‘Narrow-minded for 2026’: How a local footy Pride game fell apart

A football club in Melbourne’s northern suburbs withdrew its support for a Pride celebration, leaving the club divided and the senior women’s team to hold its own unsanctioned event.

Coburg Districts Football Club, in the Essendon District Football League, refused to endorse the Pride game despite granting the women’s team permission for the celebration at the start of the season, according to three sources not prepared to be named because of the sensitive nature of the issue.

According to the sources, the reason given to the women’s team changed multiple times, before the club eventually told them that the Pride event on June 13 clashed with the official unveiling of the club’s redeveloped facilities at Cole Reserve Oval in Pascoe Vale.

“I think it’s narrow-minded considering it’s 2026,” said the women’s team’s senior coach Gavin Wray-McCann, who expressed disappointment at the decision.

“This club has been fantastic and has put so much into their women’s program, they’re forward thinkers, so this has really thrown me.”

Coburg Districts has not been accused of homophobic behaviour.

But at the elite level, the AFL has been battling to eliminate homophobia from the game, handing out nine suspensions to eight players for homophobic slurs in the past two-and-a-half seasons. Sydney recently decided to replace St Kilda as their opponent for their annual Pride game after young Saint Lance Collard was suspended for the second time for using a homophobic slur.

Local clubs are encouraged to hold themed rounds, including Pride rounds, in accordance with AFL guidelines for community football.

Themed activities and uniforms have to be approved by the league.

A June 5 post from the women’s Instagram page, which is separate from the club’s, invited the community to celebrate their Pride game but was later deleted.

“We are doing this for those that don’t feel comfortable being themselves who play football or any sport and they haven’t got a safe space to be themselves,” the post said.

“For every LGBTQIA+ person who has ever pulled on a footy jumper and wondered if they truly belong.

“You belong here. You have always belonged here. This team will continue showing up for you. Come down wear your rainbow and stand with us.”

A caption at the bottom of the post said the event “was not officially endorsed by Coburg Districts Football Club”.

Two days earlier the club had posted an invitation to the official opening of their new facilities, with speeches and a plaque unveiling to be held.

The women’s team was told not to wear Pride uniforms or invite LGBTQIA+ gr