In a sport where hard tackles are applauded and softer feelings are sometimes swept under the Astroturf, former AFL player Mitch Brown has just made a play that could change the game forever. No, not a 60-metre torp or a last-minute goal—but something far rarer and braver: truth.
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Brown, who played 94 matches for the West Coast Eagles between 2007 and 2016, has publicly come out as bisexual, becoming the first openly gay or bisexual male player in the AFL’s 129-year history. That’s right: 129 years. Not a single openly queer man in the league—until now. Even cricket beat them to it. Cricket.
“I played in the AFL for 10 years for the West Coast Eagles, and I’m a bisexual man,” Brown told The Daily Aus in a direct message, prompted by recent coverage of homophobic incidents in the league. Just casually rewriting history via DMs—iconic.
Brown’s revelation is equal parts powerful and overdue, like a glitter bomb going off in a dusty locker room. For a code that’s been allergic to queerness (or even the possibility of queerness), Brown’s announcement hits different. This isn’t a PR stunt, or a self-congratulatory Instagram post in Pride Month colours. It’s an unfiltered, deeply personal truth served with clarity, context, and just enough quiet fury.
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“It was never once an opportunity to speak openly or explore your feelings or questions in a safe way,” he said, describing a culture of “hyper-masculinity” where homophobic comments were part of the background noise. “When I was growing up at school, the word ‘gay’ was thrown around constantly… For a man in Australia, [it was seen as] probably the weakest thing you could be.”
We’ve heard it all before—from friends, from coaches, from boys’ schools that confuse toxic culture with team bonding. But hearing it from a professional athlete who lived through it? That lands differently.
And it wasn’t just words. Brown recalled a conversation with teammates about sharing a locker room with a gay man:
“One of the players said ‘I’d rather be in a cage full of lions than have a shower next to a gay man.’”
Honestly, lions deserve better than that analogy.
So why now? Why come out after retirement, as so many athletes before him have done?
Because, in Brown’s words, he finally found “a feeling of peace… comfort and confidence” that didn’t exist when he was still wearing the Eagles’ jersey. Back then, he says, the weight of hiding his sexuality played a “huge” part in his decision to retire.
This is no small admission. It’s a declaration that the sport, as it stands, failed him—and is likely still failing others. Brown isn’t just telling his story; he’s demanding better.
“My advice to the AFL would be, let’s celebrate the players who may not be the most successful, but they’re the most important players in our community.”
Enter Erik Denison, a behavioural science expert at Monash University, who called Brown’s announcement “an historic moment for world sport.” He noted the AFL was the last major professional men’s sport globally to not have a publicly out gay or bi player—even post-retirement.
“Brown is taking a very different approach than other players in that he is being very open about the problems that need to change in his sport, at the grassroots, to make people like him feel safe.”
He’s not wrong. Visibility is great—but honesty about the harm done is even greater. Brown isn’t just planting a rainbow flag on AFL turf; he’s digging into the soil and pointing at the rot underneath.
Of course, Brown’s story also comes amid a wave of homophobic controversies in the AFL, including the recent four-week ban of Adelaide Crows’ Izak Rankine for using a “highly offensive” slur during a match. Brown didn’t skirt the issue.
He said he’d like to see a “sense of change” in the league through the lifting up of “positive male role models.”
You know, the kind of guys who show up, speak truth, and don’t treat the locker room like it’s 1953.
Brown’s personal life, as expected, has already stirred the usual round of confusion among the predictably boring: Yes, he has a female partner. Yes, he was married to former netballer Shae Bolton. Yes, bisexuality is real. Two sons, one truth. Sexuality doesn’t come with a pre-loaded playlist or a Pinterest board. It just is.
But perhaps the most powerful words Brown shared weren’t about him—they were about others like him.
“I see you and you are not alone.”
So simple. So necessary. And in a sport where no male player had ever dared say those words publicly—utterly groundbreaking.
The AFL might not be ready for this moment. Its culture certainly isn’t. But that’s the thing about change: it doesn’t wait for permission. It walks in anyway. Sometimes, wearing Eagles colours.
And Mitch Brown just kicked off.