Former West Coast player Mitch Brown shares an intimate kiss with a male pop star in a provocative new music video, while raising questions about whether the AFL is truly a safe place for gay players to come out.
The 37-year-old features as Australian artist ANDY’s romantic interest in the video for Can’t Wait, alongside rugby league pioneer Ian Roberts in a pointed exploration of sexuality and sporting culture.
In one scene, Brown kisses the singer on a football field. In another, he sprays blue electrolyte drink into ANDY’s mouth.
Brown, who came out publicly as bisexual in August 2025, said the role represented a dramatic shift from the scrutiny he worried about during his AFL career.
“I spent so much of my playing career being conscious of what I said, how I behaved and what people might assume about me, and now I’m on a footy field – although a different code – kissing another man for a music video,” he said.
“There’s a nice full-circle feeling to that.”
Former West Coast footballer Mitch Brown kisses a male pop singer in a steamy new music video and questions whether the AFL offers a safe environment for gay players to come out.
Brown played 94 matches for West Coast from 2007 to 2016, keeping his sexuality private throughout his time in the AFL.
Since then, he has emerged as a prominent advocate for inclusion. His latest creative project has also prompted him to question the culture of the professional sport he once played.
In an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, Brown highlighted what he sees as a contradiction in sport: physical contact between men is routinely accepted, while same-sex attraction can still create unease.
“In sports … you are putting your bodily fluids all over each other in the huddles and tackling, and that is like spit, and you’re sharing a drink bottle,” he said.
Brown said he would be surprised if AFL players or clubs publicly backed his involvement in the music video.
He also questioned whether the AFL’s current approach gives players enough confidence to speak honestly about their sexuality.
Brown is in a relationship with Lou Keck, who he has said supported him after he came out as bisexual in August 2025.
“Do I think the AFL and the clubs are providing a safe place and have the systems in place for a gay person to speak up? Well, if I’m going by the statistics, I would say no … I’ve been one of them that played and remained closeted. There is a broader issue at play here.”
The Can’t Wait video centres on a younger version of ANDY, whose real name is Andy Cook, as he struggles to understand and express his sexuality in a boys’ locker room.
Cook and Brown later portray opposing captains who kiss, while Roberts appears as an enraged football coach.
“It’s ‘yeah the boys’ meets ‘kiss the boys’,” Cook said.
Roberts, who came out as gay while playing for Manly in 1995, said taking part in the project was an obvious decision.
The former Australian Test prop said sporting environments continued to carry the damaging belief that attraction to men somehow made a male athlete less strong.
‘To be attracted to other men if you’re a man is almost feminised somehow,’ he said.
Cook said former NRL player Kane Evans’ coming-out story helped inspire the project, and he deliberately brought together people of different sexualities for the cast.
‘That’s why when I cast the music video, I didn’t just want it to be a locker room of queer people; it needed to be straight people, gay people, a whole boiling pot of people who are showing up authentically as themselves, and that doesn’t take away from anyone,’ he said.
While Cook acknowledged the video could divide audiences, he said watching the intimate scenes back had been an emotional experience.
‘Honestly, when we filmed them and watched it back for the first time, you could hear a pin drop,’ he told Rolling Stone Australia.
‘I think everyone could feel that we were commenting on something very real, very raw and very beautiful.’
For Brown, the visibility has also highlighted how isolated he can feel when pushing for change within football.
‘In terms of being a man and standing up for a better AFL culture, it’s quite lonely. It’s extremely lonely. It makes you feel like the AFL men’s players don’t care sometimes because you’re just, like, where are your voices?’ he said.