The Manly pride jersey player boycott took place in July 2022, after seven players for the Australian

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

club

Manly Warringah Sea Eagles The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. The team colours are maroon and white, while their namesake and logo is the sea eagle. They compete in Australia's premier rug ...

announced they would refuse to participate in an upcoming match based upon the team's decision to wear

LGBT pride LGBT pride (also known as gay pride or simply pride) is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as a social group. Pride, as opposed to ...

themed jerseys in the 28 July match. The players received both criticism and support for the boycott.

Boycott

In July 2022 seven players from the Australian

club

refused to wear a

pride Pride is defined by Merriam-Webster as "reasonable self-esteem" or "confidence and satisfaction in oneself". A healthy amount of pride is good, however, pride sometimes is used interchangeably with "conceit" or "arrogance" (among other words) wh ...

jersey and chose to boycott the club's match against the

Sydney Roosters The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional Rugby league, Rugby League Football Club based in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) and parts of inner Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The Roosters have won ...

on 28 July. The club had decided to use the jersey as a means of supporting diversity and inclusivity in the NRL, but did not inform the players prior to unveiling it before the media. The seven players –

Josh Aloiai Josh Aloiai (born 11 November 1995) is a Samoan international rugby league footballer who plays as a for the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles in the NRL. He previously played for the Wests Tigers in the National Rugby League. Background Aloiai wa ...

Toafofoa Sipley Toafofoa Sipley (born 5 January 1995) is a Niue national rugby league team, Niue international rugby league footballer who plays as a for the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles in the National Rugby League, NRL. He previously played for the New Zeal ...

, Tolutau Koula,

Christian Tuipulotu Christian Tuipulotu (born 18 February 2001) is a Tonga international rugby league footballer who plays as a for the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles in the NRL (National Rugby League). He previously played for the Sydney Roosters in the NRL. Back ...

Haumole Olakau'atu Haumole Olakau'atu (born 1 October 1998) is a Tonga international rugby league footballer who plays as a forward for the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles in the National Rugby League (NRL). Background Olakau'atu was born in Guildford, New South Wa ...

Jason Saab Jason Saab (born 8 October 2000) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a er for the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles in the NRL. He previously played for the St. George Illawarra Dragons in the National Rugby League. B ...

and

Josh Schuster Josh Schuster (born 5 May 2001) is a international rugby league footballer who plays as a er or for the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles in the NRL. Background Schuster was born in Sydney, Australia to Australian parents of Samoan and German d ...

– cited "cultural and religious" reasons for doing so. Manly lost the game against the Roosters 20 – 10, while the seven players did not attend the match due to security concerns.

Reactions

Public reaction to the boycott was mixed. Some fans praised the players for standing up for their beliefs, while others labeled them bigoted and hypocritical. The players received support from religious leaders. Manly coach Des Hasler apologised to the players for the club's failure to consult with them, and noted that the players were "strong in their beliefs and convictions." It was reported by NRL broadcaster Channel Nine's Wide World of Sports that a young Sea Eagles player who is a

closeted ''Closeted'' and ''in the closet'' are metaphors for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and other ( LGBTQ+) people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and hum ...

homosexual was devastated by the decision of the seven players: "This move by the players has shocked him. He thought they would accept him for who he is if he ever decided to make his sexual preferences public - clearly that is not the case." Radio personality and former NRL "enforcer" Mark Geyer said that the players were hypocritical, because their club's sponsor Pointsbet promotes gambling, and that they were insulting former Sea Eagles great Ian Roberts, the only Australian professional rugby league player to come out as gay. Roberts himself said, "I fully respect those players who are choosing not to play, and their right not to play, with their religious beliefs." Six of the seven players were of

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of Ocea ...

heritage. Guy Rundle, writing for

Crikey Crikey is an Australian electronic magazine comprising a website and email newsletter available to subscribers. Crikey was described by the former Federal Opposition Leader Mark Latham as the "most popular website in Parliament House" in ''Th ...

, argued that the reactions to the players included "implicit and explicit condescending racism". The boycott had a negative effect on the Sea Eagles'

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

. Simon Brunsdon, writing for Nine's Wide World of Sports, notes that Manly "were destined to play finals, though, until the round 19 rainbow jersey fiasco, after which the club did not win an NRL game." This led to the Hasler's sacking as coach.

References

{{2022 in rugby league Manly Warringah Sea Eagles 2022 NRL season LGBT pride Rugby league controversies Boycotts LGBT in Australia Anti-LGBT sentiment LGBT-related controversies in sports