Manly Sea Eagles players blasted for huge ‘overreaction’ amid pride jersey furore
A former NRL star believes the Manly pride jersey boycott is an “overreaction” that has the potential to divide the dressing room.
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Former Canterbury Bulldogs prop James Graham believes the Manly pride jersey boycott is an “overreaction” that has the potential to divide the Sea Eagles dressing room.
On Tuesday, Manly coach Des Hasler confirmed seven players had stood down from Thursday evening’s NRL match against the Sydney Roosters due to a one-off pride jersey featuring rainbow stripes.
The Sea Eagles were forced to name an inexperienced starting 13 for their Round 20 contest at 4 Pines Park after Josh Aloiai, Jason Saab, Christian Tuipulotu, Josh Schuster, Haumole Olakau’atu, Tolutau Koula and Toafofoa Sipley opted to boycott the match.
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But speaking on Fox League’s NRL 360, Graham questioned whether the seven footballers had made the right decision.
“For me personally I think it is an overreaction from the players,” he said on Tuesday evening.
“It is just a few colours on a jersey. It is not worth missing a game over.
“You can have your beliefs, but really? This is your hill you are going to die on?
“It is just not worth it. Just accept it and just crack on.
“I know people with deep religious beliefs and I just don’t think this hill is worth dying on.
“I don’t think it is worth putting your flag in the ground on this one.”
Graham suggested the off-field drama could create a divide in the dressing room – Manly are on the verge of slipping out of the top eight, and seven of their star players are willing to tarnish the club’s finals chances over something as frivolous as a rainbow stripe.
“I have been involved in a team before with Will Hopoate, who elected not to play on a Sunday,” Graham explained.
“I know publicly speaking it was all OK, but I know privately there was some players that had issue with it.
“That certainly didn’t help Canterbury’s cause that year.
“I respected it but I do know some people were taken aback by it.”
However, Graham agreed that Manly’s administrators should have informed the playing group of the pride jersey much earlier, something the club apologised for on Tuesday.
“A lot of time goes past, from when the idea originates to getting the jersey prepped and what Round are we going to wear the jersey,” he said.
“I just think with the amount of push back from the playing group, at some stage it should have been floated.
“With time on their side they might have been able to work through solutions that suited everyone because at the moment so late in the piece they are scrambling trying to find a way out of a tough situation.
“There have been no winners and you feel sorry for every aspect that has been affected by this.”
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Hasler apologised to the LGBTQ community and the wider NRL fanbase for the club’s “poor mismanagement”.
“The jersey’s intent was to support the advocacy and human rights pertaining to gender, race, culture, ability and LGBTQ movements,” he said.
“Sadly, the execution of what was intended to be an extremely important initiative was poor. There was little consultation or collaboration between key stakeholders, both inside and outside the club.
“Our intent was to be caring and compassionate towards all diverse groups who face inclusion issues daily. However, instead of enhancing tolerance and acceptance, we may have hindered this. This was the opposite of our intent.
“This poor mismanagement has caused significant confusion, discomfort and pain for many people.
“We wish to apologise to the LGBTQ community who embrace the rainbow colour for pride and advocacy and human rights issues. We accept your cultural beliefs and hope that you can accept our apology.
“We wish to apologise to the Australian Rugby League Commission, the NRL and the other 15 NRL clubs for creating negative news, shifting the spotlight from the launch of the Women in League round.
“We wish to apologise to our own playing group and staff for any confusion, discomfort and pain that the mistake we have made may have caused them.
“Whilst we have come a long way as a society, there‘s still no doubt much work to be done, particularly in education.
“For any person struggling with identity, we acknowledge the challenges and difficulties. My heart goes out to you and your families, and if the club can personally do anything to assist, we will. We are here, we offer our complete support.
“I apologise to anyone to whom this matter has caused distress.”
Meanwhile, Sea Eagles captain Daly Cherry-Evans asserted that the playing group was united despite the off-field drama.
“There are going to be 17 players out there celebrating inclusiveness and diversity, so I think hopefully we can start to shift our attention towards the good intentions that were had,” he said.
Speaking on NRL 360, The Daily Telegraph’s Paul Kent argued club owner Scott Penn should have fronted the media on Tuesday, not Hasler and Cherry-Evans.
“Scott Penn should have done a zoom interview with everyone today, I don’t care what time it is in New York, he should have done some explaining as the owner of the club rather than put out Des and Cherry-Evans,” he said on Tuesday.
“The thing about this, and there‘s all sorts of branches off this story, but when you boil it down we are in a situation where it’s considered impolite to ask people about politics and religion, particularly strangers, and yet here we are forcing playing groups to adopt, whether you want to call it a political philosophy or not because it does get weaponised as a political argument, they are being asked to adopt that and while there’s all this inclusiveness that we speak about which I don’t know anyone that has been ostracised because of their sexual orientation in rugby league.
“This argument that these players are not celebrating inclusiveness is ridiculous, they’ve been hung out to dry by the football club because they were not consulted before it.”
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Originally published as Manly Sea Eagles players blasted for huge ‘overreaction’ amid pride jersey furore
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