Footy's very deep in the Newman blood.
My name's Nic Newman, I'm 24, I play for the Swans.
I'm Joshua Newman, I'm 22, I've played footy my whole life.
I played football all my life as well, and my father and my my mother's father all played at a high level of football.
My family's pretty obsessed with AFL.
I think we were always destined to take it on as a sport.
It's been part of our blood forever and a day, so yeah.
It's a great part of our life.
My name is Maverick Newman, I'm 19 years old.
And I do not play football.
Well I can tell you about every single Broadway play
Dad, I'm trying to tell ya that I am
gaining skills to help me become a star, on old Broadway.
Was I disappointed with Maverick when he decided not to play football?
I just guess it's an adjustment, you know, for me to have three boys
and one of them gay, it's just an adjustment.
I was put in footy just because that's what boys in our family did.
We went into Auskick and then junior football and then
hopefully try and get into AFL.
But, I got to Under 14s maybe, and then, stopped.
I do have a little bit of resentment towards the AFL, not so much anymore.
But definitely when I was 17 I hated, hated footy.
The things that were said to me, poofter, faggot and homo...
I felt the need to escape.
And so I don't give a fuck about the AFL, and the macho culture.
Maverick traded the footy field for fancy pianos and falsetto.
But he didn’t abandon the family obsession entirely
he chose to stick his boot into it instead
in the form of a one man cabaret show.
Finding Felix is in a way, my coming out, coming of age story.
I'm definitely taking the piss out of AFL culture.
I mean there are a lot of great things about sport but
it's underlined with sexism and homophobia.
It's disappointing and it's a shame that amount of people
don't feel welcome coming to the footy.
But I think it's a small population of people that sort of ruin it for everyone.
Tonight, the AFL are putting on a one-off Pride Game in attempt to shift homophobic attitudes.
It's the Swanies versus St. Kilda.
This community is so welcome at the Sydney Swans.
Tonight we're expecting over 36,000 people at the game
and I can tell you, if it wasn't for you, it wouldn't be 30,000 people.
So it's absolute credit to the Rainbow Swans and everything that you stand for as a group
It gives them a safe environment where they feel welcome to come.
They don't like they're going to be threatened or judged, and that's the main thing.
But not everyone agrees that the LGBTQI community are welcome here.
I hope it’s not taken as a tokenistic sort of offer.
Everybody should just be left the way that they are.
I think there's enough going around with gay people.
I don't think it’s really needed, personally.
And changing attitudes like that is now a personal mission for the Newman men.
I remember when I first came out, it was something that I had grown up fearing...
hoping that I would never be gay.
I just remember being lost, I just remember being so lost
in the footy community and I just wanted love from my parents.
When Maverick came out as gay when he was 17
you know as a parent, it is a bit challenging.
You grow up, thinking that your kids are going to have wives and children so
that's what you think of, because that's what
we've grown up with and that's what we've seen.
I worry for him, that people don't treat him like a normal person.
Because at the end of the day he's a person.
Having your brother openly gay sort of does make you
think of the things he has to deal with
and you hear some other guys, people say it in the crowd...
You sort of think 'How'd you feel if that was said to your brother?'
And that sort of thing.
I want him to be able to come to the footy
with his partner, and feel safe and not threatened.
He had that theatrical side from a young age
and you'd give him a little push in the backyard and he'd be jumping around
screaming and start crying, and you'd get in trouble.
Mum would be having a go at you and then he'd be in the background going...
And like faking it, so we had these signs of a drama queen early on.
Mav has definitely broken the mould.
Felix, you're gay and that is 110% fine.
There we go.
What, you have to work an extra 10% harder to be okay with it?
You know what dad, you know what?
The Pride Match, it's so important to me.
Because it's validating me, as a person, as a gay young person
in a community, in an environment that
I've never really felt comfortable in, or that I belonged to.
Now it’s one thing to put on a game celebrating the LGBTQI community
but Nic says what will go a long way
to curbing homophobia on the field for good is a player coming out.
You do hear rumours and stuff
and inside the four walls of footy club, everyone would be pretty supportive.
I think the bigger issue is what the general public would feel
and the fans, and how they would react.
Within the AFL I think people have definitely found it difficult to come out.
Statistically, it shows that there should've been someone in the AFL
and there should've been someone in the AFL that is gay and hasn't come out.
But until the rumours become fact
Maverick will continue taking his fight for a more inclusive sporting culture
to stages across the country.
I would like to hope that by sharing my story
and our family's story that
something can come of it to suppress homophobia.
When I sit around and look at photos of when the boys were kids
I feel really proud and happy and lucky
and feel very fortunate they've grown up to be really good kids
and happy kids, and doing what they love.