I Went To My First AFL Pride Game With The Sydney Swans & What I Felt Really Surprised Me

On a Friday night, I ventured to the Sydney Cricket Ground to watch thirty-six sweaty men in cute uniforms run around and tackle each other (otherwise known as the AFL). The Sydney Swans were hosting the Western Bulldogs in what football aficionados tell me was Round 17 of the 2026 AFL season. It also happened to be the Swans’ 10th annual Pride Game.

Of course, that meant three things: rainbow fire, countless pride flag cupcakes, and parade of technicolour smoke cannons. The 50-metre lines arching across either side of the field had even been turned into rainbows. Nice touch. 

I had never once associated the AFL with anything LGBTQIA+, and given the league doesn’t currently have any out gay players, I was surprised to see my community so boldly represented. 

But what I truly didn’t expect was to catch myself howling at the moon when Swans midfielder Chad Warner sent a running banana whizzing right through the goal posts. Twenty minutes prior, I hadn’t even known what a “midfielder” was. 

Like many queer kids, my relationship with sport growing up was… complicated. Though I played rugby and boasted a mean tackle, I was always the first to throw myself off my opponent. “No homo”, and all that fun stuff. On the field, I was celebrated for my size and ferocity. Being gay, on the other hand, wasn’t a matter of pride. 

Twenty years later, football and I were meeting again. If I’m honest, the lead-up felt a bit nerve-wracking. While Sydney Swans fans will be the first to tell you AFL and Rugby Union are totally incomparable games, seeing the field again felt a bit like a reunion. 

Immediately, the passion in the air was palpable, and not just in the stands. I soon discovered even the urinals were positioned with a panoramic window view of the field. “Can’t be missing a second, aye?” the gentleman beside me chuckled. 

An old feeling I had long forgotten emerged: comradery. I remembered what it felt like to be part of a team. And yet, part of me was still waiting for a rude intrusion from my childhood. A side-eye, an underhanded comment about the “tacky” rainbow decor, or worse still, a homophobic slur.

Only, it never came. Instead, I saw teammates in pride jerseys lifting each other off the ground. I saw a six-year old kid yell, “you’ll get ‘em next time Errol!”, frantically flapping a rainbow fan with the Sydney Swans insignia on it. 

I saw a world where love of the game doesn’t have to compete with the love we should have for ourselves. 

“To wear a jersey that represents a community bigger than just the football one, or the club, I think it’s really important,” said Swans star Chloe Molloy. “And it spreads a message wide and far that we’re all human at the end of the day and no matter how you identify you should do what you love, and for a lot of us, it’s football or sport.”

Elite ruckman Brodie Grundy echoed this message, arguing that pride in AFL shouldn’t be confined to a single game.

“[These are] conversations that we need to be having internally as a football club, and as a society as a whole all the way throughout the year,” Grundy said. “[It’s about how] we can be allies and ultimately make society and our football clubs safe places for people to […] just love the footy, come, barrack hard, and feel safe to do so.”

We of course still have a ways to go, to tackle homophobia in Australian sport communities. But I will say this: thanks to the Sydney Swans and the AFL’s Pride Round, you might just catch me at the AFL again very soon.