AFL's Inaugural Pride Game To Hopefully Pave The Way For Openly Gay Players

St Kilda and Sydney will compete in the AFL’s first ever ‘Pride Game’ during round 21 of the Premiership season.

The game was officially launched on Wednesday, ABC News reports, with AFL football manager Mark Evans calling it “a celebratory moment, to make sure that our game is a game for everyone.”

The Saints’ guernseys will carry rainbow-coloured numbers, while the Swans will wear rainbow-coloured socks.

Goal umpires will even get in on the inclusivity, waving rainbow flags.

"We've got the greatest game in the world, the only indigenous game to Australia, and we want to make a statement that everybody is welcome in our game," he said.

Evans hopes that the match will help clear the path for openly gay players in the AFL.

“When a player or players are ready to do that, then so are we,” he said.

“We're really confident that will be well handled at club level and it'll help us take another conversation to the world stage.

"We've done some work with our player groups at AFL clubs and we know there'll be some difficulties for a player who does come out."

Footballer turned politician Jason Ball, who recently contested the seat of Higgins for the Greens, was the first Aussie rules player to come out as gay.

(He was playing for Yarra Glen seniors in the Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League in 2012.)

Ball and the Yarra Glen Football Club initiated the 2014 Community Pride Cup, which St Kilda chief executive Matt Finnis said “paved the way for this inaugural AFL Pride Game.”

Save the date: #PrideGame takes place August 13.

Photo: Twitter / St Kilda FC.