Brett Stewart (back to camera) is congratulated by his Manly teammates after scoring his 100th NRL try earlier this week against Canberra. Photo / Getty Images
Manly are working on finally ending the feud between fullback Brett Stewart and NRL boss David Gallop.
The row erupted again this week after Stewart celebrated his 100th try with a "giddy-up" gesture, apparently in reference to Gallop's surname.
Sea Eagles coach Des Hasler then bizarrely declared Stewart's soul would
not be "cleansed" until he'd received an apology from Gallop for a suspension more than two years ago.
"I'd like to think that in the next month we'll try and resolve it, but it has to be behind closed doors," Sea Eagles chairman Scott Penn said.
"It needs to be done in a way that everyone can agree.
"Everyone's over it so we've got to bring it to a head.
"It's not productive."
Penn said that would potentially mean a meeting between Stewart and Gallop.
"I've been in dialogue with David and he's got his opinion on it as well," Penn said.
"We need to make common sense prevail and bring everyone together.
"It's a highly emotional issue and each side has an opinion, so it's not something that you just suddenly fix."
Stewart was banned from the opening four rounds of the 2009 competition for abusing alcohol at the club's season launch.
He was charged with sexual assault following an alleged incident on the same night, but was subsequently cleared in court.
Gallop has continually defended the NRL-imposed sanction, doing so again on Thursday. He has also said he is open to dialogue.
In the meantime, Penn wanted Stewart and Hasler to cease fire.
"As a club, we've certainly sent a message internally that everyone just needs to relax and we'll sort it out," he said.
"I know that Des and Brett have spoken and I think that, as a club, we've said, 'Look, we want to be in the press for the right reasons and we also don't want to keep dragging up a past issue'.
"We're confident that (Stewart) has been vindicated in the court of public opinion, however there's still some lingering issuesin terms of his sanctions that need to be discussed, but that's best done behind closed doors."
- AAP
