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Why is Rugby League so negative?


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Born out of hostility, anger and dispute, it seems we've never gone away from those themes all these years later. Now, I can understand the natural pessimism at a time like a pandemic, it's only natural but Rugby League has a personality problem and an attitude. Now, I don't want to be blindly "Positive RL" and not acknowledge any problems or issues the game has but it is quite depressing how vitriolic and miserable some are.

Why is Rugby League so miserable and negative?

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59 minutes ago, Hela Wigmen said:

Born out of hostility, anger and dispute, it seems we've never gone away from those themes all these years later. Now, I can understand the natural pessimism at a time like a pandemic, it's only natural but Rugby League has a personality problem and an attitude. Now, I don't want to be blindly "Positive RL" and not acknowledge any problems or issues the game has but it is quite depressing how vitriolic and miserable some are.

Why is Rugby League so miserable and negative?

I’ve always found the trip (or car ride) to the game, pre match and debate afterwards thoroughly enjoyable.  Quite the opposite.

The nature of media is negative, on the whole.  Majoring on deaths and not on recoveries would have been censored in war times, but our media major on deaths alone, hour after hour.  What a business to be in.

If Denton creeps back onto the board you’ll know what hostility, anger and dispute is in the first post ?

 

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1 hour ago, Lowdesert said:

 

The nature of media is negative, on the whole.  Majoring on deaths and not on recoveries would have been censored in war times, but our media major on deaths alone, hour after hour.  What a business to be in.

The media are not there to be cheerleaders

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3 hours ago, Hela Wigmen said:

Born out of hostility, anger and dispute, it seems we've never gone away from those themes all these years later. Now, I can understand the natural pessimism at a time like a pandemic, it's only natural but Rugby League has a personality problem and an attitude. Now, I don't want to be blindly "Positive RL" and not acknowledge any problems or issues the game has but it is quite depressing how vitriolic and miserable some are.

Why is Rugby League so miserable and negative?

Be the change you want to see.

Start a positive thread.

.

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 Probably the older we get the better the game seemed a long time back,getting too sanitised now and stop and start,check this check that,nipple rules,change this rule and bring that back. thats before we get onto poor old refs whos job gets harder as the game speeds up year on year.

Bring back some biff/cold sponges and crowds will follow.i remember packed terraces.:kolobok_popcorm1:

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15 hours ago, Mr Plow said:

The media are not there to be cheerleaders

Thats fair enough mate, but there a different levels.  Go onto a Saints (or Hull, or Wigan etc )  local newspaper website and you will see positivity and optimism a lot more than negativity.  

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1 hour ago, Lowdesert said:

Thats fair enough mate, but there a different levels.  Go onto a Saints (or Hull, or Wigan etc )  local newspaper website and you will see positivity and optimism a lot more than negativity.  

I agree but you shouldn’t expect the media to not report something just because it’s negative, whether it’s a RL paper or national news.

I think with RL we all want the game to be bigger and more popular and we never quite manage to do it which makes people pessimistic I suppose

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I think it's the fans, not the media. I get the media are likely to be fans of the game but there's a proportion of fans who are the most negative people around. The media do their best. It's not always great but the majority are doing their bit.

Go to a game and its just "gerrum onside" all game regardless of where the defensive line is and abusing the referees based off a decision that's been replayed in a stadium, while the referee has to act incredibly quick to make a decision. Player's get abuse and vitriol spouted at them for any range of "misdemeanour" from daring to do their job for another side that isn't that of the abuser or having the propensity to drop a ball under pressure. 

Go on a game thread here and the majority are micro analysing every decision and incident while sat on their sofa and able to watch replays provided by Sky, while a referee must act quickly. Players and coaches are rubbish, the commentators are dull and talk rubbish and the game play isn't as good as it once was and crowds are dissected.  The abuse Super League chairmen take on here from lower league fans for the very obvious and totally correct "self-interest" of their club, as the lower league chairmen do as well, is ridiculous and borders on obsession.

Pick up a Rugby League paper or stick your headphones on and tune into a podcast and you've got some of the biggest sadists in Rugby League spewing their negativity. Some of the stuff Schofield gets away with saying and writing is astounding. His views are antiquated, often wrong and he changes his mind more times than you'd care to believe. 

Now, I don't think we should be "Positive RL" for the sake of it, like Harrison and Gledhill were/are on that radio show they do/did because it's false and not correct, I've got no problems with talking about and the reporting of the negative, as it needs to be done but there seems to be some Rugby League fans that revel in misery and putting the game down.

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5 minutes ago, Hela Wigmen said:

I think it's the fans, not the media. I get the media are likely to be fans of the game but there's a proportion of fans who are the most negative people around. The media do their best. It's not always great but the majority are doing their bit.

Go to a game and its just "gerrum onside" all game regardless of where the defensive line is and abusing the referees based off a decision that's been replayed in a stadium, while the referee has to act incredibly quick to make a decision. Player's get abuse and vitriol spouted at them for any range of "misdemeanour" from daring to do their job for another side that isn't that of the abuser or having the propensity to drop a ball under pressure. 

Go on a game thread here and the majority are micro analysing every decision and incident while sat on their sofa and able to watch replays provided by Sky, while a referee must act quickly. Players and coaches are rubbish, the commentators are dull and talk rubbish and the game play isn't as good as it once was and crowds are dissected.  The abuse Super League chairmen take on here from lower league fans for the very obvious and totally correct "self-interest" of their club, as the lower league chairmen do as well, is ridiculous and borders on obsession.

Pick up a Rugby League paper or stick your headphones on and tune into a podcast and you've got some of the biggest sadists in Rugby League spewing their negativity. Some of the stuff Schofield gets away with saying and writing is astounding. His views are antiquated, often wrong and he changes his mind more times than you'd care to believe. 

Now, I don't think we should be "Positive RL" for the sake of it, like Harrison and Gledhill were/are on that radio show they do/did because it's false and not correct, I've got no problems with talking about and the reporting of the negative, as it needs to be done but there seems to be some Rugby League fans that revel in misery and putting the game down.

So the problem with positive rugby league is its not negative enough?

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You only need to read the majority of the posts on the Political sub-forum to see how congenitally disgruntled and dissatisfied some fans are. Everything is wrong, everything is someone else's fault.

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21 hours ago, silverback said:

 Probably the older we get the better the game seemed a long time back,getting too sanitised now and stop and start,check this check that,nipple rules,change this rule and bring that back. thats before we get onto poor old refs whos job gets harder as the game speeds up year on year.

Bring back some biff/cold sponges and crowds will follow.i remember packed terraces.:kolobok_popcorm1:

Forgive my ignorance, but what are nipple rules?

"The history of the world is the history of the triumph of the heartless over the mindless." — Sir Humphrey Appleby.

"If someone doesn't value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove that they should value it? If someone doesn't value logic, what logical argument could you provide to show the importance of logic?" — Sam Harris

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2 hours ago, Dunbar said:

Forgive my ignorance, but what are nipple rules?

It were a new rule rumoured to be coming out for 2022,not head high any more tackles had to be below the nipples.:kolobok_scratch_one-s_head:

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Because RL doesn't like 'outsiders'. It's not inclusive at all - pretty much the total opposite. I think the inherent misery is because everyone is actually sick of the sight and sound of all the usual people/clubs but the thought of letting anyone else in makes them feel even worse. Its a kind of mass northern cognitive dissonance. 

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On 01/05/2020 at 16:22, Hela Wigmen said:

Born out of hostility, anger and dispute, it seems we've never gone away from those themes all these years later. Now, I can understand the natural pessimism at a time like a pandemic, it's only natural but Rugby League has a personality problem and an attitude. Now, I don't want to be blindly "Positive RL" and not acknowledge any problems or issues the game has but it is quite depressing how vitriolic and miserable some are.

Why is Rugby League so miserable and negative?

It`s hard not to be negative about the crass, superficial mainstream media coverage we have to put up with. I long ago stopped looking for RL in the popular press, but when I did a typical match report would be, - somebody scored a try, somebody else scored a try, somebody grabbed a try, somebody else grabbed a try, with a line chucked in about no quarter being asked for or given. How can you feel positively towards that?

The only mainstream media reports and stories I see now are on the BBC`s teletext 370 page, and they are as dire as ever. Who writes that c###?

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RL is an incredible game and the only  negativity connected with it is  those that hold the game back and some of the posters on these pages.

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6 hours ago, unapologetic pedant said:

It`s hard not to be negative about the crass, superficial mainstream media coverage we have to put up with. I long ago stopped looking for RL in the popular press, but when I did a typical match report would be, - somebody scored a try, somebody else scored a try, somebody grabbed a try, somebody else grabbed a try, with a line chucked in about no quarter being asked for or given. How can you feel positively towards that?

The only mainstream media reports and stories I see now are on the BBC`s teletext 370 page, and they are as dire as ever. Who writes that c###?

You think BBC Teletext is mainstream media? Where have you been incarcerated for the last 20 years?

It's a very long time since RL was covered in any detail by the UK printed press, but on the other hand it's a dying medium read by a shrinking and aging UK and global demographic so does that really matter in the modern world?

The sport gets it's fair share of online coverage relative to its size, you can easily find numerous articles on almost every RL issue or event with a couple of clicks. This includes from major media outlets, including the BBC which is one of the top online news and sports sources worldwide.

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Its a tough question to answer, all joking aside.

Firstly is it true?  Seems that way at times from the forum. Maybe its restricted to regular fans who go through the turnstiles, rather than those who mainly get their fix via Sky.

Maybe its cultural. Across the northern industrial belt, encouraged by professional northerners such as Alexei Sayle Mike Harding and Ian McMillan (excellent those these three  are) and  chip-carrying curmudgeons such as Dennis Skinner, and having suffered for generations under a local council hegemony, perhaps it seems that a disproportionate number of people look downwards and backwards rather than forwards and upwards.

Popular themes are the selfishness of "money men", the repression of the state-school north by the private-school south, the dislike and distrust of "bosses" whether club owners, SL directors, RFL bosses, or the Australian game. A good example is the interpretation by someone on here that  the recent £14 million loan is merely a Boris bribe.

 

 

 

 

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4 hours ago, JohnM said:

Its a tough question to answer, all joking aside.

Firstly is it true?  Seems that way at times from the forum. Maybe its restricted to regular fans who go through the turnstiles, rather than those who mainly get their fix via Sky.

Maybe its cultural. Across the northern industrial belt, encouraged by professional northerners such as Alexei Sayle Mike Harding and Ian McMillan (excellent those these three  are) and  chip-carrying curmudgeons such as Dennis Skinner, and having suffered for generations under a local council hegemony, perhaps it seems that a disproportionate number of people look downwards and backwards rather than forwards and upwards.

Popular themes are the selfishness of "money men", the repression of the state-school north by the private-school south, the dislike and distrust of "bosses" whether club owners, SL directors, RFL bosses, or the Australian game. A good example is the interpretation by someone on here that  the recent £14 million loan is merely a Boris bribe.

 

 

 

 

There's some interesting thoughts from life-long Labour voters in those life-long Labour constituencies that lost to the Tories last year. Some had been Labour since Clement Attlee was shining his horse brasses in Downing Street. The overriding theme I got from listening to those who voted Conservative for the first time in their life and indeed the lives of all their antecedents as well, was that voting Labour had achieved nothing for them. It had kept them in poverty. The epiphany came when instead of looking at the largely Tory south with a mixture of envy and disgust, they started to think upstream of their local problems and worked out that the colour of the rosette doesn't change people's lives, it's the mindset that does. Listening to people like Corbyn, Abbott, Burgon and Raynor could be soul destroying. No aspiration, no imagination, verve or dynamism. Condescending too. People saw through it and they'd had enough.

As a nation, I think we're all far too hard on ourselves and on each other. Our dreadful press covets bad news and tragedy like a fish covets water. Achievers are hounded while pratfall reality stars are feted. I don't know how it changes but I suspect many people thought, Boris is different, hopefully he can't be as bad as everyone else. Well I'm sure he can be just as bad but sometimes different, incompetent and serendipity are good enough! 

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On 03/05/2020 at 08:34, Whippet13 said:

You think BBC Teletext is mainstream media? Where have you been incarcerated for the last 20 years?

It's a very long time since RL was covered in any detail by the UK printed press, but on the other hand it's a dying medium read by a shrinking and aging UK and global demographic so does that really matter in the modern world?

The sport gets it's fair share of online coverage relative to its size, you can easily find numerous articles on almost every RL issue or event with a couple of clicks. This includes from major media outlets, including the BBC which is one of the top online news and sports sources worldwide.

Used "mainstream" to distinguish the BBC from our specialist media. There is of course a discernible gap in quality and knowledge between mainstream and specialist in the coverage of all sports, but it`s much wider in RL. It`s the very problem those behind "League Express" identified when they established the paper roughly three decades ago. And I don`t think it`s changed much. The articles you cite on the major media outlets still have all the same hallmarks of superficiality, and continue to portray the game as simpler than it is.

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