The Australian National Rugby League (NRL) hit back at trolls who posted homophobic comments underneath a photo of two players kissing, telling them ‘Welcome to 2018’.

The NRL posted a photo on social media of Vanessa Foliaki, of New South Wales, and Queensland player Karina Brown sharing a kiss after their state of Origin Game on Friday night.

Commenting underneath the post on Facebook, trolls said the image was ‘sexualising the women’s league’, and told the NRL to ‘keep that crap to the dressing shed or home’.

The NRL posted this image of the two players on Facebook (Picture: NRL)

But the NRL has been widely praised for its response to the homophobia after it said: ‘Welcome to 2018. We can’t wait for you to join us’ – with the post racking up more than 13,000 likes.




Foliaki and Brown, who have been together since 2014, were pictured kissing after the inaugural Women’s State of Origin Series at North Sydney Oval.

The photo was posted to Facebook along with the caption ‘#OurWay’ and soon garnered 26,000 likes.

Karina Brown plays for Queensland (Picture: Matt King/Getty Images)

But it seems some weren’t happy with the picture, as Matt Faint wrote: ‘There would be public outrage if two blokes kissed exactly like that after an Origin. Keep that crap to the dressing shed or at home.’

And added: ‘Bad move NRL, there may be young girls coming through put off by this.’

While Kaleb Nolan added: ‘Already sexualising the women’s league, one step forward three steps back.’

Defending the photo to Faint, the NRL said: ‘Hey Matt, welcome to 2018… can’t wait for you to join us!’

Vanessa Foliaki has been in a relationship with Brown since 2014 (Picture: Mark Evans/Getty Images)

And responding to Nolan the league added: ‘ If we can post a photo of Cooper Cronk and his wife Tara kissing, then we can share a photo of Karina Brown and Ness Foliaki sharing a moment too.’

The league’s response was applauded online, with Theo AK writing: ‘Whoever is running the NRL FB page tonight is awesome. Seriously, well done hey. Makes me proud to be a league fan.’

Brown and Foliaki have been in a relationship since they were chosen to play for Australia women’s national rugby league team the Jillaroos.

The couple have said the rugby league family ‘wants us to get married’ and that coaches are supportive of them.

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