Manly Sea Eagles pride jersey fallout poses question about workplaces and inclusion

But this week, strangely, I felt some sympathy and compassion for those silvertail sea eagles.

You cannot have missed the news that the club decided their players would wear a pride jersey in their game against the Roosters on Thursday night. The club decided. And the utterly deranged management completely forgot to consult its player group about the decision. As a result, seven Manly players have refused to play on religious or cultural grounds.

And most of the sympathy has gone to the boys because they were never asked, they were just told - and that's not the way to bring people along the inclusion journey, hideous expression though that is.

And it's lovely that the lads are being indulged on the basis of their faith - but I wonder how many of us would get away with this in modern workplaces. I doubt you or I would be allowed to say in public we don't support homosexuality. Pretty sure if I said that at work, I'd be out on my arse in five minutes. And that's what these players are saying. It's discriminatory, it's hurtful and it damages fans of all ages, those who are gay and those who are young and think they might be.

No-one is asking these players to be gay. No-one is asking these players to give up their own religious choices. But the kind of faith which asks people to reject and harm others is a faith that ought to be questioned.

I'd argue all rugby league contracts should include a clause that says players must stand up for diversity and inclusion at all times.

Graham Fountain, principal lawyer at Taylor Splatt and partners and an expert in sports law, is doubtful we could make that work. There is, he says, a fine balance between the retention of people's human rights, their beliefs and the law.

"And they are not mutually exclusive because people's individual protections are enshrined in the law," he said.

I'm guessing Fountain means that Australian law protects the rights of people to practise their religions. He says you can't contract out of the laws of the nation.

But do those who practise their religion then have the right to express their bigotry? And what should clubs do about that? Fountain says it's hard to enshrine respect in a code of conduct, particularly if it contradicts what's legal. He says it's important to have the discussion up front with potential players and ensure that the contracts align with the commercial realities and individual realities of the contractual parties. In ordinary terms, Fountain means, check out our policies and our codes of conduct.

And maybe, playing in a pride jersey may not be your thing.

Is rugby league positively Neanderthal in comparison to the southern code? Fountain is a Victorian and he says the AFL has successfully run a pride round as part of its fixtures.

There have been a few tiny hiccups but none as gormless as the current fiasco in rugby league.

It's been well-documented that Manly did a really dumb thing when it didn't consult - but I think we must go further than that. The code has to take responsibility for its gay players (well, the one person, Ian Roberts, who somehow summoned the courage to speak out years ago and now but not a single male player since).

The NRL has staggered from one controversy to another - and it's not getting any better. If it's not intimate partner violence and sexting, it's sex tapes and homophobia. Just over a year ago, the Australian Rugby League Commission chair Peter V'landys attacked the league's former gender advisor Catharine Lumby, an "attention seeker" because she called out lack of action at the top.

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And if they've got an adviser in this area now, I have no idea who that might be. Lumby says the wellbeing and education committee was put on hold and she has no idea if it's been reinstituted. But it's clear, at least to me and the other thousands of fans who just want a game that includes everyone, that there needs to be a big bold attention-seeker in that position to draw attention to the very issues the league ignores. As in getting the players to pay attention to the fact that their audience contains multitudes.

Lumby says V'landys has been pretty good in the last few days of the whole pride nightmare and said all the right things. But I wonder whether it's the same as the blokes who wear white ribbons and then do nothing to fix the underlying problems.

I am not much of a Bible scholar - and whoa, there are lots of competing interpretations. But I'm pretty sure the overarching message is to love one another.

The league needs to do a better job of contracting players who hold the values that Australians hold and to hold them to account. By all means, keep your faith and your religious values but above all, love one another and love the game. It's the best and you should be too.

Go the Bunnies, currently ahead on the table.