Paul Rowley - Kieron Purtill beef

[Harry Stottle]

31 minutes ago, EagleEyePie said:

It was an entertaining game for neutrals. The rivalry between these two sides really brings something to the games which is exciting to watch. In the back of my mind, though, is a worry that at some points things are going to go way too far and it will bring a lot of negative publicity to the sport. I don't mind rivalries. Arsenal v Man Utd in football was thrilling watching for years for similar reasons. However, the attitude from some Leigh fans towards anything linked with Toronto is pretty pathetic.

Still, you expect those within the club to conduct themselves in a certain way. Paul Rowley at Leigh got his team to play like thugs while dominating the league because they had more funds to buy the best players. He's now at Toronto where he's bought the best players, can dominate the league and once again has his team playing like thugs. He's one big ego and absolutely no class. I'd like Toronto to be successful but hopefully without Rowley because at the moment the Wolfpack's behaviour on the field is one of the worst things about the game, just like Leigh when he was in charge.

Glad you recognise that EEP, but please explain to me why all those who hated Leigh, Rowley and his players who write on these pages, suddenly developed an affinity for Rowley and his players many of whom previously wore the Cherry and White of Leigh when they moved over to Toronto, I suspect that had it been another UK club they would have carried the same mantle of hatred.

[Bolton Leyther]

To judge solely from the footage posted, it doesn't appear to me as though Purtill has anything to answer for.

[David Shepherd]

No fan of Rowley, but not sure he's done anything wrong here, that moron Acton seems to be the one who'll be up before the beak.

Ugly storm in a teacup.

More worrying is the reports of the Toronto team bus being attacked by Leigh fans.  

[DavidM]

Classy bloke Rowley , seems to revel in it . Was he was verballing Purtill ? And well , Acton is Acton . Purtill didn’t seem to do owt and comes across generally much better 

[EagleEyePie]

39 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Glad you recognise that EEP, but please explain to me why all those who hated Leigh, Rowley and his players who write on these pages, suddenly developed an affinity for Rowley and his players many of whom previously wore the Cherry and White of Leigh when they moved over to Toronto, I suspect that had it been another UK club they would have carried the same mantle of hatred.

There are loads of people who want Toronto to succeed. Every single rugby league fan should want Toronto to succeed, even if they don't like the guy who is coaching them right now. I think that desire to have a Canadian team do well and for an expansion gamble to pay off well makes people more forgiving of the way Rowley gets his team to play. It shouldn't though. The behaviour of the Toronto players in the Challenge Cup game, particularly their captain, was an absolute embarrassment that only shows the game in a negative light. 

Not that there aren't people who hate Toronto simply because they are an expansion club and want to blame them for the slow death of their own team despite the two things being entirely unrelated. However, Toronto should be called out when the behaviour of their players isn't acceptable, including those within the club who seem to encourage it (and seem to have encouraged such behaviour with their previous club too). At the moment it seems like they get a free pass because they're a bit of novelty.

[jpmc]

19 minutes ago, DavidM said:

Classy bloke Rowley , seems to revel in it . Was he was verballing Purtill ? And well , Acton is Acton . Purtill didn’t seem to do owt and comes across generally much better 

Yep definitely looked like rowley was starting the mind games for part 3 and Acton has took exception to whatever was said.

[GUBRATS]

As I put on the Bash thread , Toronto like Leigh before then under Pauls control arent essentially a dirty team , but he does encourage ' niggle ' and an all too obvious mantra of being ' in your face ' few Leigh fans liked it at the time and I doubt many neutral fans like it now , will he change ? , unlikely

Always going to be personality issues between the clubs until the former Leigh players start to move on , but it wouldnt surprise me if Toronto do get promoted and Leigh dont that Paul will be looking to ' pinch ' another 2 or 3 next year just to wind us up some more , that is how his mind works

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, Harry Stottle said:

Glad you recognise that EEP, but please explain to me why all those who hated Leigh, Rowley and his players who write on these pages, suddenly developed an affinity for Rowley and his players many of whom previously wore the Cherry and White of Leigh when they moved over to Toronto, I suspect that had it been another UK club they would have carried the same mantle of hatred.

Im happy to answer that Harry. Leigh unfortunately had a section of fans on this board and others who didnt endear themselves to many others.

Plenty of us enjoyed watching Leigh earn their promotoin over those two years, but dont forget that there are instilled rivalries and bitterness already there that arent for Toronto.

[The Daddy]

1 hour ago, David Shepherd said:

No fan of Rowley, but not sure he's done anything wrong here, that moron Acton seems to be the one who'll be up before the beak.

Ugly storm in a teacup.

More worrying is the reports of the Toronto team bus being attacked by Leigh fans.  

Yes I heard the police were called 

[Ant]

Leigh fans behaving abysmally is nothing new in my experience 

[David Shepherd]

Just now, Ant said:

Leigh fans behaving abysmally is nothing new in my experience 

I've usually found that they're OK TBH.  

Only times I've ever seen trouble was a couple of games at Fev a few  years ago, but that was a 6 and 2x3 situation.

Every club has a selection of knuckle draggers that can't handle their ale.  

[meast]

13 hours ago, sweaty craiq said:

Ref pulled them back into the game and was embarrassed so gave Leigh a pen to save his harris, Leigh not making the 4 will have serious repercussions and this ref may have cost many a person their job.

Translated as "I'm dead upset cos my team lost, but we can't lose because we are too good, so I'm going to have a rant about the referee"

[Phil]

So when Rowley coached Leigh they were “thugs and bullies” now he coaches Toronto who the Leigh fans who supported his tenure claim are “thugs and bullies” Nonsense Rugby League teams have to dominate their opponents physically otherwise they’re going to get steamrollered. I liked Rowley as a player at Fax, I like him as a coach. It’s not effin tiddlywinks. 

[Wildcat]

1 hour ago, Ant said:

Leigh fans behaving abysmally is nothing new in my experience 

I have always found exactly the opposite in my experience. Never had a spot of bother with Leigh fans.

[Ant]

12 minutes ago, Wildcat said:

I have always found exactly the opposite in my experience. Never had a spot of bother with Leigh fans.

Quite the opposite in my experience. On multiple occasions.

In fact I'd say the aggro directed at Toronto was similar to that directed at the Giants when we were in what was then the Premiership.

[Odsal Outlaw]

Just watched the game on delay, good, enjoyable game and very much agreed with Finnigans comments at the end - everyone likes to see a bit of aggression, adds to the spectacle!

I actually thought ref was good, it was defo a penalty at the end, TW were trying to milk a pen, BUT the one decision he did get wrong was the sin-bin, contact was on shoulder.

Really glad Toronto won, I’m a fan of what they are doing as a club, but not sure Rowley is the long term solution as his teams tend to employ a bit too much of the bully boy tactics which is easy when you win easy but as we saw at Wire they then struggle when suddenly things don’t go their way - could cost them in qualifiers. 

Touch and go for Leigh to make qualifiers now ... still think they’ll sneak in tho .... and then the re-match with TW could be a belter!

 

[Bedford Roughyed]

Although I note that Rowley only started using these dirty tactics after he left Leigh...

When opposing fans suggested that Leigh were niggly, dirty, had more sin bins and red cards, etc during that promotion season (and the season before), they were defended to the hilt by Leigh fans on here.  They were being picked on by refs, other teams could only play dirty because Leigh were too good, they never started any agro, other teams were jealous...

I'm just glad Leigh fans have now seen the light of what other clubs felt during that era.  

[Tre Cool]

Id like to see Rowley replaced by Wane.  He'll struggle at SL level with Toronto unless he learns some lessons quickly.

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, Bedford Roughyed said:

Although I note that Rowley only started using these dirty tactics after he left Leigh...

When opposing fans suggested that Leigh were niggly, dirty, had more sin bins and red cards, etc during that promotion season (and the season before), they were defended to the hilt by Leigh fans on here.  They were being picked on by refs, other teams could only play dirty because Leigh were too good, they never started any agro, other teams were jealous...

I'm just glad Leigh fans have now seen the light of what other clubs felt during that era.  

You must be mistaken. The promotion season was with Jukes in charge.

[LeytherRob]

26 minutes ago, Bedford Roughyed said:

Although I note that Rowley only started using these dirty tactics after he left Leigh...

When opposing fans suggested that Leigh were niggly, dirty, had more sin bins and red cards, etc during that promotion season (and the season before), they were defended to the hilt by Leigh fans on here.  They were being picked on by refs, other teams could only play dirty because Leigh were too good, they never started any agro, other teams were jealous...

I'm just glad Leigh fans have now seen the light of what other clubs felt during that era.  

I'll hold my hands up and admit that, despite not being in the more vociferous of defenders, I used to try and justify/make excuses about our questionable tactics. I don't think anyone wants to support a 'dirty' team so it's very easy with the aid of rose-tinted glasses to look for alternative reasoning. It probably didn't help that Rowley and Beaumont both fed off each other to create and encourage supporters to have a siege mentality of us against the world, they were two peas in a pod back then and i'm thankful that Beaumont seems to taken on a much more low-key role now. It's hard coming on to these sorts of forums when there is an unsavoury feeling towards your club.

 

It is quite amusing seeing a minority of the TWP fanbase on social media now starting to pick up this same mentality.

 

 

[meast]

2 hours ago, Bedford Roughyed said:

Although I note that Rowley only started using these dirty tactics after he left Leigh...

When opposing fans suggested that Leigh were niggly, dirty, had more sin bins and red cards, etc during that promotion season (and the season before), they were defended to the hilt by Leigh fans on here.  They were being picked on by refs, other teams could only play dirty because Leigh were too good, they never started any agro, other teams were jealous...

I'm just glad Leigh fans have now seen the light of what other clubs felt during that era.  

Leigh certainly didn't make many friends during that time, their antics on the field, their unlikeable coach and the boasting, bragging ,sheer arrogance and bloody mindedness of some of their fans made them a very unlikeable bunch.

I'm still waiting for them to take SL by storm and their thousands of fans taking over grounds to show the rest of us how it's done.

They are a lot more likeable now they've only got half a chip on their shoulders and got brought back down with a massive bump!

[meast]

4 hours ago, Ant said:

Quite the opposite in my experience. On multiple occasions.

In fact I'd say the aggro directed at Toronto was similar to that directed at the Giants when we were in what was then the Premiership.

A few of us, including some guys wearing Giants tops and a couple of Catalans fans got some grief of them at the million pound game last year, i understand they were a tad upset so got away as quick as we could, had some horrible stuff at the old Hilton park ground though.

[Monkeydo]

19 hours ago, sweaty craiq said:

Ref pulled them back into the game and was embarrassed so gave Leigh a pen to save his harris, Leigh not making the 4 will have serious repercussions and this ref may have cost many a person their job.

Surely you can dip into your multi millionaire pockets to stop that happening? 

[BenGilesRL]

Is it strange I've always found the 'Oh Leigh' song as if it's sung in disappointment?

As for Toronto, they haven't got any songs.

I'll get my coat.

(wink wink)

[Wakefield Ram]

I had a short polite conversation with Rowley after Toronto's 23-12 win at Dewsbury. He said he only had 23 full,-time players to pick from and they'd scored 6 tries. Well they'd scored 5 tries and Rams coach Neil Kelly had less than 23 part-time players to pick from. The two teams he's coached have had bigger full-time budgets in mostly part-time leagues. He failed to get promotion at Leigh and if Toronto get promoted,. I suspect he'll be moved on. An egomaniac with an inferiority complex.