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Journalist James Bracey has called on the NRL to use the momentum and support around Kane Evans’ emotional coming out interview to affect real change in rugby league by bringing the former prop into the game’s social welfare programs.

On Monday, Evans became the second male NRL player to come out publicly as gay, following on from former Kangaroos prop Ian Roberts in 1995.

Evans detailed his struggles with his sexuality, along with his battle with mental health, and alcohol and drug addiction, in an interview with Bracey on Channel 9’s 100% Footy.

“I had three goals in life,” Evans revealed.

“It was to play NRL, to buy my parents a house and then I was going to top myself.

“Because I was living in denial. From a young age, I know...that I’m gay.

“But I went down every other avenue to build up these walls to escape who I am.”

Since Evans' coming out, support has come from all sectors of the rugby league world, including Roberts.

However, Bracey wants more action taken from Evans’ interview, and to use the moment as a catalyst for change within the NRL and the wider Australian sporting landscape.

Around one in twenty Australians aged 16 years and over identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community, per the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

That number grows among Australian young people, with 10 per cent of 16-24- year-olds identifying as LGBTQIA+, while six in ten of people who identified as LGBTQIA+ are aged between 16 and 34 years.

Bracey encouraged the NRL to include Evans in social welfare programs to help create a safer and more confident future for other players.

“1995, Ian Roberts came out and you think about what you were doing back in 1995, like it's insane that this is the next one,” Bracey told SENQ Breakfast.

“There's obviously a situation that needs to be addressed.

“I don't think it's just in rugby league, I think it's in all sports.

“They're few and far between, and look, if you want to be blunt about this, you go off pure stats in society, on how many gay people there are in our world, they're there in the playing ranks of the NRL and that's why this conversation with Kane is so important.

“He wants to enable those people, he knows they're out there, he knows gay players, and he wants to show them that it can be done.

“You can be out and… the love he's feeling over the last 24 hours, we've spoken a few times, and he was telling me he was gonna turn his socials off, (and) not watch the interview, but he couldn't because he's just got so much support.

“I’ve got a bit of a bee in my bonnet about this one because I don't want this (to go under the radar).

“You know how it works with the news cycle. You do the interview, 24 hours goes and then we're on Origin again.

“The NRL (or) someone has to take this by the horns, and get Kane in the NRL, get him in the social welfare programme, and use this moment, because if we don't, what was the point of it?

“Obviously, it was great for Kane, but he wants it to be used for a bigger cause as well beyond him, and we've gotta do that.”

Evans, who played 131 NRL games for Sydney, Parramatta and the Warriors revealed in his interview that he had struggled with his sexual identity since the age of 15, resulting in suicidal thoughts, as well as different avenues to "numb" himself.

Those avenues included drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism, with that use spiraling after the closure of his café Bestic Espresso.

“I was going down a slippery spiral,” he said.

“I started numbing myself with alcohol and drugs.

“Looking back now, I realise that there were deeper things I was masking and I was using every outlet I could up until the point where I was couch surfing and became homeless.”

After revealing his struggles with his sexuality, the Fijian representative admitted the thought of coming out was a ‘nightmare’, having faced threats of blackmail previously.

However, he noted that it was important to tell his story in the hopes that it might save lives.

“This is definitely like my worst nightmare,” Evans explained.

“But I know if I surrender, it’s the start to a new life.

“I’ve been fighting a war within since I was about 15 years old, and it’s not sustainable.

“I was sleeping in parks, doing drugs, trying to ultimately pass so I didn’t have to come to this.

“But I know that there’s people that are struggling with the same struggle that I’ve gone through.

“I’m very blessed that I can come here and talk to you (Bracey) and be able to save a life or two.”

Now, the 34-year-old is 135 days sober as of the interview, having received the help of his former coach at the Roosters, Trent Robinson, and Joe Galuvao, who currently works as a Transition Manager with the RLPA’s past players and transition program during his struggles.

"I've got a little team that has helped me the most," he elaborated.

“I was fortunate enough to have Joe come visit me a few times for some conversations when I was in the parks.

“We would organise to meet at a café, and Joe would come out and buy me coffee, and Joe said, ‘Do you know that you deserve to live a good life?...you deserve healing'.

“When he said that, that’s when I started questioning, maybe death isn’t in the plan for me yet, maybe I do deserve to go and get help.

“I thank God that he came and visited me and got me into rehab with the help of the RLPA. Somehow Robbo (Trent Robinson) got my number.

“He called me just to let me know that the Roosters are still my home and they’ve got my back, whatever I’m facing.

“That meant the world to me. He took me, my best friend, and one of my mentors to Roosters HQ a week after I got out of rehab.

“He gave them the full tour and took us into his office and virtually told me that the Roosters are paying for my mental health.

“And Robbo, out of his own money, paid four weeks of my rent as I had just gotten into a place that week.”