The seven Manly players who will miss the match against the Roosters over their refusal to wear the club’s pride jersey have reportedly been told to stay away from the game due to security concerns.
Coach Des Hasler said on Tuesday that the players would be at 4 Pines Park to support their teammates, but the Sydney Morning Herald reports Manly has subsequently told the seven to stay away from the ground due to concerns they may be subject to abuse or physical threats.
The Herald reports there will be a larger-than-usual police presence at the ground.
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It means Josh Aloiai, Josh Schuster, Haumole Olakau’atu, Jason Saab, Christian Tuipulotu, Tolu Koula and Toafofoa Sipley won’t be at the ground for the match.
A loss to the Roosters would be a significant blow to Manly’s finals chances. The Sea Eagles are currently in ninth spot, and would drop two points behind the eight-placed Roosters with five matches to go. Manly’s points differential is also significantly worse than the Roosters.
The Raiders would also move ahead of Manly if they beat the struggling Titans, while the Dragons can do likewise with a win over the second-placed Cowboys.
Hasler confirmed the players weren’t consulted before the club made the decision to alter its jersey, but speaking on his Six Tackles with Gus podcast, Phil Gould acknowledged that even if the players had been involved earlier, it may not have resolved the issue.
“I don’t know how you could have avoided this situation, I don’t know if it would have been different if they had collaborated with the players. That’s all guesswork,” he said.
“This is what’s happened, we can see why it’s happened, we can see how many people it’s hurt and what that’s allowed with public comment.
“We just need to get through this and work on the communication and togetherness going forward.
“This is just an unfortunate situation where non-communication has led to an unexpected result and now it becomes a public debate,” he added.
“Once you start to publicly debate religion and expectations and inclusivity and exclusivity, it’s a minefield.”
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