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A Welcome to Country was delivered before the Storm game in multicultural round (against the New Zealand Warriors) and will take place in Indigenous round in August.
The NRL club had previously declared it would reduce the number of Welcome to Country ceremonies to increase their cultural significance.
At a meeting late last year, the clubโs board agreed that Welcome to County ceremonies would occur before โmajor cultural eventsโ, but what constituted a major cultural event was not explicitly defined.
The club believes the lack of clarity between the board and management was to blame on Friday.
โOnce we understood the programming from management, we gave the green light to progress. By then, it was understandably too late for those who had already been informed of our earlier decision,โ Tripp said.
Tripp had previously said he was unaware of an incident at the Shrine of Remembrance on Friday morning, when far-right agitators had booed and heckled Bunurong elder Uncle Mark Brownโs Welcome to Country at the Anzac Day dawn service. But senior club sources said the morningโs incident had not helped the situation on Friday night.
Murphy told ABC Radio Melbourne on Monday that chief executive Justin Rodski initially told her the boardโs decision not to include the Welcome to Country was partly because of the disruption at the Shrine of Remembrance that morning, and they wanted to โprotectโ her.
But Murphy said she was not worried about booing, and the โthunderous applauseโ when the Welcome to Country was performed at the MCG for the Collingwood-Essendon AFL clash earlier in the day had lifted her spirits.
She said she was not sure if she would work with the Storm again, although she wanted to meet with the board.
โMy heartโs really broken so badly,โ she said.
Ky-ya Nicholson Ward, from the Wurundjeri female dance group Djirri Djirri that was also set to perform, said she was told of the Welcome to Country cancellation as she rehearsed on the field in the rain.
โOur instant response was shock, kind of disbelief amongst ourselves. And instantly we decided, no, weโre boycotting. This is disrespectful,โ Nicholson Ward said.
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Rabbitohs players steered clear of the issue when approached for comment on Monday.
This masthead revealed in 2023 that Brett Ralph, a Storm board member and part-owner, donated $75,000 to Advance Australia last financial year through his company, JMR Management Consultancy Services. Advance was the peak group behind the No campaign of the Voice referendum.
A Rugby Australia spokesman said there would be live Welcome to Country ceremonies at every Wallabies Test in 2025.
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