Gay AFL players Are ‘All Over’ The League, Claims Eddy McGuire

No elite AFL male player has ever come out as gay yet, but former Collingwood President Eddie McGuire insisted there were many gay players and no one cares. 

ABC Four Corners recently probed into AFL culture and what it called the ‘last taboo’ in the game – out gay male players. 

Former players told ABC about the anti-gay bigotry that still persists, despite the AFL committing to weed out homophobia in sport. 

ABC journalist Louise Milligan posted on social media that she had been moved by the “bravery, decency and honesty” of those who had spoken to Four Corners “on why no elite AFL male player has ever publicly identified as gay. It’s a difficult conversation many in Footy now acknowledge must be had.”

‘No One Is That Interested’

McGuire however had a different take, telling Daily Mail that no one in the AFL cared whether players were gay. 

“I don’t think anyone in football cares. I don’t think anyone thinks that there are no gay footballers or that there has never been,” McGuire told the publication. 

“We have homosexual players all over the clubs these days, particularly in the women’s league one is that interested,” added McGuire. 

McGuire, journalist and TV presenter, stood down from his post as President of Collingwood club after he faced criticism for his handling of a report about systemic racing in the club.

‘Carry That Burden’

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. 

“I am very comfortable there are gay male players and I am very comfortable… they are known to their teammates,” McLachlan said at a Leadership Matters lunch in Perth in April.

“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 added.