AFL’s homophobic culture issues are ‘deeply embedded’ in the sport

This week, former West Coast Eagles defender Mitch Brown came out as the first current or former openly bisexual male player in the AFL’s nearly 130-year history.

He said there were times in his life and career in the AFL when he stayed silent due to the “fear of people thinking that I was gay or bisexual”.

Brown will forever be etched into the game’s history, but experts, advocacy groups and fans who have been pushing for systematic change say this is not a time for celebration.

Instead, they say it’s an opportunity for self-reflection.

“Our commitment is to keep making football an inclusive and welcoming environment for everyone to thrive,” wrote AFL CEO Andrew Dillon in response to Brown’s announcement.

But the AFL has not kept the sport an inclusive place and homophobia is its biggest issue, said Dr Erik Denison, a behavioural scientist at Monash University who has studied homophobia in the sport.

He said the AFL’s issues surrounding homophobia were “deeply embedded”.

In 2014, the AFL signed a framework on national television to become a world leader in efforts to stop the pervasive homophobic language used at all levels of the game.

Eleven years later, that same organisation spent three days deliberating the fate of Crows star Izak Rankine for using a homophobic slur against a Collingwood player.

The AFL entertained “compelling medical submissions” from Adelaide before handing Rankine a polarising four-week suspension that left the door slightly ajar for him to pull on the jersey this year if the Crows lost the qualifying final but made it to the grand final.

“We still have more work to do and we are committed to that,” AFL general counsel Stephen Meade said following the ban.

But Dr Denison said he “couldn’t really point to anything” the AFL had done to drive change in the 11 years since it committed to combat homophobia.

“I don’t think it’s time for the AFL community to be congratulating itself, sort of saying ‘job done, here look at us, we finally have an openly gay bisexual player’,” he said.

“This is an opportunity for the AFL to drive long-overdue change to culture and behaviour at all levels of the game.”

‘Homophobia permeates every square centimetre’

Rankine’s slur was the sixth publicised incident of homophobia within the AFL in the past year-and-a-half.

Dr Denison said the problem lay within how normalised homophobic language had become, used as “day-to-day interactions” that he compared to “ritualistic bonding behaviour”.

“Hyper masculinity and homophobia permeate every square centimetre,” he said. 

Collingwood defender Darcy Moore said the league has an ongoing issue with homophobia.

“Clearly, the amount of on-field incidents over the last few years shows we do still have an issue,” he said.

In the opening introduction to the AFL’s inaugural LGBTQI+ action plan document released in 2024, CEO Andrew Dillon said, “the game of AFL has not always been a safe space for LGTBQI+ people”.

Moore, who is the current AFL Players’ Association president, said it’s time to make “the game safer and more inclusive for everyone”.

“We want to see action, we want to see policy change, we want to see systems thinking about shifting it, for sure.”

Never a space to feel safe, even at local level

In an interview with The Daily Aus, Brown described the AFL’s culture as “hyper-masculine”.

“There was never once an opportunity to speak openly or explore your feelings or questions in a safe way,” he said, adding that the weight of hiding his sexuality played a big part in his decision to retire at 28.

The former defender said the homophobia was pervasive and that one teammate said he would rather be in a cage full of lions than have to shower next to a gay man.

“There’s been so many times in my life that I’ve seen things or heard things and not said anything, in fear of people thinking that I was gay or bisexual,” he said.

Dr Denison said he “would expect the AFL to apologise to Mitch [Brown] for not creating a safe environment for him to play his sport”.

“Mitch [Brown] was describing that he retired from the AFL, he says, because of wanting to escape this culture; he realised it was really unhealthy,” he added.

And it doesn’t just happen at a professional level.

Amateur football player Michael O’Donnell said the culture begins at a local level and was ever-present in the sport when he grew up before he came out.

“Even as a 13-year-old, when I knew sort of who I was as a person, I looked around and thought, look, I’m not in a place that would accept me if I did come out,” he said.

“It was a language, it was the way people spoke, not just around the football in a club culture, but in the crowds, in the media,” Mr O’Donnell said, who currently plays for UNSW’s Eastern Suburbs Bulldogs in Sydney.

Mr O’Donnell said that Brown’s announcement was an “opportunity for reflection and education for so many people”.

“It’s not just a lesson for his teammates, hopefully it’s a lesson for current AFL players, both of the local level and the professional level, to see the damage these sorts of comments can make.”

Queer woman Sarah Pepper, who played football at various levels spanning almost a decade, said that local football clubs were a breeding ground for homophobia.

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“There is such a stereotype of what a male AFL player is expected to look like and act — and that is ingrained in the roots of local men’s football.”

She said there was no point trying to “work from the AFL down” and instead, change needed to occur from a grassroots level.

“There’s no point trying to work from the AFL down; you’ve got to work from local up, because that’s where that toxic image develops in their minds.

“If you fix anything at its root, you fix the problem.

“All people should be able to play the sport and not feel like they can’t because they don’t fit the norm of what is currently expected in the male sporting world.”

Dr Dennison agreed, claiming that players were “using this language to conform and belong and be part of the group”.

“A player doesn’t wake up in the morning and think, ‘I’m going to use homophobic language today or sexist language’. They go into the club environment and they’re often mimicking each other.”

AFLW more inclusive and supportive

Unlike the AFL, a large percentage of players from the AFLW are part of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Former AFLW great and commentator Kate McCarthy said it was because the league was introduced after many of the players were already out and happy to identify as queer.

“I was happy with who I was as a person, and then I was playing AFLW,” she told Triple M’s Rush Hour with James Brayshaw and Billy Brownless.

“We had already come to that realisation ourselves, and weren’t thrust into the spotlight and had to try and work out whether we told people or not: we just were.”

A dedicated Pride Round was introduced in the AFLW in 2021. There is still yet to be a Pride Round introduced in the men’s game.

Problems can’t be fixed with just education modules

Dr Denison said as the behaviours were socially caused, “you need social solutions”.

This season, the AFL launched a new LGBTQI+ education module that all players and officials were required to complete to combat homophobia.

ABC Grandstand commentator Corbin Middlemas said to his knowledge, a lot of players do not complete the module as intended.

“Speaking to some former players … a lot of the answers to those modules get shared in a WhatsApp group, essentially the players click through to the end, put in the answers and off they go,” he said.

“Is that the best way forward?

Players use harmful homophobic language to confirm and belong, Dr Denison said.

“That’s why you can’t fix these problems with education training modules or posters,” he said.

“That has no effect on the social dynamics in the club environment that are causing these behaviours.”

Brown’s former West Coast Eagles coach Adam Simpson said that he had reflected this week on how he, the club and the league treat the issue of homophobia.

“You think you’re going OK, but there’s always improvement,” he said, adding that everyone in the league should take time to reflect.

“That’s why we’ve all evolved — it’s generational as much as it’s education.”

The AFL and the AFL Players Association have been contacted for comments.