Trojan
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Posts posted by Trojan
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Unfortunately, that's not an uncommon mindset. There are those who think that only born-and-bred Northerners deserve Rugby League and that nobody else can possibly be a 'true' fan or hold a valid opinion on the sport.
The whole wording of this petition could not be better designed to be ignored by the RFL. It comes across as paranoid, backward-looking and entirely negative.
The fact remains that most RL fans in the "heartlands" have chosen RL as their sport. There's plenty of premiership soccer in this area - Liverpool, Everton, Bolton, Wigan, Man C, Man U, plus the championship, 1st and 2nd division Yorkshire sides. There's top class Union at Leeds and Sale and any number of smaller clubs, but RL fans turn out in large numbers to support their teams.
This can't be said of - say London - where there's been a club for nigh on thirty years - long enough to establish itself as the first choice sports team perhaps a small minority of Londoners, but nevertheless a significant minority. This simply hasn't happened. And yet the RFL has persevered with them through their various incarnations, and those of us in the heartlands who allegedly think only their opnions count have (AFAIR) never been consulted about their continued subsidised existence.
Plus of course franchising, Super League, or summer Rugby. I don't recall as a regular "heartlands" supporter being asked my attitude on any of these major changes to the game. So rather than "paranoid," given their treatment by the game's administrators I'd rather use the adjective "loyal" if no one minds that is.
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2b. You've obviously not been out of the M62 "heartlands" very often then in the last decade. When I first moved down to the south east of England, there were no rugby league clubs.
You must have lived in the South a long time Craig, Fulham/Crusaders/Broncos/Harelquins are 30 years old next month. I recall a London amateur RL side playing a friendly at Belle Vue in 1969.
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I'm sure i have seen Padge's name on the credits
(Dad's army that is)what do you say Dave
He wasn't Pike was he? (stupid boy
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You can't denude a team of all its best players - Fielden, Peacock, Lowes, Pryce, Vainokolo, Deacon, plus its best coach - Noble and expect the same perfomances. If anyone is to blame for Bradford's current plight it's Caisley - who's now long gone.
The Bulls have been in a decline since his departure. They are in a losing streak and to revive an argument from another thread, they don't look like top 8 contenders, so from the players' and fans' points of view what's the point?
Their season is effectively over. They should still be capable of beating the likes of Salford but it looks like they can't be bothered.
Was it only 2005 when they beat Leeds in the GF? With Lowes playing his last game, Pryce MOM. Peacock went to Leeds because Caisley told him he could F-off when he asked for more money. Noble and Fielden were allowed to go to Wigan without much of a fight. When you think of them in the early noughties, and look at them today - it's a case of how are the mighty fallen?
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The 3:00 v 3:30 kick off I believe tied in with local licensing laws.
On a Saturday afternoon, under restricted opening hours, different areas had slightly different hours.
Kick offs were timed around the pub hours.
Leigh traditionally have a 3:30 ko where as Wigan was always 3:00, Saturday afternoon in Wigan pubs shut at 3:00 and in Leigh it was 3:30.
When the games moved to Sunday it stayed that way as on a Sunday the pubs shut at 2:00 or 2:30 but clubs had an hours extension.
Basically they didn't want to compete with the pubs and clubs
Also bare in mind that many clubs had their own supporters club which made money for the club and you would want to maximize the amount of time supporters were in the bar.
In the days when I was a regular at Belle Vue it always puzzled me how they got away with keeping the bars open on Sunday afternoons.
Clubs certainly moved from Saturday to Sunday because of counter attractions of Saturdays, including live sport on TV (not necessarily Rugby) Racing for starters. My uncle a miner would spend his entire Saturday afternoon flitting between the bookies at the bottom of the street and his TV.
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It was a brilliant effort all round.
The figure which most stands out for me is Saints getting over 10k for Quins. It makes you wonder whether people may prefer Sunday afternoons? Glad they got to see a competitive game as well.
I hope the good people of Bradford hang in there. The vast majority of teams have seen darker teams in the last few years. It is just harder when there is such a gap between expectation and delivery.
Spot on. That's why the RFL moved most fixtures there in the seventies. The only exceptions IIRC were Leeds who always preferred to play at Headingley on a Friday night, I seem to remember Salford playing Fridays too.
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Well done the Gallant Youths
Karl Harrison really has made a difference there. What can Salford have been thinking about? -
Under 11's, Leeds had a set of twins called the Gibbons
(i will check my programme tonight when i get in from work)
Funky?
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there were some real sharp dressers in the crowd billycock hats and velvet collared overcoats
that main stand at Oldham is the only bit of stadium infrastructure that I can recall seeing
also is that Goldthorpe at the right of the team shots at the start of the Hunslet film
fascinating stuff. Lots of period detail.
Is it Oldham then? I thought with the steep terracing it must be Fartown
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Sorry to follow you off topic, but what happened before the penalty area? Where could the keeper handle the ball?
I know that at one time in soccer an out field player was allowed to make "a fair catch" catch of the ball and call for a mark. And a free kick.
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I have a feeling that the only significant changes to the rules since the formation of the football league in 1888 are the creation of the penalty area, where the goalkeeper can handle the ball and the backpass. All the major changes took place between 1863 and 1888. Not sure when offside became settled though and any changes to that have been 'interpretation' rather a change to the law.
You mean the 18 yard (or 16.452 m) line
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Leeds meanwhile were trying to off-load John Galllagher to anyone that would take him, . Doug Laughton Leeds coach was in bother for comments to referee Ian Ollerton
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The fallacy of metrication being a more accurate system is just that.
Not more accurate - just easier to measure in mm. than in fractions of an inch.
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This was in the years between the abolition of the ruck and maul and the introduction of the play-the-ball. Every tackle resulted in a scrum. Watch how fast they form the scrums though.
The Mitchell and Kenyon stuff is brilliant, they made a point of doing crowd shots so that they could get people to come and pay to watch themselves later. The behaviour of people when they see some form of film/tv camera hasn't changed in over 100 years.
I went to the screening of the Mitchell and Kenyon NU stuff at the National Media Museum about four years ago - it was great.
It must be unique to be able to see how a game was actually played over 100 years ago. There's plenty of soccer stuff on Mitchell and Kenyon but I don't think the basic game of soccer has changed as much as RL has from those days.
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Fev were relegated in 1992, which was sad, especially as their fate was in their own hands, they only needed a draw at Wakey and either Hull, Bradford or Salford would have accompanied Swinton through the trap-door - oh well.
But it was doubly sad for the game - it was the last season of Station Road. I went to Station Road to watch Fev not long before the end of the season. It was run-down and dilapidated, and there was a very small crowd, most of whom were from Fev.
I've just been reading a book about Grand/Championship Finals, many of which along with Test matches, cup semis, and County Cup ties were held there in front of large crowds. Sad year for RL 1992. Did Fartown close the same season?
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Having being a ball boy in the CC final in 1983 I love it, to me it's the pinnacle of achievment in RL having more history than the GF which is a super league invention anyway, long may the CC continue.
Greatest CC final ever
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They won the Challenge Cup 2002.
That's a Mickey Mouse trophy - NE said so years ago.
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Various militaries seem to use it as well.
I think Caterpillar (the American company I referred to) are finally coming to terms with the metric system. But there are thousands (maybe millions) of their machines where everything is an imperial size. Except of course for capacities - the American gallon and quart are different to ours.
There was a joke on Frasier, where in order to celebrate independence day, Daphne (who's English) and a few of her English mates were getting together for an American style evening including "not using the metric system"
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Go to some research Troje.
Since 2008 FIFA has stipulated football pitch measurements in metres as the primary measurement.
Commentators may talk in yards, but most of them are olf farts like yourself who can't cope with the modern world.
I've been using the metric system at work since the late seventies - it's much easier to take accurate measurements in mm than fractions of an inch. However, I've not yet discovered a metric way to measure the age of my farts. Yesterday's after saurkraut with my meal were fairly spectacular though but I'm not sure how old they were
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I would have thought the French influence was more important.
I would imagine that both rugby codes went metric in a bid to become "international" whilst soccer didn't need to do so since it was already global; cricket had no desire to be more than a commonwealth club.
mmm probably so. ta.
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The benefit i would say is that it gives you a base which seem pretty loyal to the choices they make. Think back to soccer pre-1990 - caged in sections, serious chance of injury and even death just from attending a game, despised by the mainstream in the main, terrible grounds, banned from europe. But the working class base never abandoned the game, which meant when the opportunity came to expand its popularity it was still in relative rude health. Without that loyalty i would argue even soccer would have been in danger of collapse in the 80s.
But i agree that diversifying that base is essential for long term prosperity. Im personally looking forward to the prawn sandwiches cuz i have to tell you all - the food at rugby league games is uniformly terrible. And i'm a council estate boy.
Well I hate prawns, in fact I hate all crustaceans (nothing personal just as food) and the pies at Fev are ace.
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The imperial system isn't even taught in schools anymore, its just football being stuck behind the times once again. on a side note the situation in Britain where both metric and imperial are used is pathetic.
I'm afraid the business I've been in are guilty of mixing systems e.g. 5/8" x 54m bolts. The reason is that the bolts are manufactured in either Italy or the Far East, but the bolt diameter is largely defined by American manufacturers who tend to dominate in this particular sphere.
But my question hasn't been answered.
The rules and pitch markings for all three major UK football games were formulated in this country and yet only soccer still use imperial. I would guess that in the case of Union it was the NZ influence and in the case of League the Oz influence -but if this is so, why is cricket still using 22 yard pitches instead of 20.12 metres?
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No need to worry.
Their crowds have increased to such a level they are completely self sufficient.
At least thats what Mick tells us regularly.
They'd quite a good following at Batley today - I'd say the crowd was 50/50 Batley and Barrow. Which isn't bad considering the distances involved.
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I know Union went metric in the eighties - the 25 yard line became the 22 metre line. We went metric in the nineties - the 25 yard line became the 20 metre line - we also have the 40 and 10 metre line.
But I was watching the Soccer world cup tonight, and the commentators were talking about the 18 yard line and the 12 yards from the penalty spot to the goal.
I presume from this that soccer - the really global game is still using imperial measurements. Why aren't we? (not that I've anything against the metric system - I'm just curious)
Which R.L club has biggest crowds per capita ?
in The General Rugby League Forum
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Where does it start
