{"id":728777,"date":"2026-06-11T03:10:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T03:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/728777\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T03:10:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T03:10:25","slug":"kane-evans-comes-out-as-gay-roosters-coach-trent-robinson-admits-club-could-have-supported-him-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/728777\/","title":{"rendered":"Kane Evans comes out as gay, Roosters coach Trent Robinson admits club could have supported him better"},"content":{"rendered":"

June 11, 2026 \u2014 11:54am<\/p>\n

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Roosters coach Trent Robinson says Kane Evans\u2019 emotional coming out as gay has been a source of pride and reflection for his club given his former player didn\u2019t feel comfortable enough to do so during his playing career.<\/p>\n

Evans became just the second player to come out in professional Australian rugby league this week, after delivering a confronting interview on Nine\u2019s 100% Footy that detailed his battles with alcohol, substance addiction and suicidal thoughts<\/a> while wrestling with his sexuality.<\/p>\n

The former Tricolours back-rower said Robinson had been instrumental in his recent recovery and paid four weeks of Evans\u2019 rent out of his own pocket after he had been homeless. The Roosters have also helped finance Evans\u2019 ongoing mental health treatment after a stint in a rehabilitation clinic.<\/p>\n

But Robinson deflected any praise on Thursday and instead focused on why Evans had felt he needed to hide his sexuality<\/a> during a 74-game career at the Roosters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really proud of the club, but we still had a guy here for six years that didn\u2019t feel open enough to say that he was gay while he was here,\u201d Robinson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of positivity coming towards Kane, and then even towards us, but we\u2019re still not at a place where somebody can come out while they\u2019re playing.<\/p>\n

\"RoostersRoosters coach Trent Robinson has been a key figure in supporting Kane Evans.Kate Geraghty<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so the reflection for me has been that we do things to support our players and former players, and we try and do our best, but have we got the complete right environment? I think we can be better.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there has been positivity this week, and there should be towards Kane because he\u2019s the brave one. Towards us, I think it should be a reflection on how do we do better.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Former<\/a><\/p>\n

Asked how rugby league changes for the better on Thursday, Robinson said: A step forward for me would be that\u2019s all I\u2019ve tried to sort of reflect on is why didn\u2019t [Evans] feel comfortable [with his sexuality] at the time?<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd some of that\u2019s personal with Kane, but some of that\u2019s the environment we create.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just need to create an environment where somebody can be themselves, so they know that they\u2019re going to be accepted, that the language we use in clubs is in the right way, the way that we interact, and the way that we casually reference each other is in the right way.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd hopefully whoever is out there that feels really comfortable in their environment can do what Kane did, at a young age, and not feel the pain that Kane and others have felt for a period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you are worried about your own or someone else\u2019s mental health, you can contact the Mental Health Line on 1800 011 511 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.<\/p>\n

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\"DanDan Walsh<\/a> is a sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.\"BillieBillie Eder<\/a> is a sports reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"June 11, 2026 \u2014 11:54am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-728777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728777","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=728777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}