lemmy xaan
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Are the rules to what team one supports?
lemmy xaan replied to SouthBedfordshireFan's topic in The General Rugby League Forum
I followed Bradford from 66-90s but then lost interest after Bullmania faded. Got disillusioned with a lot of the game, but always loved international. As I live in the South, followed Broncos/HarleQ, but again, got disillusioned by poor ambition. Liked Catalans from afar. Brought my kids up to love RL and always took a gang to Wembley, etc. Then, when Leopards came up, it rekindled my interest - something new and unusual and aspirational. Wembley capped it. Now a massif (sic) Leigh fan. Love all they do. There's a lesson in there. -
England v Australia 2025 - coming to the UK?
lemmy xaan replied to Chris22's topic in The General Rugby League Forum
Spurs is the best ground, best ambiance, great novelty. Why go to Twickenham - a worse place in many ways - when Spurs and Wembley are much more iconic? The WC Twickenham opener in 2000 (2nd game played but the first on Grandstand had no one there hardly) in the pouring rain was less than half full and was an awful experience. What needs to happen is for the 3 dates/grounds to be fixed early and then a huge and innovative effort to fill without stupid scrambling discount price panics. By the way, I saw on social media somewhere a casual non-M62 guy saying he loved rugby league and would have gone to the 1st Wigan Samoa test but hadn't even been aware that it was on. -
I might be a bit biased, but still thought this was rather cool...... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFTunKvwwcI
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My first game was at Odsal in April 1969 (Northern 15 v HKR 10) and can remember loads of random details. For example, in those days, the teams made the "long walk entry" down the slope to a recorded brass band playing "She Loves You"! Terry Price was my hero, but he was getting a bit tubs by then and slowing down. Then I saw Northern beat a weakened Leeds 32-15 a few weeks later (a very rare event) at the season's end followed by the Championship Final at Odsal, Leeds v Cas; 28,000 in Odsal. An ugly violent match on pitch (Hynes, Hartley, etc) and off (massive terrace violence erupted - even in them days). It poured with rain and I got soaked before the start. The (just two) BBC cameras and Eddie W were at low near-pitch level on a flimsy wooden gantry in front of the main stand so that if you were in the best seats, your view was blocked! After that, it was off to the WD & HO Wills 7s at Headingley. Watkins's Salford always won the 7s in those days. In those days, we could never have dreamed that one day, all games would be on TV or that dangerous head-high tackles would one day not be normal play.
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What Club Do You Support?
lemmy xaan replied to Mumby Magic's topic in The General Rugby League Forum
I now support Leigh Leopards. No idea why, as I live in south. Just like them after their Wembley year. First game I saw was Bradford Northern v Hull KR in 1969. Bradford wore red shirts as the home side changed in those days. Oddly, the first live try I ever saw was an obstruction try awarded to Paul Litten. Northern won 15-10. My junior season ticket cost 2 shillings (10p). On an unrelated point, when I first went to Headingley, I thought the posts were really weird. Does anyone remember those posts? - they were not smooth; they were like trees; all knobbly and not quite straight. -
There's been loads of stuff already, here and on social media, but I think this deserves a separate header. I think it would be nice/interesting to know people's individual experiences /memories/feelings from the night. Sometimes, things are just so big that the only way to deal with them is to keep talking about them. Friday was one such time. Watching on TV from afar, I cried at the start and at the finish (that "My Way" bit at the end - wow!) and can't stop going back and watching again. There's special and there's beyond-words-special. Congratulations to five groups: 1. The RL "family" rises to these moments like no other. Unbelievable. RL gets some things wrong, but when it's like this, there's no other sport like it. 2. Leeds. Club, players/staff, fans, the singing, the crying, the songs, the banners, the grass paint 7, the special shirts, too much to name, etc. At every moment from big to small, it was sublime. Everything seemed to just be right. (I normally get angry about spelling mistakes, but tonight it seemed right to not worry about that one mishap.) 3. Sky. Credit where due, they did this proud. 4. And then there's Leigh. Full disclosure, I support Leigh. However, they were just the right team for the night (not least given RB's first game story). In a funny way, it was probably right that they lost - and in a "good" way with a rally at the end. But the club (DB, etc) deserve huge credit for the way they embraced the occasion - the statement beforehand, the banners, the fans' respect, Lindsey and kids with the ball at the end, the guard of honour, Lammy's perfectly judged post-match comments, etc, etc. (Without saying other clubs might not have done as well) Leigh were a truly class act tonight and I suspect that they will have become a "second favourite team" for some people watching. 5. And the Burrow family, of course, but words can't really express what needs to be expressed about their grace and bravery. Those images of Lindsey on the field at the end..... At times like these, we should be thankful that we are part of the RL tribe and especially thankful that we saw something like that that has just happened. Dare to dream.
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Cup Final Ticket Info, anyone?
lemmy xaan replied to Leeds Wire's topic in The General Rugby League Forum
We all get frustrated that the CCF at Wembley does not sell out as might the RU Final, NFL, Britney, etc, etc. I don't think there's enough managerial/marketing skill at RFL to really know how to do this (IMG might but their priority is SL), and as a result, I'm guessing the plan is split between "cheap" initiatives (Early Bird, triple-header, etc) and/or managed decline so that the problem eventually goes away. I've taken groups of non-RL people to the Final now for decades and would not be in a position to do this were it not at Wembley. On Saturday, 8 of us had a truly fab time and no one except me in the party cared about the attendance. I've x8 booked for 2025 and the price was under £300 which is silly cheap (relative to most other events of this nature) - although I appreciate that many people aren't in a position to do this. But none of that group would've even known the event was on had we not planned the day out long ago. What worries me is that a line of thought goes that if we shift to a smaller/non-capital stadium, the problem is over. It's not. The target just gets smaller, but the issue gets bigger (can't fill 50k stadium). There's so much myth that times were always better. The problem in fact has always been there to varying degrees. My first final was in 1973 and there was only +70k in, as in the following year with Warrington. Without looking, I'd say we've only ever sold out on a tiny handful of occasions. And quite a few historical finals have been in the 50-80k range. As for the quality of the rugby. if you think that older finals were better games, how about Cas v Wigan in 1970 which gave us just one try and so many head-shots (Keith Hepworth on Colin Tyler anyone?) that, by today's standards would have left it 3 v 2. The asset is Wembley and our game. The challenge is to find the managerial skill and calculated aggressive investment strategy with VFM in-built to solve a solvable attendance target. Other events are much better at affiliate marketing (where you encourage others to market/sell for you at incentive) that us. Think how many bodies/individuals are already planning days out for potential RFU crowds in 2025-6. It's all possible without losing Wembley. That or a quadruple-header at Headingley and 100% price discounts. -
looking at the Wembley seating plan, you could be forgiven for thinking that we are very nearly sold out of the "open" areas and will soon have to release the greyed-out south stand. Or is this some kind of Rl ticket office fake news again?
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The administrators should be able to sell a single one-off event of the quality that is the RL CC Final without the usual RL trick of trying to redesign the concept as if that will sell it any better. (Moving to Spurs or Newcastle or anywhere else and chasing the structure, etc is a separate discussion.) The major push (there won't be one, probs) to sell tickets (to an audience that are passive/unaware) should have been long underway, and the innovation should be here, rather than the endless talk of comp redesign. For example, setting up affiliate marketing, so that anyone (on TikTok, YT) can gain payment if they direct a viewer to a sale or so. Or having pop-up shops everywhere flogging tickets (such as funding clubs to sell tickets based on a section of the ground where say, Leeds fans we will be together having a great time in this pen, or Saints fans in that pen, etc). RL does not have a ready-made base (like RU or NFL) to gain casual sales. So we need graft, craft, ingenuity and investment just the push the tickets - instead of assuming that the empty upper grey tier is a fait accompli.
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Vegas Again/2025 and WCC
lemmy xaan replied to Sports Prophet's topic in The General Rugby League Forum
The small-minded laziness of UK field-marking has always been my bug-bear. Even talking into account the weather and ground-sharing, and possibly even a UK antipathy amongst some people towards "Americanisation" of field, it beggar's belief that our administrators can't see how much you impress key audiences, sponsors, etc by setting out a proper field dressing. There was a brief period (Leeds v Wigan "Offiah" challenge cup final springs to mind) when there was a bit of effort in pitch marking, but not much. It can be done. When NFL use Wembley or Spurs, they dress the field with colour. Alas, we can't even be arsed to wash out the soccer lines. That Las Vegas field, as it rolled in from outside, looked amazing. DW the week before? - errr not quite.... -
Strong sweet pipe tobacco smell at the back of the South Stand at Headingley, late 60s. Strong sweet urine smell at the back of the main Odsal stand, late 60s.