GOSFORD, AUSTRALIA – APRIL 09: Daly Cherry-Evans celebrates his field goal and the win with team mates during the round five NRL match between the New Zealand Warriors and the Manly Sea Eagles at Central Coast Stadium, on April 09, 2021, in Gosford, Australia. (Photo by Ashley Feder/Getty Images)
Manly Sea Eagles captain Daly Cherry-Evans and coach Des Hasler have fronted the media on Tuesday morning, confirming the club will wear the pride jersey on Thursday evening with seven players missing.
The club have, however, admitted the execution of the idea to bring a jersey with rainbow stripes to the table was done poorly.
The fallout over the last 24 hours has been dramatic, with a number of players pulling out of the game on what are believed to be religious and cultural beliefs.
It’s understood that Jason Saab, Christian Tuipulotu, Josh Aloiai, Josh Schuster, Haumole Olakau’atu, Tolutau Koula and Toafofoa Sipley have all pulled out of the game.
Hasler apologised on behalf of the club for the stress the move to wear the jersey had brought on players, staff and fans.
“The jersey intent was to support the advocacy and human rights pertaining to gender, race, culture, ability and LGBTQ movements,” Hasler said during a long-winded statement on Tuesday morning.
“Sadly, the execution of what was intended to be an extremely important initiative was poor. There was little consultation or collaboration with key stakeholders both inside and outside the club.
“Sadly, this poor management and project management has caused significant confusion, discomfort and pain for many people. In particular, those groups whose human rights we were in fact attempting to support.
“We have even adversely affected our playing group – a wonderful group of people comprising of many different racial and cultural backgrounds.
“We wish to sincerely apologise for the mistakes we have made. We wish to apologise to the minority groups within the community who embrace the rainbow colours as a symbol or pride in who they are, what they stand for, and their empassioned advocacy to enhance basic tolerance and acceptance within the diversity and inclusion space.
“We wish to apologise to the LGBTQ community, who embrace the rainbow colours, to use these colours for pride, and advocacy and human right issues. It has played an integral role in the inclusion and diversity of all minority groups.
“We acknowledge the role that the LGBTQ community has played in breaking down the barriers for many other groups who also utilise the rainbow colours as a source of pride.
“We wish to apologise to the Australian Rugby League Commission, all of the NRL, and the other 15 NRL clubs for creating negative news, shifting the spotlight from 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. We accept your cultural beliefs and hope you can accept our apology.
Captain Cherry-Evans was then placed on the spot, asked if any of his teammates had ever expressed bigoted views – a term which has been floated around heavily on social media in the last 24 hours.
“No,” Cherry-Evans said.
“Stuff like this isn’t a topic of conversation unless put in a situation, so we are experiencing a lot of things for the first time as a playing group.”
The skipper said it was important to focus on what would be celebrated on Thursday evening however by the wearing of the jersey.
“These are sometimes the hardest situations in sport – to deal with situations out of your control,” the captain said.
“One thing we can control is as a playing group, accepting the decisions players have made and finding the silver lining in all of this.
“There are going to be 17 players out there celebrating inclusion and diversity, so hopefully we can start to shift our attention to the good in this.”
Asked if the club could still find a way to beat the Roosters on Thursday, Cherry-Evans said they could.
“No doubt about it. We understand where we are at in the footy part of this,” he said.
“We want to play finals football, and every game counts. We are playing a side not far away from us on the ladder, so we get all that, but these are decisions we have to accept, and I guess, for someone like myself as a captain, I see the opportunity to bring the group together and do something special on Thursday night.”
The Sea Eagles play the Roosters at Brookvale on Friday evening, with kick-off set for 7:50pm (AEST).
Source:: ZeroTackle
