Former one-game Brisbane Lion, Leigh Ryswyk, becomes first openly gay AFL player

Former Brisbane Lions player Leigh Ryswyk has revealed publicly that he is gay, more than two decades after his first and last AFL appearance.

Less than a year after ex-West Coast defender Mitch Brown came out as bisexual in August, Riswyk has become the first openly gay AFL player, past or present.

He made the announcement on Melbourne FM radio station Joy 94.9's GayFL program.

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Ryswyk said his friends have known he is gay for five years.

"There will be people though, if they do listen to this, it will be the first time they know about this; I'm a very private person, so it's not all over my social media, and things like that, and that's fine," he explained.

"It can be a bit of a shock to some people, they might not know what, but that's life right?

"In the end, the people who are nearest and closest to me know, and that's what's most important."

Ryswyk was selected with pick 67 in the 2004 draft by the Lions, and played one game the following season.

He suffered a quad injury and lost his place in the senior side before being delisted at the end of the season.

The ex-half-forward paid tribute to his parents for their support.

"When you come our to your family it's always a massive experience, there's a lot of things going on in your head.

"It took me a little while where I was comfortable enough to do this, probably a three-year period to be honest, so there was a lot of the mental side of things going through at the same time," he said.

"I had the opportunity to sit down with Mum and talk to her about it, and let her know, which was massive. She obviously was crying, I was crying, and she goes 'I still love you', so for me, that was a wow moment.

"Then opening up to your dad, now that experience was one of the biggest things for me, but his reaction was something that blew me away, to be honest.

"I really didn't know what to expect, but he was like, 'I love you, it doesn't matter, as long as you're happy I'm happy for you', that blew me away to be honest."

After being delisted, Ryswyk moved to South Australia where he played more than 200 matches for North Adelaide in the SANFL.

He has since been inducted into the AFL Queensland Football Hall of Fame.