September 3, 2025 • 7 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
My Heart podcasts, hear more kids podcasts, playlists, and listen
live on the Free I hard will.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I hope you having a great drave home. If you
are an AFL fan, you'd.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Be right across this Isaac Rankin thing which has been
going on for it seems like a long time now,
where he called another player a very offensive word, which
he was then banned for playing for ards. It was
a homophobic slur, starts with front need to say it,
I'm sure you know what it is. And then today,
(00:46):
after some time away from the game, he came back
to address the media and address the public and he
said this.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
I want to start by saying how deeply sorry I
am just for what I said. There was no excuse.
It was wrong, and I take full responsibility. I'm disappointed
in myself and I know I've let a lot of
people down. I want to apologize to anyone that I've
hurt offended. I understand that it is offensive, it's harmful,
it's hurtful and has no place in our game or
our society. I am in no way of victim, but
(01:16):
going away it's giving me the space to reflect and
educate myself, to understand the way of my mistake.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
So he has gone away for a little while. I
think he was in Rome.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Actually they flewhim out of the country right when the
heat was arriving. So there's a big discussion over how
long you should be banned for. It should have been
five big five day ban, initially five week band four
or five game band is what I meant to say,
and then that got reduced to four.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Games after a plea.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
So there's a whole bunch stuff, and that really decided
whether or not maybe he will play in the Grand
Final or not because Adelaide are a favorite to win.
So there's a lot of controversy around that. But what
we've done, what we decided to do today after he's spoken,
is he actually said then in his comments, I understand
that word is offensive, and so what we thought we'd
(02:02):
do is we would get up button Tom turn his
mic on because.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Thank you so much for letting me speak. Never again,
by the way, is never again careful careful.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
The rights will be provoked very quickly.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
But Tom, is that Tom, you actually are a gay man,
and I just thought it would would be great for
us to hear rather than us as two straight guys
talking about this totally from your perspective. A couple of things,
because you cards on the table here, you actually told us, well,
all this was going on, and we were talking about this,
gossiping in the studio about it.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
You told us that you stayed away from the story.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
Yeah, today was the first day I actually read anything
about it because we're going to do this discussion, and yeah,
it's I don't need to read about these stories because
I'm so lucky that I live in the most gayest
of all places, and I'm so lucky to be able
to do that. And I don't want to go back
to a place where I lived in the closet for
twenty two years. I don't want to have to experience
(02:59):
that type of language or hear about it anymore, because
ignorance is blissed in my point of view.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
I don't I don't want to know that people are
saying these things.
Speaker 6 (03:05):
Yeah, so what does it do to when you like,
you're having gauge with the story today now?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:10):
So what does that do to and where does it
take you? Yeah, it's quite it's disappointing.
Speaker 5 (03:17):
I can't believe that this guy who was born in
the year two thousand, like I just can't believe that
someone would even want to use that language anymore. I
also find it interesting that I don't know whether he
would say that or a player, for example, would say
that to a gay man, Like, what if you're not
going to be able to say it to a gay man,
(03:37):
why do you feel like you can say it to
a straight man? But it just puts me back into
a place where I feel like I'm not accepted or
who I am. Yeah, I can't live in the world
in a place full of love and joy.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
It just it just pushes it down. It's just it's
not nice.
Speaker 6 (03:56):
Was the word used that the word we're referring to,
I guess any other homophobic slurs used a lot around
you when you were in teenageers.
Speaker 5 (04:07):
In teenage years when I was in the closet, even
use some of these words myself to try and.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Hide the fact that I was gay.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
And so when you when you hear them again, you
go back to the place of not being able to
love yourself, being able to not be free to be.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Who you want to be. And it's just so disappointing.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Do you think that like the because is there a
sense of fatigue around this.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
Yeah, well, yes, it's twenty twenty five. I seriously cannot
believe having a discussion about.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Not openly gay AFL players.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I'm sure there are plenty of them who are absolutely
who are gay, who are still in the closet.
Speaker 6 (04:48):
Really sadly and Mitch Brown last week former West Coast
players come out bi sexuals. I think he's actually spoken
today about a lot of people now are going to
him being like, you're narcissistic, You're making this all about yourself,
and it's like, god.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
Well, funnily enough, he said, yes, I am. I am
being narcissist. I'm trying to get attention because this needs attention.
The fact that these boys are using this language in
this day and age is absolutely crazy.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Yeah, yeah it is. Yeah, it's backward. Do you think
that the.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Punishment was right for him, like the banning of him
and then what happened.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
After that, Yeah, I do.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
I mean I think there should be some repercussion for
using this type of language because I know that otherwise,
you know, they would just keep using it.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah yeah, yeah, and you you made a great point
before it was off my about like a way to
because I mean, punishment's one thing, sure, with these guys.
I mean that we've had the same thing with racism,
where they banned them for a little while and then
it's like slap on the reast, you did the wrong thing.
But there needs to be some form of education involved here.
Speaker 5 (05:53):
And I was reading that some of the training that
they're using in clubs, the lgbt QI training is it's
basically just like an online form and you have to
answer questions just like any online training. But I don't
think that's really effective. I mean, I've heard that a
lot of the get passed around in WhatsApp group so
they can quickly get through the training, which of.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Course, like we all would like, yeah, boring work training. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:15):
I think that the best way to get around this
culture problem is just to get fifty, because I know
so many gay blokes that love the footy and just
want to be a part of it and just.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Want to like live and breathe that action.
Speaker 5 (06:28):
If we just got like fifty gay footy loving blokes
and fifty of the people in each club, chuck them
in a pub.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
And have some peers, and everybody would realize that we're
all very similar. We all just want to live our
lives and have joy. There's other words you can use. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
say the players. You don't need to say it.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah, it doesn't matter. That's I think that's a great idea. Actually,
it just feels like exposure.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
You just need exposure to gay people because I don't
know how exposed these players are.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
That's it, or that you can use it. Yeah, it's
just insane, it's not.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Maybe there's an idea there where you could have a
pub and it was filled halfway gay, half with gay dudes.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
And half not with gay dudes, and they just didn't know.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
It sounds like a straight pub. I don't go on.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
The town on Smith Street there, come to the land.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
That's what we like. Mad, Mad Monday, the lid Monday
may well spoken, Tommy.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
I'm sure that will empathize with a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
It's a it's it sucks, and yeah, it's a shame
that it is still such a thing when it's running
their noses. And hopefully it all will change very very quickly.
I actually thought that Isaac was quite contracted. I think
he actually he seemed genuinely remorseful, So hopefully there was
a change there.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
I'm going to turn my mark off.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Now, oh, you're done permanently.
My Heart podcasts, hear more kids podcasts, playlists, and listen
live on the Free I hard will.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I hope you having a great drave home. If you
are an AFL fan, you'd.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Be right across this Isaac Rankin thing which has been
going on for it seems like a long time now,
where he called another player a very offensive word, which
he was then banned for playing for ards. It was
a homophobic slur, starts with front need to say it,
I'm sure you know what it is. And then today,
(00:46):
after some time away from the game, he came back
to address the media and address the public and he
said this.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
I want to start by saying how deeply sorry I
am just for what I said. There was no excuse.
It was wrong, and I take full responsibility. I'm disappointed
in myself and I know I've let a lot of
people down. I want to apologize to anyone that I've
hurt offended. I understand that it is offensive, it's harmful,
it's hurtful and has no place in our game or
our society. I am in no way of victim, but
(01:16):
going away it's giving me the space to reflect and
educate myself, to understand the way of my mistake.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
So he has gone away for a little while. I
think he was in Rome.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Actually they flewhim out of the country right when the
heat was arriving. So there's a big discussion over how
long you should be banned for. It should have been
five big five day ban, initially five week band four
or five game band is what I meant to say,
and then that got reduced to four.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Games after a plea.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
So there's a whole bunch stuff, and that really decided
whether or not maybe he will play in the Grand
Final or not because Adelaide are a favorite to win.
So there's a lot of controversy around that. But what
we've done, what we decided to do today after he's spoken,
is he actually said then in his comments, I understand
that word is offensive, and so what we thought we'd
(02:02):
do is we would get up button Tom turn his
mic on because.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Thank you so much for letting me speak. Never again,
by the way, is never again careful careful.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
The rights will be provoked very quickly.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
But Tom, is that Tom, you actually are a gay man,
and I just thought it would would be great for
us to hear rather than us as two straight guys
talking about this totally from your perspective. A couple of things,
because you cards on the table here, you actually told us, well,
all this was going on, and we were talking about this,
gossiping in the studio about it.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
You told us that you stayed away from the story.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
Yeah, today was the first day I actually read anything
about it because we're going to do this discussion, and yeah,
it's I don't need to read about these stories because
I'm so lucky that I live in the most gayest
of all places, and I'm so lucky to be able
to do that. And I don't want to go back
to a place where I lived in the closet for
twenty two years. I don't want to have to experience
(02:59):
that type of language or hear about it anymore, because
ignorance is blissed in my point of view.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
I don't I don't want to know that people are
saying these things.
Speaker 6 (03:05):
Yeah, so what does it do to when you like,
you're having gauge with the story today now?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:10):
So what does that do to and where does it
take you? Yeah, it's quite it's disappointing.
Speaker 5 (03:17):
I can't believe that this guy who was born in
the year two thousand, like I just can't believe that
someone would even want to use that language anymore. I
also find it interesting that I don't know whether he
would say that or a player, for example, would say
that to a gay man, Like, what if you're not
going to be able to say it to a gay man,
(03:37):
why do you feel like you can say it to
a straight man? But it just puts me back into
a place where I feel like I'm not accepted or
who I am. Yeah, I can't live in the world
in a place full of love and joy.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
It just it just pushes it down. It's just it's
not nice.
Speaker 6 (03:56):
Was the word used that the word we're referring to,
I guess any other homophobic slurs used a lot around
you when you were in teenageers.
Speaker 5 (04:07):
In teenage years when I was in the closet, even
use some of these words myself to try and.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Hide the fact that I was gay.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
And so when you when you hear them again, you
go back to the place of not being able to
love yourself, being able to not be free to be.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Who you want to be. And it's just so disappointing.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Do you think that like the because is there a
sense of fatigue around this.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
Yeah, well, yes, it's twenty twenty five. I seriously cannot
believe having a discussion about.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Not openly gay AFL players.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I'm sure there are plenty of them who are absolutely
who are gay, who are still in the closet.
Speaker 6 (04:48):
Really sadly and Mitch Brown last week former West Coast
players come out bi sexuals. I think he's actually spoken
today about a lot of people now are going to
him being like, you're narcissistic, You're making this all about yourself,
and it's like, god.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
Well, funnily enough, he said, yes, I am. I am
being narcissist. I'm trying to get attention because this needs attention.
The fact that these boys are using this language in
this day and age is absolutely crazy.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Yeah, yeah it is. Yeah, it's backward. Do you think
that the.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Punishment was right for him, like the banning of him
and then what happened.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
After that, Yeah, I do.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
I mean I think there should be some repercussion for
using this type of language because I know that otherwise,
you know, they would just keep using it.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah yeah, yeah, and you you made a great point
before it was off my about like a way to
because I mean, punishment's one thing, sure, with these guys.
I mean that we've had the same thing with racism,
where they banned them for a little while and then
it's like slap on the reast, you did the wrong thing.
But there needs to be some form of education involved here.
Speaker 5 (05:53):
And I was reading that some of the training that
they're using in clubs, the lgbt QI training is it's
basically just like an online form and you have to
answer questions just like any online training. But I don't
think that's really effective. I mean, I've heard that a
lot of the get passed around in WhatsApp group so
they can quickly get through the training, which of.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Course, like we all would like, yeah, boring work training. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:15):
I think that the best way to get around this
culture problem is just to get fifty, because I know
so many gay blokes that love the footy and just
want to be a part of it and just.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Want to like live and breathe that action.
Speaker 5 (06:28):
If we just got like fifty gay footy loving blokes
and fifty of the people in each club, chuck them
in a pub.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
And have some peers, and everybody would realize that we're
all very similar. We all just want to live our
lives and have joy. There's other words you can use. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
say the players. You don't need to say it.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah, it doesn't matter. That's I think that's a great idea. Actually,
it just feels like exposure.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
You just need exposure to gay people because I don't
know how exposed these players are.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
That's it, or that you can use it. Yeah, it's
just insane, it's not.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Maybe there's an idea there where you could have a
pub and it was filled halfway gay, half with gay dudes.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
And half not with gay dudes, and they just didn't know.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
It sounds like a straight pub. I don't go on.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
The town on Smith Street there, come to the land.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
That's what we like. Mad, Mad Monday, the lid Monday
may well spoken, Tommy.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
I'm sure that will empathize with a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
It's a it's it sucks, and yeah, it's a shame
that it is still such a thing when it's running
their noses. And hopefully it all will change very very quickly.
I actually thought that Isaac was quite contracted. I think
he actually he seemed genuinely remorseful, So hopefully there was
a change there.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
I'm going to turn my mark off.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Now, oh, you're done permanently.
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