I wouldn't be surprised if we lose every game for the rest of the season because of this. Commence Rant.
Take the players and their views out of this for a moment - and whether there is support/disdain for their stance - this was a situation and decision forced on them publicly to achieve an outcome (Pride support and awareness). I acknowledge there might be a percevied noblilty in the intention here, but I also question if that was even the motivation here. If the club were truly committed to this notion, they wouldn't have ham-fisted a hasty go-to-market without more consultation and consideration.
I imagine some upstart in marketing, or some Management-type think tanking with the board thought it would be a good look for the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles to lead in this area - for Financial purposes primarily. More bums on seats, Image management, being a paragon of virtue in an age where ideas of tolerance are slowly wresting away the narrative control from those still resistant - this is all $$$ to these people, who think they can win some cheap support for being 'progressive'. Cynical? You bet - the Manly back-room have shat the bed too many times for me to think their intentions were noble.
The short-sightedness on this was just unforgivable. Now Social Media is blowing up with memes on Manly players not playing in rain/showers (rainbows might appear!!), comparing their stance with Gambling/alcohol sponsorhip, outraged that Des is 'concerned for the welfare of his players' like he should ostracize them publicly, questioning their take on sex-before-marriage, whether they play pokies, swear, drink, watch porn, play on Sundays, eat bacon.....you name it.
These players arguably deserve flak (or praise depending on where you sit on the issue) - but they don't deserve this trial by media. These are footy players, and a lot of them are way too young to have been thrown out onto this minefield of public perception, and be judged on the altar of public opinion in this way.
And top it all off, the club send out Des and DCE to deliver a highly scripted and hastily-contructed backdown - which was absolutely needed to appease the demands of Diversity and Inclusion today (trust me - this is a HUGE area in buisness operations today). Where the FK are the club management though, along with a culpable member of the team publicly and openly resigning over this to take the heat away from the club/coach/players? No lets slide out Des and Daly and hope for the best (luckily both Des/DCE are fkn top-notch operators and did the best they could with this shiit-sandwich). Management should be copping the flak publicly - and one of the journos called it out when they asked Des 'Why are you here and not the decision-maker on this?'. Where indeed. They are Cowards. I wouldn't play for them if I was a player.
So is the stance of the players correct? Quite frankly it doesn't matter 1 bit - it should have remained out of the public sphere. The fact management didn't playbook this announcement and extrapolate the scenario we see right now show that the club is not fit to manage the optics of both club and players. Maybe our Players too are not fit to playbook/workshop their own response to something they find confronting to their beliefs or sensibilities - but the Players can be forgiven for their lack of forsight on how this would play out: they are footy players. Club Management however, they are culpable of a massive failure here tantamount to incompetence. Absolute Muppets.
Now the club and players have their backs to the wall, with a braying media hungry for Footy fk-ups to feed their scant outrage pipeline. This isn't going away in a hurry.
Well done thought-bubble person who decided a knee-jerk Pride recognition token gesture would be all we needed to address this complex issue. Well. $#@. Done.