Paul Kent: Manly Sea Eagles’ pride jersey was already inclusive because of Ian Roberts moment

Ian Roberts won his battle for rugby league acceptance by always putting pride in his jumper, while Manly’s jersey debacle is a misguided fight against pressure to conform, PAUL KENT writes.

Ian Roberts rolled in from the set of the latest Mad Max movie being filmed out near Broken Hill earlier this month looking a million dollars, and then some.

Big veins popped out from his arms, a leg of ham in each.

Roberts, who might be at risk of being stereotyped, plays a bad guy in the new film and remains an intimidating presence.

He was in town to talk at a lunch for Matraville Tigers, among other things, and if they didn’t know he ran on dodgy knees an honest man could swear Roberts looked fit enough to still run out for Manly on Thursday night.

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Ian Roberts, the first openly gay rugby league player.

Roberts was being interviewed at the lunch by the colourful Sydney identity Norm Nicholas where he spoke openly about being a gay man and of his coming out 27 years ago at Manly.

Lots of people within the game knew he was gay well before he made it public, he told the audience.

I was already writing stilted copy on the game back then and was well aware of Roberts’ sexuality, a privacy every league writer in the game allowed him to protect until he was ready to come out.

When Roberts did finally come out and told the world he was a gay man, falling in love with the Bay City Rollers, the league community got behind him and that weekend he ran out for the Sea Eagles in their maroon-and-white jerseys.

That Manly jersey was the symbol of rugby league’s inclusivity.

When Roberts put on that jersey with his teammates around him, all of them already long aware he was gay, it revealed a jersey any man could wear whether they were gay, transgender, straight, black, white, Asian, Christian, Muslim, card-carrying conservative or cheese-eating Green.

So long as you could play footy, you earned your spot.

That was always the thing with sport; there was a place for all.

It was removed from politics and its agendas.

Now the pressure is on sport to conform, driven by activist groups who push their cause and force scared administrations to respond or fear the backlash.

Ian Roberts in action for Manly against Brisbane in 1994.

There is no longer any thought to just getting on with it, like sport always did. Now there has to be a cause or a round or a ribbon attached to show external support for what those within the game know has been there all along.

Rainbows do not make the support any more legitimate.

Several years ago a couple of other NRL clubs were approached to wear the rainbow colours.

Their response for rejecting it was simple: they did not believe rainbow colours would achieve what the activists thought it would achieve, as this week’s backlash has proven.

Instead of a celebration it has become a weapon.

On Monday night, as it emerged seven Manly players were refusing to wear the rainbow jersey, Roberts called it “sad and uncomfortable”.

“As an older gay man,” he said, “this isn’t unfamiliar.”

Roberts is right, of course. But such is the world we live in and have created it doesn’t mean the Manly players refusing to wear the rainbow jersey are wrong.

They are also entitled to protect their beliefs.

Yet they were inadvertently hauled into it when the Sea Eagles had the audacity to make a political statement on behalf of their players.

Manly Sea Eagles captain Daly Cherry-Evans and coach Des Hasler were left to address the media following the chaos of the pride jersey. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

The club doubled down when coach Des Hasler was told to explain the club’s oversight, where he apologised to the players, the LGBTQI+ community, the ARL Commission, and basically anybody else that was offended.

The seven players refusing to wear the pride jersey on Thursday — Josh Aloiai, Jason Saab, Josh Schuster, Haumole Olakau’atu, Christian Tuipulotu, Tolutau Koula and Toafofoa Sipley — have stated it is for cultural and religious reasons. It is a belief that goes back generations.

Unfortunately for those players, who should be respected and protected, theirs is a diversity that does not fit Thursday’s narrative even though it goes against their essentially Christian beliefs.

This is not the first time it has happened, and unlikely the last.

When rainbow accents were put on the Tampa Bay Rays baseball uniform earlier this year, to celebrate LGBTQ pride, five players withdrew for religious reasons.

Unlike Manly, who will go ahead with their jersey, the Rays ultimately decided not to wear the uniforms to support their teammates.

The same groups who condemn the Manly players now celebrated the same diversity when Sonny Bill Williams had a betting sponsor covered up on his jersey because it went against his Muslim beliefs.

And they also did when Usman Khawaja refused to wear the VB logo or could not celebrate with his team after winning the Ashes, because like Williams he is a Muslim and they were popping champagne on stage.

The Tampa Bay Rays pride uniform.

There is nothing in the Bible or Book of Mormon that condemns alcohol or gambling so allegations the Manly players are being hypocritical is wrong.

The true hypocrisy, some might say, is claiming an inclusive policy that ignores religion and culture, which are equally powerful, and making those who answer to it feel vilified.

Hasler called Roberts an ornament on Tuesday, and said we must continue to seek out his guidance and opinions. His admiration was clear.

Two hours later Roberts spoke.

Manly was the club, he said, that made him feel safe enough to tell the world he was gay.

Yet he remained disillusioned. For one thing, what many thought might be the beginning of an exodus has not seen one man publicly out himself since.

“Where do we go to from here?” he said, a question for us all.

Originally published as Paul Kent: Manly Sea Eagles’ pride jersey was already inclusive because of Ian Roberts moment