{"id":106254,"date":"2025-08-30T07:52:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T07:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/106254\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T07:52:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T07:52:09","slug":"mitch-brown-coming-out-is-an-opportunity-for-afl-to-shift-culture-on-homophobia-darcy-moore-says-afl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/106254\/","title":{"rendered":"Mitch Brown coming out is an opportunity for AFL to \u2018shift culture\u2019 on homophobia, Darcy Moore says | AFL"},"content":{"rendered":"

The AFL industry needs to use Mitch Brown\u2019s coming out<\/a> as an opportunity to \u201cshift culture\u201d and genuinely tackle homophobia, the AFL Players\u2019 Association president Darcy Moore says.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Brown, who played 94 games for West Coast, became the first past or present men\u2019s AFL<\/a> player to come out as bisexual.<\/p>\n

No AFL player had previously come out as gay or bisexual.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirstly it was just tremendously courageous,\u201d said Moore, the Collingwood captain.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such an inspiring story for him to be so open and so brave like that. I think it\u2019s so important.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot to learn from Mitch\u2019s story and for him to share that is a real opportunity for us going forward to shift culture and see some change in the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly the amount of on-field incidents over the last few years shows that we do still have an issue and as a Players\u2019 Association we\u2019ve been advocating for a long time to work side by side with the league to help move the needle on homophobia in the game and making the game safer and more inclusive for everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m confident that with these recent events we can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s announcement came days after Adelaide star Izak Rankine was banned<\/a> for four matches for using a homophobic slur, the latest of several such incidents in recent years.<\/p>\n

Darcy Moore speaks during the 2025 AFL Awards in Melbourne. Photograph: Michael Willson\/AFL Photos\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Moore acknowledged that as AFLPA president he needed to support and advocate for all players in such situations, including Rankine.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the end of the day it\u2019s very, very clear when a red line is crossed and what is right and what is not welcome in our industry,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty emphatic that homophobic slurs are not welcome in our industry. In that sense, it\u2019s pretty clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore wouldn\u2019t be drawn on whether the AFL environment was safer now than when Brown was playing between 2007 and 2016.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhat I think is really important is answering the call a little bit to move the needle on culture,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s on all of us to make the industry safer.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a Players\u2019 Association we\u2019re going to keep working with the AFL to do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to see action, we want to see policy change, we want to see systems thinking about shifting it for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore\u2019s Magpies teammate Jack Crisp hoped Brown\u2019s actions could help more players be themselves going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been the only sport globally that didn\u2019t have someone who was bisexual or gay to come out and speak publicly,\u201d Crisp said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably a big weight on the shoulders, and now that Mitch has done that it\u2019s awesome and it\u2019s going to be great to see what happens in this space in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only going to be for the best. It\u2019s fantastic for him to speak up and do that and it\u2019s going to make a lot of other people feel comfortable, I guess, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The AFL industry needs to use Mitch Brown\u2019s coming out as an opportunity to \u201cshift culture\u201d and genuinely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-106254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}