coaches' Association and AFL Players' Association have also recognised her work, while her groundbreaking investigations into the issue of concussion in football led to two VicSport awards. In 2018 Sam won the prize for Best Reporting of Women's Sport from pre-eminent sport-health body, VicHealth. Also specialising in cycling and global sporting politics, Sam covered three Summer Olympic Games for Fairfax Media, writing for Melbourne's The Age newspaper over 12 years. She was The Age's Olympics Reporter for London's 2012 Games, her writing and digital work running across all national mastheads and online platforms in the Fairfax syndicate. Sam has covered the Tour de France on three occasions and she broadcast from the track and road for Channel 7 on the network's record-breaking 2018 Commonwealth Games coverage. As keynote speaker, master of ceremonies, conference moderator and ambassador, Sam works for top corporates, boutique businesses, and in community settings, with a professional range reflective of her broad personal interests. Clients in 2018 included the Australian Institute of Sport, the National Gallery of Victoria, the National Australia Bank, AirSpace Australia, David Jones, Swimming Australia and Leisure Networks Australia. Sam spent ten seasons with Channel 10's cult AFL panel show Before the Game working with a team of Australia's best-known comics. She was memorable on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's popular Agony Aunts and Agony of Manners series and in 2018 became a regular on Channel Seven's flagship weekend breakfast program, Weekend Sunrise. Her radio experience includes regular programs for ABC 774 and ABC Grandstand, SEN 1116 and Melbourne's 3RRR. A past member of the advisory committee to the board of netball's Melbourne Vixens, Sam was a founding committee member for Stand Up Events. She was an inaugural ambassador for the Basil Sellers Art Prize and has represented Beyond Blue and FightMND.