Footy great Brendan Fevola reveals why the AFL has never had an openly gay player: ‘It’s so sad’

Footy legend Brendan Fevola has blamed the AFL for not being accepting enough as he declared it’s ‘sad’ no past or present gay players have felt comfortable enough to come out.

Speaking on Fox FM’s Fifi, Fev and Nick for Breakfast radio show, the host said he was confident he played with or against gay footballers at some stage of his career.

‘Obviously, I played AFL. I would have played with someone who was gay, probably,’ Fevola said.

‘It doesn’t bother me, each to their own. Obviously, there is gay footballers out there, but no footballer in our code has ever come forward to say they are gay.’

The Blues’ seven-time leading goalkicker also questioned why athletes in different Aussie sporting codes have seen players come out of the closet – but never in AFL.

‘It’s happened in other sports. In soccer, in NRL… why do you think that a player can’t come out and say they are gay?’ Fevola asked.

‘It’s so sad.’

The Blues great then shared his admiration for Aussie basketball star Isaac Humphries, who made history when he came out in 2022.

‘I remember about two years ago Humphries, who played for Melbourne United – a basketballer – he came out to his teammates and they filmed it and it was one of the most powerful speeches,’ Fevola said.

‘You’d think if a footballer saw that, they’d take that and think, ‘Maybe that could happen to me” … but you don’t think that the footy world would accept that.’   

Fevola’s view comes as TikTok identity Scott O’Halloran opened up about his previous long-term relationship with an AFL star.

O’Halloran revealed his former romance with the sports star on this week’s episode of his podcast Luke and Sassy Scott.

He explained the pair dated for ‘three to four years when they were both in the closet’ but their relationship ended because of ‘toxicity and homophobia.’

‘I had a relationship that lasted about three to four years with an AFL football player, who no longer plays AFL,’ he said.

‘I think I loved him. I don’t know if he loved me. We enjoyed one another’s company and confided so much in one another, when we were both in the closet.’

O’Halloran described their relationship as ‘beautiful’, but admitted they were terrified about their romance going public.

‘But then there was this other side where we could scratch the surface of him being an AFL football player and a legend of the game and how scared he was to ever be found out for who he was, because of the homophobia in the game.’

He continued: ‘The toxicity and homophobia is what ended our relationship. 

‘It was too much pressure on him. It was too much pressure on me.’