AFL Sits Out As Women Players Celebrate Pride Round
Image: Kiera Mueller, Eloise Jones and Teah Charlton wear Adelaide FC's 2023 Pride Round guernsey. Image: Adelaide FC.
The rainbow flag took centre stage as AFLW celebrated the fourth edition of its annual Pride Round last weekend, even as AFL remains non-committal about introducing a Pride Round for male players.
Pride Round matches were held across the country from November 3-5. All 18 AFLW clubs wore specially designed Pride guernseys. The rainbow colours were not limited to players, with AFL field and boundary umpires sporting rainbow-coloured sweatbands and goal umpires swapping their white flags for Pride flags.
AFL’s official ball, the iconic Sherrin, sported the rainbow for the first time.
Tackling Homophobia In Sport
Tanya Hosch, the AFL Executive General Manager of Inclusion and Social Policy, emphasised the significance of Pride Round, calling it one of the most important rounds on the AFLW calendar.
“The AFL is proud of its commitment to build, celebrate, and strengthen inclusion and diversity in our game. We know we are on an ongoing journey to being more inclusive, and we know it contributes to making our game stronger,” Hosch said in a statement.
Hosch pointed to research indicating that 80% of participants in Australian sports have witnessed or experienced homophobia. “As a sport, we need to do our part to change this. We want everyone in and around our game to join us in celebrating LGBTQI+ diversity this weekend,” said Hosch.
‘Pride Round Send A Powerful Message’
Pride in Sport National Program Manager Beau Newell commended the AFLW for its commitment to LGBTQI inclusion and the positive steps it has taken.
“While there is always more that can be done across all sports, through their partnership with Pride in Sport, the AFL continues to demonstrate positive steps in creating a more inclusive sporting environment that celebrates diversity and welcomes everyone. Holding the AFLW Pride Round is a powerful message to Australia that everyone is welcome, fans and athletes alike, just as they are,” Newell said.
AFL announced that it would donate its portion of Pride Round merchandise royalties to LGBTQI-led organisation Minus18, and national suicide prevention hub HERE.
The AFL male players are yet to sign on to the Pride Round, except for the annual Pride game between St Kilda and Sydney Swans. Jesse Wardlaw who plays for the ST Kilda AFLW team expressed hope that male players would soon follow in the footsteps of women players and organise Pride Rounds.
In September, former Collingwood President Eddie McGuire insisted there were many gay players and no one cared whether they were gay.
Earlier this year, AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan acknowledged there were gay male players in the AFL, but they did not want to be the first to come out.
“What they are choosing is to not be the first person. “The female cohort (AFLW players) came out at once, they had safety in numbers. There was no first… So the pressure and the weight on that person being the first AFL player who comes out and plays 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 at a Leadership Matters lunch in Perth in April 2023.
