Christie Leppitsch, the wife of Brisbane Lions coach Justin Leppitsch, lamented the bad side of social media at a networking lunch on Thursday.
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Leppitsch, part of a panel at the club's inaugural Women of the Pride lunch, said the advent of social media could be a double-edged sword for her.
High-profile athletes and coaches are regularly the target of Twitter trolls and Leppitsch said it made it hard.
"Honestly I'll tell you. I found it very hard. Very, very,very difficult.
"Social media has given some very angry, mean people a voice and I had to turn off from that .
"That's the part about football is you're part of a family. We want the football club to be so successful, I want my husband to be successful.
"When you're out there and you're seeing on social media people wanting to fire him (Leppitsch) every day and saying these cruel things every day and saying cruel things about players.
"We've come to know these people personally and I go, 'how dare you write that about this young boy?'. 'Who do you think you are?'
An avid user of Twitter, Leppitsch lauded the possible positive impacts of social media as well and encouraged group members to remain upbeat.
"Please keep being that voice of positivity in this world of people who can hide behind anonymity in being negative," she said.
Leppitsch was part of a four-woman panel at the lunch that included long-time Lions football administration manager Nicole Duncan, women's AFL draftee Emma Zielke and Wendy Andrews, the mother of Lions youngster Harris.
Epic Pharmacy Group managing partner, Cathie Reid was the keynote speaker at the lunch.
Christie Leppitsch and Lions director Sarah Kelly established the Women of the Pride this year, with the group far exceeding an initial membership target of 150 women, surpassing 500 earlier this month.
Awesome to see a full room of 240+ for the inaugural #WomenOfThePride Lunch - inspirational @cathiereid speaks soon pic.twitter.com/h2cBBdLL2e— Brisbane Lions (@brisbanelions)
May 28, 2015
