Gay Pride Footy Forecast: Your weekly AFL preview from SA’s most diehard fans
In Gay Pride Month, a Rainbow Crows member prepares their drums for tonight’s clash and the Port Adelaide Queer Squad founder welcomes the return of her favourite player. Both calling for a AFL Pride round.
‘Another close one’ – Adelaide Crows’ Mat Monti
Mat Monti was “born into being a Crows supporter”, and joined Adelaide’s LGBTQIA+ supporter group the Rainbow Crows in 2018.
Since then, the Rainbow Crows member – who has gained a profile in recent weeks as the new Adelaide Park Lands president –has attended every home game wearing their lucky multi-coloured dreadlocks and led the chants as the cheer squad resident drummer.
“Once I joined, I haven’t looked back. It’s been great, and I’ve been getting more involved and served on the committee a few times now,” Monti said.
Monti assists the Rainbow Crows with organising fundraisers, social football events, quiz nights and watch parties for away games.
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Adelaide lost its previous match two weeks ago to Hawthorn by nine points in an arm wrestle in Tasmania.
Wayne Milera’s 32 disposals and Jordan Dawson’s 28 touches and a goal were the standout performances for the team, while star mid-forward Izak Rankine suffered a calf injury in the third quarter.
Monti said the middle two quarters were “pretty disappointing” but remained confident that the Crows were “not far off the mark”.
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“The fact that Hawthorn is one of the top teams and we only played two quarters of footy the way we wanted to play, and we were still almost able to pinch the win is positive,” Monti said.
“We were in a similar position on the ladder this time last year where we weren’t looking like minor premiers, and then we finished really strong.”
Adelaide will face Geelong for the second time this season on Thursday night at Adelaide Oval.
Geelong is fresh off a nail-biting and shock four-point loss to Carlton last Friday night, while the Crows are coming off a bye.
“If our current record is anything to go by, it’ll be another close one,” Monti said.
“But my feeling is coming off the bye we will be fresh and Geelong will be a little bit beaten up after their loss to Carlton. So, my hope is we’ll get over the line in a close one.”
Last time the two teams met, Crows lost by eight points with Geelong’s star midfielder Bailey Smith amassing 40 disposals and 10 tackles.
This time, Adelaide will be without full forward Riley Thilthorpe as he serves a one-week suspension for striking Hawthorn ruckman Lloyd Meek.
The Crows will also be welcoming debutant Hugo Hall-Kahan, touted as a stylish defender, just one week after he was taken with pick 10 in the mid-season draft from VFL club Williamstown.
“We will need a big game from Jordan Dawson, he’s the one that lifts the team when we’re not playing our best,” Monti said.
“I think Darcy Fogarty needs to step up and lead the forward line without Thilthorpe. When he has that forward line to himself, he has shown he can kick a bag.”
Monti said it was “well past time” for the AFL to follow the AFLW’s lead and to introduce a Pride Round.
“The only way we’re going to see real progress for queer supporters and queer players is to start doing proactive things,” they said.
“The AFL is starting to respond to things like uses of homophobic slurs on the field, but those are reactionary things, and that doesn’t help queer supporters feel included.
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“We need positive steps and positive promotion of queer inclusion in footy, and a Pride Round is probably the least that the AFL can do.”
Time for Pride Round – Port Adelaide’s Caitlin Smith
Longtime Port Adelaide fan Caitlin Smith is the founder of the Port Adelaide Queer Squad, creating a safe space for LGBTQIA+ supporters.
She was inspired to start the Queer Squad in late 2019 when she first saw a Sydney fan waving a pride flag in the Adelaide Oval crowd.
“I thought that was really cool and decided I wanted to do the same sort of thing, but I wanted to incorporate it with the Port Adelaide logo,” Smith said.
“I started waving the flag at games and got some fantastic feedback from other LGBT Port fans who really liked seeing that there were other gay supporters out there, and later that year we started the Queer Squad.”
Smith says she attends the games alongside her girlfriend and family members, even when the team is struggling.
This week, Port Adelaide is looking to make a sweep of positional changes following its latest 34-point loss to Carlton in Round 11, with Jack Lukosius set to make a move to the wing when he returns from a groin injury.
Jason Horne-Francis played a lone hand in the Carlton matchup, amassing 32 disposals, eight clearances and three goals.
Smith, who was on holiday in Moonta during the game, said she was “quite glad” her television reception kept cutting out so she “didn’t have to sit through all of it”.
Port Adelaide will head west to face the West Coast Eagles at Optus Stadium on Saturday night.
It is the second time the two teams will face off this year, with the Power suffering a shock two-point loss to the Eagles at Adelaide Oval in Round 3.
“That two-point loss to West Coast at the start of the season still really stings. They beat us at our home grounds so hopefully, we can beat them at theirs,” she said.
“Mitch Georgiades needs to have a big one. He’s great at getting the ball but he must get it through the big sticks.
“You’ve always got to have Jason Horne-Francis and Zak Butters up and about, because when they’re playing well the team plays well.”
Smith is eagerly awaiting the return of her all-time favourite player Sam Powell-Pepper, who is set to make his long-awaited comeback to the football field in the next few weeks after suffering a ruptured ACL last year.
She also said she would “love to see a full Pride Round” in the men’s competition.
“I think there’s a lot more work to be done behind the scenes in the men’s competition around combating homophobia and transphobia in footy,” Smith said.
“Doing that work and then also having the big statement of having a Pride Round will show the AFL is committed to pride and to combating homophobia and transphobia. It would be really good to see.”
She encouraged all fans to celebrate AFLW Pride Round in October, which will see LGBTQIA+ cheer squads from around the country join forces.
“I joke that the Rainbow Crows are our frenemies. We like them at Pride Month and Pride Round events, and then as soon as the footy starts, we’re back to being enemies,” Smith said.
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