Before today, the AFL had gone 129 years without a male player, past or present, ever publicly identifying as gay or bisexual.

That changed when former West Coast Eagles player Mitch Brown sat down with TDA. For the full story, head to today’s two-minute section.

We will also be releasing the full interview on The Daily Aus podcast in two parts on Thursday and Friday.

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The number of changes the Penrith Panthers have made to their side ahead of Thursday night’s match against the Bulldogs. The Panthers can no longer finish in the top four after losing to the Raiders on Friday night. As a result, coach Ivan Cleary is resting the team’s best players this week ahead of the final round of the season and finals.  

“It’s with a heavy heart I have to announce that I will not be competing at this year’s world championships in Tokyo due to a progressing injury.”
Australia’s fastest man, Lachie Kennedy, in a social media post announcing that he has had to withdraw from the athletics world championships next month. In June, Kennedy became the second Australian to break the 10-second barrier in the 100m. He has withdrawn due to a stress fracture in his back. Another of Australia’s top hopes, Olympic walking medallist Jemima Montag, has also pulled out of next month’s event due to a hamstring injury.

The first sporting event to be televised was the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Seventy-two hours of Olympics coverage was shown live in viewing booths called "Public Television Offices" in Berlin and Potsdam. The first broadcast showed Jesse Owens winning the men’s 100m sprint. 

🏉 The Gold Coast Suns will take on Essendon tonight in the final match of the AFL regular season. A victory for the Suns would propel the club to its first-ever finals series since joining the competition in 2011. A win for Essendon, who are 15th on the ladder and out of finals contention, would see the Western Bulldogs remain in the top eight. The fixture was originally meant to be played in the Opening Round but was postponed due to Cyclone Alfred. 

🎾 Alex de Minaur eased past fellow Australian Chris O’Connell in straight sets to begin his 2025 U.S. Open campaign. Meanwhile, Alexei Popyrin beat Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori, and Tristan Schoolkate upset Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego to join de Minaur in the second round. In the women’s draw, rising star Maya Joint scored her second career grand slam win with a victory over Andorra’s Victoria Jiménez Kasintseva in straight sets, and Ajla Tomljanović was knocked out by American world number three Coco Gauff in a hard-fought three-set battle. 

⛳ The men’s winner of golf’s Australian Open will now receive automatic entry into the Masters, making it one of six national Opens whose winners earn a place at Augusta. The change is a boost for the tournament, which has struggled in the past to attract high-profile players. The 2025 men’s Australian Open is set to be held at Royal Melbourne in early December and will be headlined by this year’s Masters champion, Rory McIlroy.  

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Ahead of the Dutch GP this weekend, Cadillac has unveiled its drivers for its debut Formula 1 season in 2026. 

Two F1 veterans, Mexico’s Sergio Pérez and Finland’s Valtteri Bottas, will spearhead the team. 

Here’s what to know. 

Cadillac is an American F1 team backed by automotive giant General Motors. It will become the 11th team on the grid in 2026. 

Pérez and Bottas, both 35 years old, have 527 race starts, over 100 podiums and 16 wins between them. Both drivers lost their positions in F1, Pérez with Red Bull and Bottas with Sauber, at the end of last season. This season, Bottas has been a reserve for Mercedes. 

Cadillac’s team principal will be British businessman Graeme Lowdon.

Bottas said: “This isn’t just a racing project; it’s a long-term vision. It’s not every day that you get a chance to be part of something being built from the ground up and helping shape it into something that truly belongs on the F1 grid.”

Perez said: “I’m proud to be part of such an ambitious and meaningful project from the very beginning. Together I believe we can help shape this team into a real contender.”

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In 129 years of AFL, no male player, past or present, has ever publicly identified as gay or bisexual. 

Today, that changed with former West Coast player Mitch Brown, who played 94 games for the Eagles from 2007-2016.

Brown sat down exclusively with TDA to tell his story. 

Brown and his identical twin brother Nathan were drafted to the AFL in 2006, when they were 17: Mitch to West Coast with pick 16, Nathan to Collingwood at pick 10.

His career was marked by two ACL reconstructions that cost him entire seasons. In 2012, he won West Coast's Chris Mainwaring Medal, an award given across sporting codes to the individual who makes the most outstanding contribution to a club, both on and off the field. 

Brown played 94 games for the Eagles before being delisted in 2016.

Brown described a culture of "hyper-masculinity" in the AFL that made questioning sexuality impossible. He recalled sitting in a massage room next to six teammates when the topic of gay players arose.

"I remember two people having a conversation around how they would feel having a shower next to a gay man, and one of the players said, 'I'd rather be in a cage full of lions than have a shower next to a gay man,'" Brown said.

Over his career, Brown said "countless" homophobic comments were directed at him on the field — not because teammates suspected his sexuality, but because calling someone gay was considered the ultimate insult.

In 2023, former AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan said the first male player from the code to come out would carry a “burden”. 

While acknowledging the easier position of speaking out as a retired player, Brown felt compelled to take on that burden.

"I'm in this position strong and comfortable to, as Gil McLachlan says, take the burden. And if someone needed to do it, I'm in the space to do it."

His message to current players who are closeted is simple: "I see you and you are not alone."

Brown's decision to speak out came in the context of ongoing homophobic incidents in the AFL, including Adelaide Crows player Izak Rankine's recent four-match suspension.

"What matters to me most is a sense of change, a movement created where you can be anyone and feel like you can be anyone and be safe in any environment here in Australia,” he said. 

He called on the AFL to celebrate positive role models rather than just punishing bad behaviour.

"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, the ones who are walking down the street and portraying positive male role models all the time."

Reporting by Sam Koslowski, Emma Gillespie, and Orla Maher.