Life now looks quite different to the year of 2008 for Fremantle defender Ash Brazill, who came out to her netball teammates at the time in the NSW Swifts.
Brazill touched on her journey as the first openly gay athlete in netball, to teammates Hayley Miller and Emma O’Driscoll on the Club’s AFLW podcast, Rollers and the Rockers.
Piecing together the stereotypical netballer back then, Brazill said she was the opposite to what someone would expect of a netballer at the time.
“Since I was a little kid, I was always different,” Brazill said on the podcast.
“Netball has definitely changed now, but growing up as a kid, netball was the 'girly sport.'
“You were straight if you played netball; you had the blonde hair, the pink ribbon, and I was everything but that.
“It probably wasn’t until I got into the elite level that I was like, ‘I’m definitely not the stereotype of netball’, and that was probably the year where I was trying to figure out who I was sexuality-wise.”
The cross-coder shared her vulnerabilities, revealing the mental struggles she went through during the process of discovering who she was.
“I wasn’t comfortable in myself, I didn’t want to be gay, and I didn’t want to be known as the gay netballer, and that was the first year I got my contract,” Brazill said.
“It was this whole evolution of ‘who am I, what do I want to be.’
“I was pretty upset, and I remember I’d cry the whole way to training like bawling my eyes out.
Beyond the personal mental battle Brazill had to work through, she touched on other factors that would seem unimaginable to some in today’s world.
“My parents as well thought if I was to ever get contracted and they found out I was gay, I would lose my contract. I’m going back, like I was a professional netballer for 15 years so it’s not like how the world is today,” Brazill said.
“I even had players (and) coaches tell me, ‘it’s just a phase Braz’ because it was just not a thing.
“It's completely different now, which is great, but you can’t be what you can’t see and I think that was probably the hardest thing.”
Brazill expressed while she was not considered the stereotypical netballer, netball was her happy place where she felt a sense of freedom.
“I was the first out netballer ever, internationally as well so it was huge,” Brazill said.
“I guess I was lucky that I was young, I had my parents support (and) they just wanted me to be happy.
“I was 17 or 18 and I wasn’t trying to be different, I was just trying to be me and be comfortable.
“At the same time, as much as I was different, netball was my safe place because for an hour a week I got to play netball and be judged on my ability, not my sexuality and I could just be free.
“I knew I was loved because of my performance, and I didn’t want that to change.”
Fremantle will don their 2024 Pride Jumper in their week 7 match against Carlton on Saturday afternoon, which were designed by Fremantle’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Working Group.
The jumper has the Fremantle chevrons acting as the lines of connection at the Club, bringing everyone together, tied together by the anchor to represent acceptance, unity and equality.
