Gay AFL Players Want To Avoid The Pressure Of Being The First To Come Out, Says CEO

AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan said that there are gay players in the AFL who are not coming out to avoid the “pressure of being the first” to do so.

McLachlan spoke at a Leadership Matters lunch in Perth on Monday, comparing the AFLW to the AFL, reasoning that the numbers of out players in the women’s league was due to them having “safety in numbers”, reported The Age. 

There are currently no men’s players in the AFL who have come out to the public as gay. 

Ian Roberts was the first and only NRL player to be openly gay. Additionally, former Newcastle Jets player Andy Brennan became Australia’s first professional male footballer to come out as gay while still active in his career and A-League player Josh Cavallo came out as gay in October 2021, after “fighting with my sexuality for six years”. 

Gay AFL Players Are Out To Teammates

McLachlan said that he was “very comfortable” to know that there were gay male players and that they were “known to their teammates” 

He explained that the gay male players who were out to their teammates were choosing “not to be the first person” because of the “pressure and weight” that would follow the first AFL player who comes out to play as an “out gay man”. 

“That weight, frankly I can understand why they would choose not to have to carry that burden around forever,” McLachlan said. 

Pride rounds are yet to be introduced in AFL 

AFLW Pride Round

While the AFLW’s pride round was introduced in 2021 and has been welcomed by many, the AFL does not have one. There is an annual pride game between St Kilda and Sydney’s men’s teams, but there are no plans in place to introduce a Pride round across the league yet. 

Swans AFLW general manager Kate Mahony recently spoke about how both the women’s and men’s programs at clubs were accepting environments.

Mahony told Fox News that one of the main goals for the AFL was to ensure that they were creating an environment where people felt comfortable enough to be themselves. 

“We’ve got a really diverse group of young women in our program and I’m really proud of that”, she said. 

AFL Pride Round

In February this year, Tanya Hosch, AFL’s general manager of social policy and inclusion, said all 18 clubs had embraced pride round in the AFLW. 

“There are a number of themed rounds in the men’s competition, such as [the] Sir Doug Nicholls [Indigenous] Round and Anzac Appeal Round, which promote really important national conversations and causes,” said Hosch.

“We’re committed to the themed rounds we have across AFL and AFLW but that doesn’t mean a pride round in AFL won’t be considered in the future,” she added.