Why NRL should NOT have a Pride Round until it means more than a chance to sell rainbow merchandise

With more than 80 per cent of clubs bosses saying they would not support a Pride Round, it’s clear the NRL should not push ahead with the idea just yet but it should happen in the future once the players have been educated on why it’s so important.

The Sydney Morning Herald poll of chief executives and chairs from each club published this week showed the NRL still has a lot of work to do in many areas.

Apart from ARL Commission chair Peter V’Landys and NRL CEO Andrew Abdo recording their lowest level of approval to date, it was also revealed that the vast majority of those polled would not support a Pride Round taking place this year.

And perhaps surprisingly, I completely agree with these club bosses.

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Because the truth is, rugby league is not yet ready for a Pride Round and my concern is if the sport isn’t ready, then hosting such a round may do more damage to a community that has experienced so much harm.

Manly fans show their colours at 4 Pines Park. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

In order to be in a strong position to hold a Pride Round, the NRL and its clubs need to walk before they run and at the moment, as a game, we only seem to be capable of baby steps.

There was no clearer demonstration of rugby league not being ready than the events that took place at the Manly Sea Eagles last year.

When a box of jerseys with a rainbow arrived a couple of weeks before a game, some of the players were surprised. They had not heard about this jersey and neither had coach Des Hasler. It seems baffling to me that prior to engaging in a inclusion initiative as important as this one, that conversation did not take place from the club officials to the players.

I had so many questions following that debacle when seven players boycotted the match due to “cultural reasons”. Did the Manly board of directors know about this initiative and if so, why were management not encouraged and advised to engage in a conversation with the players?

If the board didn’t know about the design of the jersey, then that’s problematic too. What else is going on at Manly that the board don’t know about?

A Pride Round and a Pride jersey are a beautiful celebration and an opportunity to make members of the LGBTQI+ community welcome in sporting spaces.

I love them.

(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

In the AFLW competition a Pride Round is hosted every year. The players are often involved in the design of the jersey and so many of the players speak passionately about how women’s footy has been a safe place for people who identify as LGBTQI+. It is an extremely special round that means a lot to so many of the players involved.

The NBL and A-Leagues have followed suit.

But I see the opportunity to host a Pride Round as one which needs to be earned.

Each club and the NRL need to work internally to ensure that the real work takes place before considering a Pride Round.

What I mean by ‘real work’ could encompass so many things including training for people involved in the club, the development of policies to support members of the LGBTQI+ community (such as a Transgender Inclusion Policy) or participation in community programs which support members of the LGBTQI+ community.

Holding a Pride Round is not enough to challenge fix transphobia and transphobia in sport and in my view, there is absolutely no point in hosting a Pride Round if it is simply performative.

What I mean by that is a Pride Round has to be about more than painting a rainbow on a field and asking players to wear a specially designed jersey.

If the building blocks are not in place at a club level to truly support diversity and inclusion and understand it at a club level, the cynic in me says that a ‘Pride Round’ is nothing more than an attempt to sell merchandise.

And despite the debacle at Manly, it certainly worked from that perspective with the ‘Pride jersey’ selling out almost straight away.

As a Parramatta fan, would I rather the Eels host a Pride game or would I rather they do the ‘real work’? My answer is ‘I want both’, but if I had to choose just one, it would be the club engaging in the ‘real work’.

This is especially important for a club that has an NRLW team where some of the members identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community. These players need to feel supported at the club and that they can bring their true selves to the club every single day.

Earlier this year V’landys suggested a ‘Respect Round’, which would ‘include everyone’.

I don’t really understand what this means and to be honest, sounds like gobbledygook with the NRL trying to be all things to all people.

It also sounds dangerous to me. I wonder exactly what ‘including everyone’ means? Does it mean tolerating sexism? Homophobia? Transphobia? Just how far along the spectrum of ‘including everyone’ is V’landys willing to go?

Pride Rounds can achieve so much and I would love to see one eventually celebrated in rugby league. But we aren’t there yet.

But I have seen some positive steps this week. Following the results of the poll being released, Cronulla Sharks prop Toby Rudolf expressed his disappointment.

Toby Rudolf. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

Rudolf has been a positive advocate in this space. Last year he discussed some of the same-sex experiences he’s had, becoming one of the first rugby league players to do so. Rudolf also shared that he had spoken with some of his teammates of Polynesian background who would be pleased to wear a Pride jersey.

This is positive and suggests that kind, considerate conversations are happening at a club level between people who may have different beliefs.

Rudolf was supported by his teammate Nicho Hynes who also voiced his support for a Pride Round. We need more players like Rudolf and Hynes and more work at an NRL and club level to make sure that any Pride Round is more than just a rainbow.

It must be about understanding and having meaningful engagement with members of the LGBTQI+ community.