Abbey Holmes

**Abbey Holmes** is a contestant from *Australian Survivor: Champions v Contenders* (2019) and *Australian Survivor: All Stars*.

Initially a member of the Sporty Seven alliance on the Champions tribe, Abbey, along with Ross Clarke-Jones flipped on the alliance as they felt socially closer to the minority alliance. Following the tribe switch, she remained in a comfortable power position with her closest allies Janine Allis and Pia Miranda in a tight trio and continued to work with them as part of a larger Champions alliance that controlled most of the merge votes, until she decided to blindside Simon Black and then decided to eliminate Janine shortly thereafter. However, after making a final three deal with the two remaining Contenders at the final five, Luke Toki decided to target her for being the biggest challenge threat left by using an advantage and convincing her to unintentionally vote herself out of the game in memorable fashion.

In *All Stars*, Abbey adopted a far more conservative strategy, opting to align with the challenge beasts and take out the social threats early on, gaining control over Mokuta. However, once switched to Vakama, Abbey was reunited with rival Shonee Fairfax, whom she had previously sent to Exile Beach. Although seemingly aligning with the original Vakama alliance, they instead chose to side with Shonee, blindsiding both Abbey and her alliance.

## Profile

*Retrieved from 10play.com.au*

* All Stars

**AFL Premiership Winner, 28**
One of the biggest stars in Women's AFL, Abbey has become a key figure in the AFLW following a huge season with the Adelaide Crows.
Abbey is the first woman to kick 100 goals in a season as a star forward and midfielder. She is a regular broadcast presenter and has started her own active wear range.
Splitting her time between Melbourne and Perth, where her boyfriend Keegan Brooksby plays for the West Coast Eagles, Abbey is also a Real Estate Agent by trade, but sport has been her great love since a child where she was an avid Netball player.
With no major female role models in AFL growing up, Abbey is a proud ambassador for the game and loves inspiring girls to give it a go saying she was always told she wasn't good enough and it drove her forward.

Saying she was always intrigued by watching *Survivor*, she decided this was the year to push herself and see how she would go saying; "I loved the series last year and thought it would be an unbelievable challenge and experience. I hate the feeling of 'content' and I am always looking for new challenges."
**28, AFLW Premiership Winner — Season 4**
The physical threat in the Season 4 trinity with Pia and Janine, Abbey is back for All Stars and ready to take things to the next level.
Working closely with her teammates last year, Abbey is hoping to find her next Pia and Janine alliance but knows it won't be easy to recreate saying; "I learnt so much more about people and the game when you actually play it, so having another opportunity to play is huge. I had an amazing time last season with Pia and Janine that it's going to be strange doing it without them but I'm going to build rapport with as any people as I can."
"My strength is my strength and physical abilities. But I am also social, and being an old real estate agent, I am going to work hard to play the social game." As one of the biggest stars in women's AFL, Abbey has spent the short year between two Survivor seasons keeping her strength up and working out how she'd play the game differently.

## Australian Survivor

### Champions v Contenders

Originally in the majority Sporty Seven alliance, Abbey sought more of an active role in the decision making. She did not have that in her current alliance due to Steven Bradbury dominating the strategy, and Abbey also grew closer to outsider David Genat. This relationship, along with wanting to target Susie Maroney, prompted Abbey to join Ross Clarke-Jones in flipping on the Sporty Seven. The new majority alliance consisted of David, Luke Toki, Janine Allis, Pia Miranda, Ross, and herself. It was not an easy transition though, as Steven criticized her decision to flip and called it "weak", which Abbey was hurt by and started to break down. Fortunately for Abbey, her allies came to her aid and defended her, which angered Nova Peris, believing Abbey misconstrued what Steven said and made it a bigger deal than it should've been. Abbey received her first votes that night at Tribal Council on Day 10 from Nova and Steven, but her new alliance stayed firm and voted out Nova. The Champions ultimately lost 5 of the 6 pre-switch Immunity Challenges, and while this six-person alliance stayed strong throughout, Abbey and the other Champions women became wary of David as his personality changed and overconfidence built as the alliance gained power. Voting out ET Ettingshausen on Day 14, whom she looked up to when growing up, was a particularly hard decision for her.

Abbey remained in a good position after the swap being in the majority of the new Template:Dab tribe and supported Janine as she and strategic rival Harry Hills targeted each other. Unfortunately for the original Champions, back-to-back Hidden Immunity Idol plays foiled their plans of getting him out. Abbey even threw a challenge in an attempt to eliminate him, which she struggled with due to her athletic background and competitive nature. When the Contenders lost the Day 28 Immunity Challenge, Abbey was unsure about Janine's idea to blindside fellow athlete Simon Black, but things took a turn for the worse as her good friend and ally Ross was medically evacuated.

Abbey entered the merge as part of the reformed Champions alliance of six that managed to turn the Contenders against each other early on. However, as they Pagonged the Contenders, Abbey, Pia, and Janine waited for the right time to finally blindside David. That opportunity came when Luke won immunity on Day 34. David had an idol but was confident that his alliance was splitting the votes between Daisy Richardson and Harry. In reality, everyone but Luke contributed to an 8-2 David blindside. During this time, Abbey emerged as a force in challenges by winning a new car on Day 31 and a group reward in a team challenge with Janine on Day 35. After David's vote out, the Champions went back to targeting the Contenders, and the Contenders tried to take out Abbey as she was seen as too close to Pia and Janine. Due to Luke's stray vote toward Harry, Abbey was caught in a 4-4-1 tie on Day 36 and needed a revote to stay in the game. Abbey was left out of the spa reward that Daisy, Pia, Janine, and Simon went on, and she and Luke considered working with Harry and Baden either the upcoming or following vote. Abbey ultimately made her second major flip of the season on Day 40 to send Simon to Template:Dab due to a twist. That new four-person alliance voted out Simon again, for good this time, the following Tribal Council.

Pia and Janine were very hurt by Abbey since the three had worked together for the entire game up to that point. Abbey stood by her decision, claiming she couldn't win the game with her original allies receiving more credit for their moves. Though there were talks of becoming "Champions strong" again, Janine was seen as the biggest threat. On Day 44's Tribal Council, Luke and Abbey acted as if they were flipping back to their original alliance, only to set up a Janine blindside by a 4-2 vote. The following Tribal Council, Pia appeared to be the clear target. However, Luke used a twist to send Baden Gilbert back to camp before the vote and whispered a new plan to both Pia and Abbey, making it look like Harry was the new target. Abbey believed this and voted for Harry, while Harry still voted for Pia, leaving Luke and Pia to blindside physical threat Abbey in a 2-1-1 vote. Abbey became the 7th member of the jury where she eventually voted for Pia to win.

#### Voting History

**^1** In "Episode 9", the Contenders were subjected to a mock Tribal Council where the Champions voted for someone to kidnap.
**^2** In "Episode 12", Harry used a Hidden Immunity Idol, negating Abbey's vote against him. Also, the vote ended with a 2-2-0 tie between Matt and Pia, forcing a revote. Abbey changed her vote to Matt on the revote.
**^3** In "Episode 17", the vote ended with a 4-4 tie between Abbey and John, forcing a revote. On the revote, Abbey did not receive enough votes to be eliminated.

### All Stars

Like in her first season, Abbey found herself in a strong six-person alliance early on in the game consisting of the more athletic Mokuta members: John Eastoe, Lydia Lassila, Sharn Coombes, Lee Carseldine, and Zach Kozyrski. Another notable challenge performer in Henry Nicholson was excluded due to his erratic gameplay but remained affiliated. Abbey and Lydia led their alliance in taking out their initial targets Shane Gould to fulfill Lydia's revenge request and Michelle Dougan who was considered a liability in challenges. Abbey claimed she wanted to surround herself with shields so that she would not be voted out in a similar fashion as before. However, as her alliance gained power, Abbey stood out as a leader. Abbey developed a rivalry with Shonee Fairfax due to Shonee appearing to be the next weakest tribe member. The athletic alliance split the vote between Shonee and Henry on Day 12, with Shonee's Hidden Immunity Idol sending Henry out of the game. Abbey became even more laser-focused on Shonee afterwards, and despite her alliance's best attempts to shift the target to Zach, it appeared the majority was solidified. However, an Exile twist made it so the top two vote earners would be sent to Exile Beach rather than eliminated. This would apply to both Shonee and Zach, reducing Abbey's alliance to five members.

A Tribe Switch occurred the following day in which the two exiled players rejoined the remaining players and Abbey ended up on Vakama with five original members of each tribe. However, included within that five were rivals Harry Hills and Shonee and allies Lydia and John. Abbey hoped the original Vakama contingent would take out Shonee, again insisting she was the weakest link. However, they instead sided with Shonee and Harry and voted out Abbey on Day 16.

#### Voting History

 5 | Henry

**^1** In "Episode 6", Mokuta was subjected to a mock Tribal Council where the two players who received the most votes were sent to Exile Beach.

## Post-Survivor

* In 2023, Abbey competed on the fourth season of *SAS Australia: Who Dares Wins*.

## Tribal Council

### Total votes received:

17

* Abbey is the youngest member of the original Champions tribe.

## References

1. ↑ https://10play.com.au/australian-survivor/participants/season-4/abbey/pa190721mqafl
2. ↑ https://10play.com.au/australian-survivor/survivors/season-5/abbey/pa200203ieoxj
3. ↑ https://7news.com.au/entertainment/tv/stephanie-rice-craig-mclachlan-cassie-sainsbury-peter-bol-among-2023-sas-australia-recruits-announced-c-9951573