Ray Hadley is reporting that the divide at Manly started long before the pride jersey fiasco. He says it started because DCE was not subjected to the same bubble conditions as the rest of his team mates last year:
Ray Hadley on 2GB:
“We all know that last year, first of all the players went into a bubble and a number of clubs went into Twin Waters in the Sunshine Coast,” Hadley revealed on 2GB.
“I think Penrith were among the clubs that went there, Manly certainly went there, Newcastle went there and maybe the Roosters were there at a time as well.
“Manly were there as well, they went there, when restrictions were eased the families were exported from New South Wales to spend time with the players and be housed in I guess a location where fathers had access to children and their wives, partners and things like that.
“On the Sunshine Coast Manly there with other New South Wales based teams there was apparently special dispensation given to the skipper Daly Cherry-Evans to live away from the bubble in a house.
“Completely legal but that didn’t go down too well with other players, whose wives and family were living in close vicinity to where they were.
“You had the coach allowing the captain to be special and live in a house away from the rest of the players and that created a divide and I’ve confirmed that with a number of players.
“They tell me that it created a divide and that divide was well before the rainbow jumper round, well before it.
“To try and trace it back to happening around the rainbow jumper round is ridiculous, it happened when Des Hasler decided as the coach to allow the captain to live elsewhere and some of the players were upset about it and continue to be upset about it.
“I don’t quite understand how this all happened but it did, there’s talk today Tony Mestrov the new CEO will solve all the problems, well he can’t be that good Tony.
“No mistake about this, any change at Manly will simply be someone carrying out the wishes of the owner of Scott Penn that’s how it works.
“If you own the club you make the decisions and he owns the club and he’s back from New York at the moment and he’s taking ownership over what happens I imagine.”
