Sports Prophet

Hopefully someone can help me understand why Manly felt the need to design this jersey. Is there an obscene homophobic culture in the northern beaches of Sydney? Does anyone feel that the Manly Sea Eagles football club promotes a non inclusive environment? Have there been recent examples of discrimination/incitement/violence against individuals for their sexuality at Manly games?

Seems to be a lot more people in favour of the right for the Manly players to stand up for their beliefs, than those that supported Israel Falou to publicly share the bible’s “teachings”. Is there a difference here?

That’s fine, I was concerned David was implying the club stood them down and Hasler supported the club’s decision.

I think the players stood themselves down, which Hasler supported.

Funny how an initiative to promote inclusivity has led to seven players likely to be excluding themselves from playing on Thursday.

And a person born in England is definitely a … haha, just kidding.

There has been a bit of that lately on this forum. A nice change.

He was a former coach of the club don’t forget.

I don’t think anyone was whinging about it as you had boldly predicted after reading none of the comments.

Really, who?

Players choosing heritage is fantastic. I remember an old saying. A chicken born in a stable isn’t a horse. Well that saying is being demonstrated in a very positive manner in pacific international RL at the moment. Let’s say right now, 50% of all players eligible for Tonga and Aus are choosing Tonga. So it takes 50% of the current numbers to produce a team as good as it is now. If migration of PI nationals to Australia drops, then to produce a team of equal skill, then the Tongans team would need to see maybe 70% of players eligible for Aus and Tonga to choose Tonga in order to stay competitive. So until the pacific island nations can start producing more international players born in te country, it would be unwise to change the Tiering of any such nation.

No they are not

Because in the future, there may well be some very skilled players that want to play for Australia first. It is a moot point. The current IRL administration have no intention of moving Tonga to Tier 1 no matter how successful they are.

True, you cannot be available for SOO if you are not eligible for Australia. I agree, the NRL would not have foreseen the sheer volume of players choosing PI over Kangaroos.

What would happen?

That is incorrect. The Tiering is set by IRL, not the NRL, so it wasn’t devised by Australians to suite Australia at all. A stand down period does not stop players swapping between tier 1 nations.

I don’t think that is necessarily so. The old rules of SOO eligibility required any player to declare their nationality for Australia only. It was the NRL themselves that relaxed the SOO eligibility rules to allow tier 2 representatives to also represent NSW or QLD.

Tiering was brought in by IRL to set criteria that no players can change from one tier 1 nation to another. That is its sole purpose. The IRL are well aware that by promoting Tonga to Tier 1 may significantly jeopardise the standard of the Tonga national side.

Under current SOO eligibility, JT could not represent Qld as no players that have represented a Tier 1 nation (that is not Aus) cannot be selected.

No they won’t. There is no clear credentials to be considered tier 1 and the IRL have no intention of re classifying any nations from tier 2 to tier 1.

Turned his back on a certain Kangaroos selection to play for Tonga. Eligible for NZ too as the nation of his birth, the Tongan heritage has won his heart.

At a guess, happy to let Lam steady himself back from injury in the Championship.

You say “chipping in” as if my point of view is of less importance and/or of less value than what you have to say. I am not “chipping in” any more than you are “chipping in”. I feel I am demonstrating a very well reasoned position, albeit an opposing one to your own. To the more obvious point you made with this opening, you are again either overlooking, or ignoring the fact I gave aspect to the sport of soccer in both England and Germany and again gave an opinion that the international game is of no consequence to the popularity of the EPL and Bundesliga. See… So no, I wasn’t “chipping in” and the “massive oversight”, I beg to differ, is your own.

I beg to differ, but that’s ok. I don’t expect either of us to convince each other. The NSWRL grew to become the ARL and then amalgamated with News Ltd interests to become the NRL. What do you reckon of the NRL merging with SL to become the global governor of the professional club game?

We’re you local when the Norwich City Saxons we’re around @Eddie?