Michael Pell
GUEST SPEAKING
SCHOOLS
Being a teacher Michael can deliver a talk around a range of topics to tie in with any type of curriculum or interests.
CORPORATE
Michael uses his experience being involved in the AFL and the intense media scrutiny he was under to relate it to the vast array of challenges that come with being in a corporate environment.
KEYNOTE
Use Michael as keynote speaker for your next big event. His background story of becoming an AFL umpire and the subsequent challenges he has encountered make for a great show piece to your day.
SPORTING CLUBS
Michael has lived his whole life in and around sporting clubs and understands the unique challenges and opportunities they hold.
MENTAL HEALTH
RESILIENCE
DECISION MAKING
stress & anxiety
addiction
gambling
About
Michael Pell had it all. Having just completed his first season as an AFL umpire, he was set for a long and distinguished career as one of the game’s most talented officials. He was also a devoted new father, a passionate school teacher and a respected member of his community. In the blink of an eye, however, he would become the centre of one of the biggest scandals in Australian sporting history when he was arrested on November 14, 2022 on suspicions of supplying sensitive information about Brownlow Medal votes.
Michael would spend the next month in a mental health facility coming to terms with his new reality whilst the world outside began to try and piece it all together. Despite the grief and pain of his life and career being tipped upside down, it gave him the chance to reset and reflect. Michael for some time was a man who had been out of control and in a bad mental place.
As far back as 2018 Michael began to experience challenges with suicide and depression. Lockdown and COVID wasn’t kind to Michael either, with he and his wife losing their first baby and Michael finding a washed up body on a beach following a suicide. He kept telling himself, however, that all these mental challenges would be fixed once he became an AFL umpire, a dream he had held for some time. The same determination and hard work to become an elite athlete had however taken over his emotional and mental psyche and he was a man in need of help.
The stress, anxiety and pressure of being an AFL umpire, a full time teacher and a first time father only escalated and he was a man quickly burning the candle at both ends where only a complete rock bottom moment would make him wake up and realise it was time to change. And here it was for all for the public to see.
A UNIQUE JOURNEY THAT WILL INSPIRE AND EDUCATE