Another reason I wouldn’t wear the jersey: it is a massive ad for online gambling company Pointsbet. My reaction to gambling is instinctively Methodist. And this dislike was strengthened when The Sunday Age reported Victorians had lost $66 billion in the 30 years since electronic poker machines were legalised. Former gambling addict turned campaigner Ian Correia told us his addiction had cost him his home, family, at least $1 million and nearly his life.

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The AFL and NRL are similarly addicted to gambling companies. So while I acknowledge the sincerity of both codes embracing pride, they are promoting a social ill that has a greater impact than homophobia. I am reminded of the economist who lectured woke companies at Davos on how they could make the world a better place. He told them: start paying more tax.

Sadly, we live in an era addicted to gesture and symbolism. For Manly, it seems displaying the jersey was more important than discussing the meaning of pride with its players. The club’s commitment to inclusion stopped short of including its staff in its diversity plan before announcing it.

Some gays are ambivalent about pride, and the cynical dismiss it as a merchandising and PR opportunity. I do think that Manly officials are sincere, but a mate noted the Manly pride jerseys cost $160 on pre-order, suggesting they have sold out.

While, as I said, I don’t need Manly to validate my sense of self, there was a time when I cared very much about the club. In 1995, star player Ian Roberts came out as gay, inspiring a generation of young gay men who were finding their way. The book about him Finding Out was compulsory reading. Manly supported Roberts. That’s the club’s real Pride achievement.

It was wonderful to see Roberts on centre stage again, so upset by the events of last week, trying to see all sides and reaching out to the players. Unforgivably, Manly had not organised this at the start of its pride initiative.

The Manly players should meet Harry Garside, the straight (if we must categorise people by sexuality) Olympic bronze medal-winning boxer. Garside occasionally wears skirts, paints his nails, appears in gay magazines and takes ballet classes. And as an ambassador for youth charity Reach Foundation, he is a staunch ally to diverse young kids who are going through tough times because they are a little bit different.

“However someone shows up in this world, I do not mind so long as people show respect to one another and try not to judge someone,” Garside told me over lunch recently.

Nick Kyrgios, in part, has the solution. When a journalist confronted him about violating the Wimbledon dress code, the tennis player’s response was: “Keep doing you then, champion”. We could all do with more of that.

Ian Roberts is a big supporter of the pride jersey because he knows it would help a closeted 15-year-old gay kid in Manly Vale who feels he doesn’t fit in and cannot contemplate life as a gay man.

Here’s something that would help much more: another gay player in the AFL or NRL. Just one. Then whoever wears what jersey wouldn’t matter so much. And that would be something we could all take pride in.

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