Debbie Spillane
Debbie Spillane, AM, is an Australian sports journalist and commentator. Born Deborah Elizabeth Spillane on 25 December 1955 in Sydney, she studied at Bethlehem College, Ashfield, and earned a BA from the University of Sydney. In 1984 she joined the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) as a sports commentator and reporter, becoming ABC Sport’s first full‑time female broadcaster. She covered the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and the 1986 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games. She was a sideline rugby league reporter and the first woman to commentate cricket on ABC Radio. In 1987 she was a judge on ABC’s Theatre Sports.
From 1990 to 1995 she co‑hosted the drive‑time program Hard Coffee on Triple J with Ian Rogerson, and she was a regular panelist on Andrew Denton’s Live and Sweaty from 1991 to 1994. In 1995 she left ABC to become the media manager of the Bulldogs rugby league team. She later worked as media manager for the West Sydney Razorbacks basketball team, wrote sports columns for The Sun-Herald and The Australian, and appeared on several radio stations including 2GB, 2Day FM, New FM, KICK AM and 2BL.
She returned to ABC in 2002 with ABC NewsRadio and in 2012 hosted ABC Radio’s Grandstand. She won the 2017 Australian Sports Commission Media Award for Lifetime Achievement. On 12 December 2021 she was inducted into the Sydney Cricket Ground Media Hall of Honour. Her memoir, Where Do You Think You're Goin', Lady?: Adventures of a Sports-mad Redhead, was published in 2007.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 02:44 (CET).