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Serious Question: Do some of you even like Rugby League?


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17 minutes ago, Tubby said:

That, I agree with unequivocally. As I say, there are always people at both extremes, but any of us who question the likelihood of unhindered expansion, simply due to the population of an abstract geographical area (for example), or suggest the England team aren’t up to snuff, are tarred with the Luddite/fervent traditionalist/RL-hater brush. 
 

There are two sides to every discussion and to dismiss one side without consideration is disingenuous at the very least. 

Nope, I have often criticised the games decisions and games I find poor viewing. You can be critical and enjoy it. 

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5 minutes ago, dkw said:

Use the forums ignore function, makes the forum much better...

And cue the "who said that" posts

 

😀

I know what you mean, I treat the forum as I treat things like tripadvisor, ignore the ‘reviews’ at either end of the scale. 

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10 minutes ago, Johnoco said:

Nope, I have often criticised the games decisions and games I find poor viewing. You can be critical and enjoy it. 

I sort of envy you there, I struggle to enjoy a poor game. Yesterday’s was good for probably 40-50 minutes, so I enjoyed it, but some have been dour, badly executed and really difficult to enjoy. 

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3 hours ago, DavidM said:

The basic premise that people who watch rugby league , go to rugby league , pile money into rugby league and spend large amounts of time talking about rugby league don’t really like it , arent really fans and don’t want it to grow bemuses me to begin with . A fair few of those are probably involved in the ‘ grass roots ‘ and play a part in keeping the game going . Everyone has and is entitled to their own opinions from their own perspective . Doesnt mean everything can be turned into a sweeping generalisation 

The basic premise that people who watch rugby league , go to rugby league , pile money into rugby league and spend large amounts of time talking about rugby league don’t really like it , arent really fans and don’t want it to grow bemuses me to begin with

That is not the basic premis though.  This is a direct quote. "there's a very vocal group of posters on this site and on social media that are very opinionated about not wanting the sport to be played or watched by broader audiences."

 

Doesnt mean everything can be turned into a sweeping generalisation 

But this is exactly the meaning in your post.

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4 hours ago, Johnoco said:

And I'd argue that it is because of this reliance on such a small pool of people, that was inevitable. 

Completely and totally this.

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett)

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8 minutes ago, JohnM said:

The basic premise that people who watch rugby league , go to rugby league , pile money into rugby league and spend large amounts of time talking about rugby league don’t really like it , arent really fans and don’t want it to grow bemuses me to begin with

That is not the basic premis though.  This is a direct quote. "there's a very vocal group of posters on this site and on social media that are very opinionated about not wanting the sport to be played or watched by broader audiences."

 

Doesnt mean everything can be turned into a sweeping generalisation 

But this is exactly the meaning in your post.

He literally mentions people not liking rugby league . 

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10 minutes ago, Tubby said:

I sort of envy you there, I struggle to enjoy a poor game. Yesterday’s was good for probably 40-50 minutes, so I enjoyed it, but some have been dour, badly executed and really difficult to enjoy. 

No, you misunderstand. I don’t enjoy poor games, I meant that you can be critical of certain things but still enjoy the sport overall. 

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7 minutes ago, DavidM said:

He literally mentions people not liking rugby league . 

He ACTUALLY titles the topic as "Serious Question: Do SOME of you even like Rugby League? 

So for anyone to interpret that as ALL is ACTUALLY  mistaken

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8 minutes ago, JohnM said:

He ACTUALLY titles the topic as "Serious Question: Do SOME of you even like Rugby League? 

So for anyone to interpret that as ALL is ACTUALLY  mistaken

Who interpreted it as all ? You talk about misinterpreting , well I think you have . The people I talked about are the group of people he seems to have a problem with . They may have different opinions and perspectives but they’re rugby league fans . I also reject the premise that fans can’t be both immersed in the heartlands and be for expansion , that’s a spurious argument 

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why would i not like rugby league? it has cost me thousands of pounds over the years - i have lost my sense of smell and the use of a knee playing it- my national team has never won a series against the aussies as long as i have watched the game and prob never will - whats not to like?

see you later undertaker - in a while necrophile 

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9 minutes ago, graveyard johnny said:

why would i not like rugby league? it has cost me thousands of pounds over the years - i have lost my sense of smell and the use of a knee playing it- my national team has never won a series against the aussies as long as i have watched the game and prob never will - whats not to like?

You are one of those people who are always looking on the bright side, I can tell.

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I do feel some are over political. I do feel this can create a negative environment for a potential rugby league fan. I do love the fact that Jamaica, Albania, Greece etc all have teams and want to progress. The women's game is taking off which is fantastic. There have some very good women's games ,the standard has shot up in the years since the inaugural superleague grand final at the etihad campus. I went to that and the atmosphere was great. But this is a forum and everyone is entitled to their own opinions both negative and positive. The more people and countries involved in rugby league,the better. And yes I do love rugby league.

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10 minutes ago, voteronniegibbs said:

I'll see your lost sense of smell and raise you two missing teeth

and four broken ribs! 

 

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7 hours ago, The Daddy said:

Do you even want Rugby League to do well? Do you want the sport exposed to millions of people with a vibrant grass roots section?

I have to ask these questions because I do think there's a very vocal group of posters on this site and on social media that are very opinionated about not wanting the sport to be played or watched by broader audiences. They want to keep Rugby League as a sport played in the same 'heartland' communities as it has done for over 100 years and these people tend to express negative views on anything that could lead to more people playing, watching or even investing, that's because they see Rugby League as something that belongs to them and their communities and it's not to be shared with any new audiences.

Bearing in mind, this is all against a backdrop of declining TV revenue, crowd declines and a real lack of blue chip multinational sponsorship. Does that not concern these folk?

I read some of the comments on here and it's clear that some posters are taking great joy when efforts to broaden the appeal of RL fails, even after watching an exciting test match yesterday France v England on a Saturday afternoon on the BBC where France debuted a number of young players and despite defeat managed their best result against England for a number of years, there are the same posters that come on here pushing the same narratives, 'Oh the game was terrible', 'Both teams will get thrashed by Aus, NZ', 'France were terrible, there's no point in playing this game'. They loved it when Toronto was booted out of SL, they were overjoyed when Ottawa packed it in, they wanted Toulouse to fail in promotion and Featherstone promoted instead, they wanted England to paste France by 50-60 points so they can say I told you so. 

Also, it's not just foreign clubs that are the target of the small mindedness (coz the argument they use now is that the UK league should only be for UK clubs) several years ago London Broncos copped a lot of negativity because many didn't want them in SL league either and I can already see that now Newcastle have turned full time and showing some ambition negativity is being turned towards them. 

I do think now that people like this don't even like Rugby League and for them it's become political and the behaviours around this are partisan in nature, for a lot of Canadians I know who got involved with the sport and wanted to promote it they found this culture to be very toxic and off putting.

Is this how we want RL to be seen by new volunteers and audiences?

Don’t forget that the internet amplifies views to extremes and probably less than 1% of RL fans use this website. 

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4 hours ago, Dave T said:

This is exactly it. 

Other than trolls, I don't know anyone who doesn't like the sport and doesn't want it to do well. We all just disagree how we go about that. 

And who should be a part of it 

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After 25 years of Super League, should we not ask what has SL done for the sport in the northern hemisphere? 

Many would argue that nothing has changed in 25 years, and that to focus purely on the lack of expansion is glossing over the abject failure of super league. Super league has drained all the TV revenue for long enough, which has been squandered on funding southern hemisphere players 'holidays', rather than development of players in this country.

We were told that this was the way forward, but sadly, the game in this country is slowly dying, choked from the top.

 

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14 hours ago, The Daddy said:

I read some of the comments on here and it's clear that some posters are taking great joy when efforts to broaden the appeal of RL fails, even after watching an exciting test match yesterday France v England on a Saturday afternoon on the BBC where France debuted a number of young players and despite defeat managed their best result against England for a number of years, there are the same posters that come on here pushing the same narratives, 'Oh the game was terrible'

For some posters on the match thread, my impression was a minority, the main point of the first 20 minutes was that France were rubbish and the main point of the rest of the game was that England were rubbish. More significant for me was the attitude of the BBC commentary team, particularly Jamie Peacock, whose instinct was to expect a routine trouncing and use any period of the game where this narrative failed to unfold as cause for carping about the English performance.

The same negativity prevails in Oz. When Tonga beat the Kangaroos, the reaction of Andrew Johns was merely that the Aussies had "disrespected the shirt". No welcome for a competitive international game or credit to the Tongans.

English Soccer is no different. But in Rugby Union attitudes are generally more positive, which indicates to me that all this is linked to social class rather than geography.

On many threads I`ve cited the peculiar interpretation of the word "forward" that RL applies in relation to passing and knock-ons. It matters in itself because it adversely affects RL on the field, but it also acts as a metaphor for the contrasting cultures between League and Union. Why does a League fan want to see a pass as forward when a Union fan would see it as flat? Why does a League referee want to see a dropped ball as forward when a Union referee would see it as backward?

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5 hours ago, unapologetic pedant said:

Why does a League fan want to see a pass as forward when a Union fan would see it as flat? Why does a League referee want to see a dropped ball as forward when a Union referee would see it as backward?

Ah, now I can help you on this one. It's because if something close to action breaks out, they are terrified that stopping it for trivial reasons like forward passes etc might mean they never get another chance to witness anything resembling a running game. 

HTH

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21 hours ago, The Daddy said:

Do you even want Rugby League to do well? Do you want the sport exposed to millions of people with a vibrant grass roots section?

I have to ask these questions because I do think there's a very vocal group of posters on this site and on social media that are very opinionated about not wanting the sport to be played or watched by broader audiences. They want to keep Rugby League as a sport played in the same 'heartland' communities as it has done for over 100 years and these people tend to express negative views on anything that could lead to more people playing, watching or even investing, that's because they see Rugby League as something that belongs to them and their communities and it's not to be shared with any new audiences.

Bearing in mind, this is all against a backdrop of declining TV revenue, crowd declines and a real lack of blue chip multinational sponsorship. Does that not concern these folk?

I read some of the comments on here and it's clear that some posters are taking great joy when efforts to broaden the appeal of RL fails, even after watching an exciting test match yesterday France v England on a Saturday afternoon on the BBC where France debuted a number of young players and despite defeat managed their best result against England for a number of years, there are the same posters that come on here pushing the same narratives, 'Oh the game was terrible', 'Both teams will get thrashed by Aus, NZ', 'France were terrible, there's no point in playing this game'. They loved it when Toronto was booted out of SL, they were overjoyed when Ottawa packed it in, they wanted Toulouse to fail in promotion and Featherstone promoted instead, they wanted England to paste France by 50-60 points so they can say I told you so. 

Also, it's not just foreign clubs that are the target of the small mindedness (coz the argument they use now is that the UK league should only be for UK clubs) several years ago London Broncos copped a lot of negativity because many didn't want them in SL league either and I can already see that now Newcastle have turned full time and showing some ambition negativity is being turned towards them. 

I do think now that people like this don't even like Rugby League and for them it's become political and the behaviours around this are partisan in nature, for a lot of Canadians I know who got involved with the sport and wanted to promote it they found this culture to be very toxic and off putting.

Is this how we want RL to be seen by new volunteers and audiences?

There may be an element in this of we always expect more from the things we love, often unrealistically or even irrationally. And when let down the hurt can be more acute, and sometimes following that can be anger, resentment or even like on here, we lash out.

An analogy could be made with the expectations we place on families and close friends compared to acquaintances and strangers. 

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Anyone bothering to find and post on this forum must have some love for the game,as others have pointed towards each individual has there reasons for following and sometimes the game doesn't appear to be the one they recognize, those of us from the small traditional towns see their team as priority and understand the family type attachment and culture of their club, this brings a further question to myself of would I follow rugby league if my father hadn't taken me a mile to the local club and I had been instead born away from the sport 

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