PRIDE Round returns to the AFL Women’s for the final weekend of Season 8. The annual fixture has become an important one for players, clubs and fans alike. While Round 10 has plenty of ladder implications, for a couple of finals-bound players, it meant far more.

For Crow Jess Waterhouse, it is a round to share the stories of the community and celebrate people with all different backgrounds. 

“For me it’s a round where we’re able to tell stories of individuals we have within the AFLW space and just celebrate that diversity that we have in our game,” Waterhouse said. “It gives an opportunity to share stories that we all may and especially for those that can’t so we can be the voice for other people.”

Roo Tess Craven said the weekend a chance to celebrate what the AFLW is for a lot of people, which is a truly safe place.

“The AFLW in general is a very inclusive space but Pride Round is a special celebration as well,” she said. “I see it as pride in your own club and pride in who you are as well. I’m very proud to be a North Melbourne player, but I’m also very proud to be a gay woman.”

Craven said the round was important for the LGBT+ community in particular.

“It’s a round where you can identify with who you are and feel proud of it, you don’t have to feel like you are burdening people by saying ‘oh I’m a part of this community’,” she said.

“You can just say this is my community, these are my communities and I’m proud to be a part of them, and I think it really celebrates the place that AFLW has become for so many people which is a bit of a refuge for inclusivity and diversity.

“It also probably embodies everything that AFLW is really good at showcasing, which is love and respect and diversity and being proud of who you are regardless.”

Both Waterhouse and Craven believe that the AFLW having a Pride Round is important not just for the AFLW, but the wider football community and society as a whole.

“I think Pride Round is important for many different reasons,” Waterhouse said.

“I think because we’re on that public platform so if we do feel comfortable to share our stories and be loud and proud of who we are. It’s a voice to those people that aren’t ready to share or younger people or likeminded people that are in the LGBT space and resonate with us.

“I think it is important to showcase diversity within the AFLW space and it give the players a chance to share their stories and play for something bigger than footy.”

Craven believes the AFL Women’s has done a great job with creating a “very accepting place of minorities” which may have felt otherwise excluded.

“I think that’s something we’ve really grown to foster and Pride Round is just another thing to show, it’s not only to show acceptance but to show genuine pride in the people in the AFLW who are LGTBQ+,” Craven said.

“It’s not just we accept them we’re proud of them, we’re proud of what our community has done for them and what people from that community have done for us. I think it’s really important because sometimes things can go unspoken, but sometimes it’s important for things to be spoken.”

Pride Round is not just important for the LGBT+ players in the competition, it is an important round for those who are allies to the queer community.

For Dee Tahlia Gillard, the round is important because the large platform the AFLW and football in general has can be used in such a positive way.

“I feel like footy’s such a universal cultural sort of thing in Australia, so I feel like it gets a lot of recognition and a lot of eyes on it,” she said. “I feel like there will be a huge target audience watching and it allows people to become educated and learn more about Pride Round and what it means to people.

“It’s a great way for people to become educated and learn because the AFL and Melbourne, are such big organisations, it attracts a lot of eyes and it becomes a lot wider all across Australia.”

Saint Maddie Boyd shared similar views to Gillard.

“I think it’s just a good platform to represent those people, and provide that recognition and sense of belonging in that space,” she said.

Both players have learned a lot from the inclusion of Pride Round in the fixture.

“It helped educate me a lot more about those groups of people, inclusion and what people can actually go through if they’re not supported. I think that’s been the biggest thing, getting educated,” Boyd said.

“I feel like most recently I learned that people look up to us and a lot of people in that community feel isolated or not included and it’s a lot more than just wearing these guernseys,” Gillard said.

“People can look up to us as role models and know that it is okay and that there is change happening and whether it’s just starting in the AFL. I feel like it’s going to grow a lot more across Australia and I think anyone is going to feel more included and that we are role models to these people.”

Pride Celebrations in the AFLW have grown a lot in the eight seasons of the competition’s existence, from a single match between the Bulldogs and Blues to a full-scale round.

Bulldog Gabby Newton is proud to play at a club that has been one of the forerunners when it comes to Pride in the AFLW.

“It’s amazing that there’s a full round where everybody gets to play in a Pride game,” she said. “We’re very lucky that we get to host it this year. We have an amazing Bulldogs Pride group, it’s something that’s very close to our hearts so we’re so excited to host again this weekend.”

Hawk Tilly Lucas-Rodd has been in the competition a long time and has also seen the full evolution.

“Obviously I was really fortunate to be at Carlton when there was just the one Pride game against the Bulldogs, so I was in the very first Pride game, and I guess that’s the evolution in itself,” they said.

“There was only one game and two teams involved and now it’s across the whole league, so I think that’s naturally meant evolution in terms of the amount of education and the media that’s come out, and I think that’s really powerful to be able to reach a broader audience rather than just the two clubs, and that’s something I’m really proud of is that it’s across the whole league and I really think that’s great evolution.”

The AFLW’s 2023 Pride Round, also the final set of home-and-away fixtures, gets underway on Friday night as Gold Coast hosts Essendon at Great Barrier Reef Arena.