Manly Sea Eagles seemingly make call on pride jersey

Manly Sea Eagles were wrapped up in a controversy at the end of the NRL season.

They released a special pride jersey that seven players refused to play in resulting in them being dropped.

This saw their momentum disappear and the club miss out on the play-offs as huge debates were had in the media and other places over the situation.

Now the club have seemingly distanced themselves from the Pride shirt after speculation they could again release the jersey in 2023.

“If there’s any initiative, or overarching initiatives, they’ll be run by the NRL,” said club CEO Tony Mestrov according to ZeroTackle.

“We’ve been in discussion with the NRL and any initiative will be put forward by them, not us.

“That’s simple to say and we’ve really got nothing further to add about us organising a Pride Round or a Rainbow Round. That will be an NRL issue.

“The NRL will do the consulting, they’ll speak to the RLPA and players and so on, rather than the club itself. It works much better that way, we feel.”

“It was important that they cleared the air and that we gave them the freedom to express themselves and what they felt,” Mestrov said.

“That’s done, and we can now get on with the most important thing, which is winning football games. Anthony is here now, there’s a clean slate and we’re here to win football games.”