http://www.leaguehq.com.au/news/news/inside-the-boardroom/2009/03/11/1236447305497.html
Inside the boardroom: how club leadership ignored Gallop's pleas
Jacquelin Magnay | March 12, 2009
Manly Sea Eagles board member Max Delmege sat at the end of the heavy wooden table, keenly presenting his views. Usually, his son Brett Delmege and his financial controller Mike Smith go to most Manly meetings on his behalf, but the dramatic events were such that Delmege personally attended. For a club so fractured, this was a night of unity. For the first time since the bitter split of the board - divided between the owners, Max Delmege and the Penn family, represented by the club chairman Scott Penn and his father Rick Penn - the directors were in agreement.
When the Test fullback Brett Stewart had been called to the Dee Why police station at 6pm on Tuesday night, the board members were on high alert. By 7.15pm, they were in shock. Stewart had been charged with sexual assault. The police didn't wait for the DNA evidence, they had instead web camera footage taken from a neighbour's villa. A neighbour had filmed the common courtyard area last Friday night when he heard screams.
By 7.30pm, the extraordinary meeting in the Manly Leagues Club boardroom had started. Coach Des Hasler, who had been with Stewart when he was charged, along with Stewart's lawyer, the former Manly chairman Geoff Bellew, arrived to represent the playing group, including Stewart.
An underlying emotion was that the club needed to be seen to support Stewart, and that he was innocent until proven guilty. The previous example was the Titans' forward Anthony Laffranchi, who earned a Test jersey while his court case for sexual assault was ongoing. (He was later cleared.) Hasler was forthright on the importance of having Stewart in the team, not only because of his value to the Sea Eagles' back line but for the ongoing mental health of the player. It was clear Stewart, with the overwhelming support of his teammates, and the authority of the board, was to play.
It seemed the Stewart decision was awkward in a public relations sense, but essentially simple, although Delmege would later describe it as "one of the most difficult decisions of my life".
Delmege would be later accused by others at the meeting of having had a long lunch. "I haven't heard that allegation," he told the
Herald.
The board later issued a release saying it would not comment on the allegation. But that was a side issue. By 10pm it was looking at writing a press release. Hasler and Bellew left. Then came a call from NRL chief executive David Gallop, who had asked for the opportunity to speak to the board. For 20 minutes, he spoke on speaker phone asking the board to reconsider. Gallop asked them to stand down Stewart until the situation became clearer. He stressed that the club had to look at the code of conduct surrounding events leading up to the arrest, not the alleged incident. A key factor was that Stewart, only days earlier, had been the face of the game.
Hasler returned, and for two hours the board wrestled with the issue. Did being drunk at a club function and being asked to leave premises constitute being sidelined? In the end, the board came to the same decision as earlier in the night. Hasler had got his way. But not for long.
A half decent article by Magnay, thought i'd never say that.
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