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Neighbourhood > Guest Character Profiles > Mandi Rogers Sabina Lokic

Mandi Rogers 1997-1998
Occupation: Swimmer

After arriving in Erinsborough to stay with her brother, Ben, aspiring Olympic swimmer Caitlin Atkins headed straight to the local pool to join the swim team, where she made friends with fellow swimmer Mandi Rodgers. Coach Simon Butterworth saw that their new friendship was benefiting their training times, as they had taken to competing in the water, and so he encouraged them to spend time together. The pair quickly became best friends, though Mandi often took a back seat for Caitlin’s attention, as she quickly became besotted with neighbour Billy Kennedy, who had been swimming a lot to fight his asthma and who Caitlin encouraged to join her on the swim team.

Meanwhile, when Mandi’s family moved to Geelong, her parents agreed to allow her to continue training in Erinsborough, since it was such a good team. But when she missed the train home one night and was forced to spend the night at Caitlin’s place, they were furious and told her to quit the team and find one nearer to home. Unfortunately, during her night at Caitlin’s, Mandi was talked into sneaking out to a club, which only made things worse when Ben caught them coming home and, the next morning, took Mandi straight to the train station. When Caitlin found out that neighbours Madge and Harold Bishop were thinking about fostering, after a spell looking after exchange student Claire Girard, she decided to try to convince them to take in Mandi, but they ended up taking in young Paul McClain instead.

Since Billy was already dating Anne Wilkinson, Caitlin had a fight on her hands to win him. When Mandi, Caitlin and Billy went to compete in a swimming contest in Sydney, Caitlin saw her chance and swooped on Billy, who had been fighting with Anne before the trip. Although they kissed, he realised that it was Anne he wanted, but Caitlin wasn’t beneath resorting to dirty tactics, including the time she “accidentally” got locked in the changing rooms with Billy, having roped in Mandi to lock them in together. Unfortunately, Mandi wasn’t quite as manipulative as her friend, and as soon as Anne came looking, she unlocked the door. Over the months that followed, Caitlin’s attention was grabbed by new swim team member Josh Hughes, and she drifted apart from Mandi.

Biography by Steve

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