When former National Rugby League (NRL) player Kane Evans opened up about coming out as gay in a raw, vulnerable public interview this week, the praise quickly rolled in for Sydney Roosters head coach Trent Robinson, who has supported Evans through his years of inner turmoil. But the veteran coach has rejected the accolades, instead using the moment to challenge the sport to confront an uncomfortable truth: men’s rugby league still has not created a safe, inclusive environment where current players can be open about their sexuality.\n\nEvans, who spent six seasons with the Roosters before moving to other clubs, shared his decades-long struggle with denial in a primetime interview on the football program *100% Footy* on Monday night. The 31-year-old revealed that hiding his identity had left him suicidal, describing the crippling mental toll of staying in the closet throughout his professional playing career. He is only the second professional men’s rugby league player to ever come out as gay.\n\nWhile Robinson has stepped up to support Evans post-retirement — covering four weeks of his rent and paying for his mental health care alongside the Roosters organization — the coach made clear Thursday that this private support is not enough. Speaking to reporters, he questioned why Evans never felt safe enough to share his identity during his six years playing at the club.\n\n“I’m really proud of the club, but we still had a guy here for six years that didn’t feel open enough to say that he was gay while he was here,” Robinson said. “There’s a lot of positivity coming towards Kane, and then even towards us, but we’re still not at a place where somebody can come out while they’re playing. The reflection for me has been that we do things to support our players and former players, and we try and do our best, but have we got the complete right environment? I think we can be better.”\n\nRobinson pointed to a stark gap between public perception and lived reality within the sport, noting that statistical logic makes it clear there are far more LGBTQ+ players currently competing in men’s NRL who remain closeted. While women’s rugby league has seen far more openness around sexuality, the same has not held true for the men’s game, a divide Robinson says demands urgent reflection.\n\n“I’ve tried to reflect on why he didn’t feel comfortable at the time. And some of that’s personal with Kane, but some of that’s the environment we create,” he said. “And we need to create an environment where somebody can be themselves, where they know that they’re going to be accepted, that the language we use in clubs is in the right way, and the way that we casually reference each other is in the right way.”\n\nHis call for change has been echoed by other leading figures across the league. South Sydney Rabbitohs captain Cameron Murray, currently in camp with the New South Wales Blues State of Origin side, offered unwavering support to Evans, praising his courage in speaking out and hoping his story will pave the way for other closeted players.\n\n“That would have been a really hard thing to do, and I think he’s been pretty vocal and open about his mental health struggles and what he’s had to go through,” Murray said. “Someone like me, I could never understand what he’s gone through, but he’s got all my respect. I think there’s a lot of chatter about the statistics of the NRL and how that doesn’t really marry up with the statistics of the general public (with the number of gay men). Hopefully, he can be a role model and a leader for anyone else in that position and he gives somebody else the confidence to feel a little bit more confident in who they are and to accept who they are.”\n\nEvans’ announcement comes as NRL clubs have increasingly prioritized mental health outreach, rolling out new initiatives to encourage players to open up about personal struggles. But Robinson warned that the sport has not yet done enough, pointing to stubbornly high suicide rates among people hiding core parts of their identity as proof that incremental change is insufficient.\n\n“We’re heading in the right direction, but suicide rates are still very, very high because they don’t feel comfortable enough,” Robinson said. “We are better, we are doing things, we are saying things, but are we creating that environment where anybody – it doesn’t matter whether it’s being gay, having a religious belief, political belief – is our place safe enough and comfortable enough where we look after everybody and then we play tough footy on the back of it? That’s our role.”\n\nRobinson emphasized that he does not expect overnight change, but he hopes Evans’ bravery will spark a collective reckoning across the sport. He rejected any suggestion that the current system should be celebrated for supporting Evans after he came out post-retirement, arguing the goal should be to create a space where players never have to suffer in silence in the first place.\n\n“I think we should take it that we saw a really strong man do something that others haven’t felt comfortable to do, and hopefully that leads to other people feeling comfortable,” he said. “But we have to do better. We can do better than what we’re doing, and we’ll strive to do that.”’
‘We have to do better’: Trent Robinson’s powerful response to Kane Evans’ announcement
