Note: Revealed: Danielle Laidley – Two Tribes uses Danielle’s former name, pronouns and images with her permission.

Every AFL Grand Final contains a multitude of stories of heartbreak and triumph, and the 1996 clash between North Melbourne and the Sydney Swans was no exception. Giving a unique perspective on the day is trans woman Danielle Laidley, who transitioned more than two decades after playing for North Melbourne in the game. In the Stan Original documentary Revealed: Danielle Laidley – Two Tribes, she looks back on the day with 30 years of hindsight, seeing it as a highlight of her football career.

The snippets of footage of the AFL Centenary Grand Final show Laidley in the thick of the action. The inserts with her commentary give insight into how winning a Grand Final can positively affect your life, at least for a few months. But the clip also raises the question of what comes next, foreshadowing the difficulties to come.

This clip speaks to the ‘two tribes’ of the title, showing Laidley reconciling her identity as a trans woman with the hyper-masculine world of AFL in the 1990s. In 2020, Laidley was outed as transgender by a Victoria Police officer without her permission, while being arrested on a count of stalking (after time in a diversion program, no conviction was recorded). Laidley began her AFL career with the West Coast Eagles before playing 99 games with North Melbourne and then switching to coaching roles at various clubs, including North Melbourne. During the making of the documentary, she returned to being an AFL radio commentator.

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