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Collingwood captain Brianna Davey was 16 when she came out.
With hindsight, that is something she might have done earlier had there been an AFLW when she was growing up.
"Before footy, I played soccer with the Matildas and there were definitely queer women in that space," Davey said.
"So I was exposed to it, but I think from a societal point of view, where pride was really something to celebrate and not to sort of keep under wraps or a little bit more quiet, I don't remember seeing a lot of that.
"I do think if there was sort of more awareness back when I was thinking about my sexuality, and sort of battling with it a little bit, that would have made that a little bit easier."
It is in part why the league's annual Pride Round is so important to Davey. This week the round coincides with Davey's 50th match, as the Pies take on Port Adelaide at Alberton Oval.
"Hopefully if there is someone young that does want to come out, if their family is watching or they may be scared to come out to [them], maybe they'll learn something through watching our Pride Round," Davey said.
"And then it makes it even easier for the person coming out from that perspective."
Emma Kearney and Darcy Vescio in 2018 ahead of the Blues and Bulldogs clash that launched the celebration of pride in the AFLW. (Getty Images: Michael Dodge)
The first dedicated pride game in the AFLW was in 2018 between the Western Bulldogs and Carlton, with the official league-wide round starting in 2021.
While wildly embraced every year since, GWS' Haneen Zreika made headlines for choosing to sit out the round the last two years due to religious reasons.
Other major Australian sporting codes have struggled with issues around Pride and dedicated games or rounds.
Seven Manly Sea Eagles players boycotted one of their matches in 2022 over their team's decision to wear a gay pride jersey and a year later the Cairns Taipans opted not to wear the Champion Pride Round jerseys due to a "barrage of abuse".
St Kilda and Sydney are the only men's side who participate in a Pride Round and there has never been an openly gay male player in the AFL men's.
Hayley Conway, CEO of Pride Cup, said women's competitions engaging in pride can have ripple effects within the clubs, community and on male leagues.
"Simply by including LGBTQ people in those clubs, in their W teams, what we're seeing is that clubs are being forced to reckon with the parts of their culture that were exclusionary to women or exclusionary to LGBTIQ people," Conway said.
Loading..."You know, because they are also workplaces for those players. So by the AFL ensuring this round goes ahead, it's pushing those clubs to make sure that they're creating safe work environments … that also then have a positive effect on the administrators and the people who govern the game and on the players in the men's competition."
According to data from Pride Cup, 185 community teams participated in a Pride Cup or Pride Round event this season across Australia.
These rainbow celebrations are also coupled with education and a commitment to cultural change, added Conway.
"That's what we want to see, a real commitment to cultural change and education at every level of the game, within every club, not just celebrating people as a marketing ploy."
In community sport, a recent survey by Swinburne University of Technology found more than half of LGBTQ people witnessed some form of gay, bi, or transphobia, while 40 per cent reported first-hand experience of discrimination.
Conway said there are also very real and legitimate concerns for the safety of LGBTQ people at elite men's competitions.
Pride Rounds provide somewhere they can go to "actually feel safe to be a part of sport and to celebrate and be a member of a club".
"People say 'we don't need this, don't shove it down my throat' and those are people who don't recognise that like being straight is basically treated like … that is the only 'normal' way to be. And I use that in inverted commas," Conway said.
"And so for as long as it is something that is considered unusual to be LGBTQ, that is how long we will need pride celebrations."
'Acceptance, understanding and awareness'
Geelong's Rebecca Webster and Hawthorn's Tilly Lucas-Rodd ahead of last season's Pride Round. (Getty Images: Dylan Burns)
Along with the celebrations — every club notably has a special Pride guernsey they don each season — the education element is equally important.
Davey said queer people within elite sport, including fans, still face adversities, including prejudice online.
"We're in sort of a little bit of a limelight, especially around Pride Round," Davey said.
"So I've been able to sort of filter what I read, but also be able to park things pretty quickly, whereas, you know, someone young seeing that or somebody who is battling or dealing with their sexuality, or even a player who might be, that sort of stuff can be pretty hard to read."
Adding to this, former Melbourne premiership player and now Essendon defender Maddi Gay said although the league and clubs embrace pride well, there is still a lot of necessary learning to be done within the space.
All 18 clubs have different people come in and give talks or run education sessions each year, such as Minus18 at Melbourne or CEO of Stand Up Events Angie Greene at Collingwood this season.
"For probably the older generation, just educating people on Pride Round as they're doing it [is important]," Gay said.
"It's really just people learning, even what all the different types of genders there are. I'm still learning myself. I probably didn't know as much coming in."
Hawthorn former captain Tilly Lucas-Rodd came out as non-binary in January 2023, following Carlton star Darcy Vescio and former Gold Coast player Tori Groves-Little.
"So many of my teammates have shared that sentiment with me, they've said that I've helped educate them, that I help them feel more comfortable asking questions," Lucas-Rodd, who won the club best and fairest in 2022, said.
"And that's really important for me, because people need to be educated. So I take great pride in that. Knowing that I've helped educate my teammates and shared more information with them and like what it is like for me [being non-binary].
"They said that's just within the Hawthorn realm, too, whereas they assume across the whole competition people would have learnt a lot from the non-binary players' experiences and gained more "acceptance, understanding and awareness".
Lucas-Ross added they have seen different players across different teams start to use they/them or she/they on social media, which is a good sign people are getting more comfortable within the competition to be who they are.