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As far as clap-backs go, Dee Salmin’s response to trolls was epic. On the 2024 Brownlow Medal presentation night, the Triple J broadcaster and co-host of relationships podcast The Hook Up was branded a “feminist witch” accused of emasculating her partner of three years, Collingwood captain Darcy Moore.
Instead of cowering, Salmin leaned in, hard. She added “gonad stealing feminist witch” to her Instagram bio, and later used the barb to inspire her “sea witch” 2025 Brownlow gown, which incorporated shards of foraged glass from beaches near Melbourne.
“I have been at the ABC for 10 years, so I’m used to being in the public space and getting some not-so-nice comments,” she says. “It gives you a bit of a thicker skin.”
Calling out bad behaviour has become a trademark for Moore and Salmin, who are part of a “new guard” of AFL couples more outspoken on everything from gender roles to fashion.
They met through a mutual friend, and made their first major public appearance eight months into their relationship at the 2023 Brownlow. As far as hard launches go in Australian sport, they don’t come much bigger.
Looking back, they’re grateful for the time they had to get to know one another away from the glare of the spotlight, which in the male-dominated world of football can be brutal at times. “A lot of the start of our relationship didn’t involve AFL at all,” Salmin, 31, says. “When we realised it was something serious, we were ready to bring our ‘worlds’ into it as well. [It made it easier] to handle what came next.”
Cue a grand final win for Collingwood that year, followed by regular red carpet appearances including the NGV Gala and the ARIAs. Indeed, they’re so busy that their Sunday Life cover shoot required months of planning.
It was a similar story with their first date, which followed weeks of texting. “It worked out that … we were both in Melbourne for one day,” says Moore, 30. “It was weird, because we’d never met, and it was like, ‘See you on January 11’ – and this was in late November.”
One glass of wine turned into four hours of conversation. “I told [my flatmate] that was the best date I’ve ever been on,” Moore recalls. Still, more travel and training meant the slow burn continued. “We had both been single for a long time – me, my whole adult life – so we were both pretty slow and calculated at the start. We didn’t rush into anything.”
This intentionality seeps into everything Moore and Salmin do, whether they’re reading or browsing secondhand furniture and record stores. Travel is another way they reconnect – this summer they visited Thailand, Dunsborough in Western Australia, and Indonesia. “We put our phones away, and we don’t go on socials, and we just read … I’ll read a book, and then give it to Darcy, and he’ll read it,” Salmin says. “Those moments throughout the year are such a nice way for us to be really present with each other.”
The pair also carve out time for regular “check-ins”. “Given the nature of Dee’s job, she was so well-equipped to have big conversations very early on, which I loved,” Moore says. “It was kind of intimidating at the start. I was like, ‘Wow, this girl knows so much about relationships and how they work.’ ”
Salmin was born in Perth, the eldest of three children of retired professional ballet dancers (her father later became a psychologist). After university, she landed a job at the ABC in Bunbury, before moving to Melbourne in 2019 to co-host The Hook Up, which covers topics including “Does height actually matter in dating?” (at 203 centimetres, Moore towers above Salmin), pelvic-floor health and Australia’s falling fertility rate.
She has also parlayed her experiences into a book, It’s Not Love, Actually, a “part memoir, part manifesto” for a Gen Z audience that’s due out on April 28. “It’s a dating book encouraging women to work on themselves and stop settling for less,” she says, adding that it was tough at times to draw on her own experience. “There’s a lot of stuff in there that was pretty hard to write.”
When she was 19, Salmin was involved in a car accident with her then-partner. She says their subsequent break-up led to her decision to remain single for most of her 20s. “[When I was young,] I was drawn to people who weren’t that great, and I got to a place where I decided I was going to be single for a while and just work on myself.” For the last three years, she swore off dating altogether, and at one stage thought, “I could be single for the rest of my life.”
Moore says he learnt a lot about relationships from growing up with three older sisters, and his parents’ divorce when he was a child (his father is Collingwood great Peter Moore). “I’m kind of grateful that I wasn’t old enough to remember their relationship breaking down in the home,” he says. “It definitely didn’t make me feel strongly either way about marriage and divorce. Maybe I’m a bit more of a realist when it comes to that sort of stuff. That’s what happens sometimes – relationships break down.”
After he and Salmin started dating, it was listeners of The Hook Up who first suspected she had met someone when she stopped sharing as many dating stories on air. But it wasn’t until the Brownlow that she fully appreciated the enormity of dating an AFL superstar. “It was just such a full-on time,” she says, adding that she received a warm welcome from across the club.
Soon, the trolling began, first over Salmin’s appearance – she once described her personal style to Sunday Life as a mix of “beach, slutty grandma, BCF and eshay” – then their sex life and living arrangements, especially after she told listeners of Yumi Stynes’ podcast, Ladies, We Need to Talk, in 2024 that she and Moore lived separately to avoid falling into “hetero-dynamic learned behaviours”.
On the muggy January day we’re meeting for lunch at a Collingwood cafe, they have just celebrated their third anniversary. Salmin is gushing about her gift from Moore: UK musician Jorja Smith’s 2023 album Falling or Flying. Salmin, who wears a silver ring engraved with “Darcy”, says the album’s title track symbolises the start of their relationship. “It reminds us of taking a leap … it’s like the beginning stages of falling in love.”
And there’s some more personal news. After a conversation spanning six months – there’s that intentionality again – they took another leap and moved in together last year. Macey, Salmin’s nine-year-old cat (black and white no less), was part of the package deal. “We had lots of conversations about what [living together] would look like and how it would work, and it’s been really fun,” Salmin says.
So what’s been the biggest surprise about living together? Moore says it’s seeing the dedication that Salmin shows her work, rising frequently at 5am to write before clocking on at Triple J. Salmin says she’s impressed by Moore’s cooking. “That’s where I see [him] light up the most,” she says. “And him learning to DJ has been …” she adds, breaking into fits of laughter.
On a more serious note, Moore says Salmin now has a front-row seat to “the losses, the injuries, the fatigue, the toll of being an athlete. In a weird way, it’s been good for me to be able to share that because often [as captain] I have to be the source of strength and stability and calm. To be able to show her the real and challenging part of it has felt really nice.”
As for life beyond football and Triple J, both want to travel (he loves the snow, she loves the sun). Moore is also keeping his post-playing career options open thanks to two degrees, including a master’s of international relations from Melbourne University. Meanwhile, the pair are using their profiles to speak to young people and on podcasts such as Teach Us Consent on issues around masculinity and gender expectations.
For now, to borrow an old footy cliché, they’re happy taking things one week at a time. What seems obvious is that they will approach the future with the same deliberate focus of the past three years, continuing to debunk outdated stereotypes.
“Dee doesn’t define herself in relation to me,” Moore says, referring to the old “WAG” archetypes that historically defined sporting relationships. “She’s a very formidable, accomplished person in her own right. Together we have a really beautiful relationship that’s really special and we’re really proud of.”
Listen to Dee Salmin on Triple J’s The Hook Up via the Triple J app.
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