Are the rules to what team one supports?

[SouthBedfordshireFan]

Recently I watched a video online pertaining to valid reasons to support your association football club. The valid reasons being it is your local team or your family supports the club with the person in the video being born in Leeds but their Dad was from North London and formerly held an Arsenal season ticket.

The key invalid reason being fans of clubs merely because they are successful. 

How does this work for rugby league?

Would a Wigan Warrior fan currently outside of its catchment area/family member connection be labelled a glory hunter or do rugby league fans care not that much about the whys and wherefores of why a fan supports a team or not?

I mean my team will always be Luton Vipers (whatever happened to them?) so does not relate to me anyway

Thank you.

 

 

[gingerjon]

I've always believed that the team chooses you.

[sam4731]

8 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

I've always believed that the team chooses you.

Alright Yoda, have a minute.

[Eddie]

I used to be a snob about this, but now just think people should support whoever they like. 

[Father Gascoigne]

26 minutes ago, Eddie said:

I used to be a snob about this, but now just think people should support whoever they like. 

I've found that once I hit 30, the results of the teams I followed stopped affecting my mood. I've followed serial winners in some sports and absolutely losers in others. Neither felt better than the other. Winning feels so hollow compared to what it did in my teens. So much so that I've often watched oppo teams instead of my own just because I prefer watching one of their players. 

Sport has become a matter of habit, and I reckon I take greater joy in discussing it than actually watching it. The same is true of other habits like gaming. I rarely play games these days but still read about it and discuss it avidly. 

I used to wonder as a kid how it was possible that older generations preferred to listen to their ###### music, watching their ###### 60s television shows and movies over the newer stuff. I now understand everything. 

My advice to anyone young looking to get into sport: Pick among the most successful clubs, and the ones that consistently spend the most money. You'll come to resent these sports when you're older for not making you feel like they did in adolescence, so you may as well have fun with it and experience the joys of winning while you're young. 

 

[The Hallucinating Goose]

1 hour ago, Eddie said:

I used to be a snob about this, but now just think people should support whoever they like. 

I agree, quite frankly we shouldn't be picky about who supports who in our sport, just be grateful for the support.

[The Art of Hand and Foot]

I'm Oldham born and bred and would support Oldham at tiddlywinks. I do know of Oldhamers who support wigan or Salford!!!! Why? because they're superleague teams. Another factor is their age, they've never known Oldham as a top RL team. But then again I know Oldhamers who support united or city!!! Again they've never known Oldham athletic as a top team. Are they glory hunters, or do they just want to watch top tier football? Hopefully as both teams improve then maybe so will their allegiances. 

Edited October 31 by The Art of Hand and Foot

[Adelaide Tiger]

I follow Cas in RL because I was born there and lived there for 42 years.

I follow both Leeds Utd and Barnsley in football as they are both a similar distance to Cas.

Of course I follow Yorkshire CCC.

The only outlier is that I also follow Aberdeen at football.  Why, I hear you ask …. It is because I was bought a Shoot Football Annual for Christmas in 1970 and there was an article about Aberdeen winning the 1969/70 Scottish Cup Final against Celtic.

[Father Gascoigne]

13 minutes ago, Adelaide Tiger said:

I follow Cas in RL because I was born there and lived there for 42 years.

I follow both Leeds Utd and Barnsley in football as they are both a similar distance to Cas.

Of course I follow Yorkshire CCC.

The only outlier is that I also follow Aberdeen at football.  Why, I hear you ask …. It is because I was bought a Shoot Football Annual for Christmas in 1970 and there was an article about Aberdeen winning the 1969/70 Scottish Cup Final against Celtic.

These must be heady times at the Tiger household. 

[Tommygilf]

3 hours ago, gingerjon said:

I've always believed that the team chooses you.

 

3 hours ago, sam4731 said:

Alright Yoda, have a minute.

Surely this is more Ollivander? Mr Potter

[sweaty craiq]

My town Leigh is a good example. For many years outside the top flight and Wiggins dominance saw the emergence of said shirts around town, it coincided with an invasion of Humbles looking for a better life.

Kids didn’t want to be associated with failure and adults simply stopped watching bar the odd BIG CC game etc.

Few if any Leigh ‘fans’ had no history to associate themselves to the club, we weren’t on TV or winning at Wembley/OT. So ‘new’ fans did as we did with alien sports on tv eg American football or Golf, they choose a tv club and it gave them a bit more emotion for tv games.

Pick a club, enjoy and get yourself to a GF or Wembley or a big derby - the important word being enjoy

[Barry Badrinath]

2 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

 

Surely this is more Ollivander? Mr Potter

Eric perez is trying to establish a team in hogsmeade village as we speak

[unapologetic pedant]

6 hours ago, Father Gascoigne said:

I used to wonder as a kid how it was possible that older generations preferred to listen to their ###### music, watching their ###### 60s television shows and movies over the newer stuff. I now understand everything. 

What's going on here?

Filter or poster?

[fieldofclothofgold]

Everyone to their own ,but me it's the team in the area where I was born and brought up and started watching the game . I suppose times have changed since the mid 1950s . 

[17 stone giant]

8 hours ago, SouthBedfordshireFan said:

How does this work for rugby league?

You need to have been born and live within a club's catchment area as defined by IMG.

Otherwise you're not a true fan and deserve to be ridiculed and ostracised.

[SouthBedfordshireFan]

Just now, 17 stone giant said:

You need to have been born and live within a club's catchment area as defined by IMG.

Otherwise you're not a true fan and deserve to be ridiculed and ostracised.

So where would South Bedfordshire fall in terms of catchment area? 

Bedford Tigers?

[Yorks Tim]

8 hours ago, gingerjon said:

I've always believed that the team chooses you.

I'm from York and that's where I started watching the game. That club fell apart after I left for college (1979) and I only watched cup games and internationals on the telly after moving to Coventry.

When Coventry Bears started up, it was a good opportunity to start going to games again and I have been pretty much ever-present since - Midlands Hurricanes now of course.

Sometimes I feel a slight pang of guilt for not following York again but the bond was broken and new ones have grown since. I'm comfortable with that. 

No comparison to football where I've always followed Leeds United with no break in attendance.

  

 

  

[17 stone giant]

15 minutes ago, SouthBedfordshireFan said:

So where would South Bedfordshire fall in terms of catchment area? 

Bedford Tigers?

Sounds about right.

[ricky]

2 hours ago, 17 stone giant said:

You need to have been born and live within a club's catchment area as defined by IMG.

Otherwise you're not a true fan and deserve to be ridiculed and ostracised.

And your money is certainly not welcome in this cash-drenched sport

[iffleyox]

I supported Oxford because I lived in Oxford and had no previous RL affiliation.

Since they folded I’ve been an itinerant attendee of random matches. 
However, since 2016 I’ve been a Trin fan - they were the first SuperLeague side I attended a match at and somewhere on here is a post about the spectacular welcome my mate and I had. 
 

it was the early Carter years and a pin in the map. No connection to Trin or Wakefield, but then no connection to any other RL side either. We obviously weren’t glory hunters. Trin’ll do for me.

[lemmy xaan]

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.

[sweaty craiq]

1 hour ago, lemmy xaan said:

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.

Be careful what you say on here pal the Luddites will be gathering

[gingerjon]

10 minutes ago, sweaty craiq said:

Be careful what you say on here pal the Luddites will be gathering

Yes, people who are keen for rugby clubs to reach fans outside their traditional borders really hate it when someone from outside a club's traditional borders becomes a supporter.

[Eddie]

2 hours ago, lemmy xaan said:

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.

If I was picking a team now, rather than following my nearest one who I first saw as a kid, I’d go with Leigh or Hull KR also, two clubs that others should be looking very closely at. 

[Padge]

My grandad started taking me to games in 1964 and I was truly hooked when I watched the 1965 Wigan v Hunslet cup final on TV. The following year I was supposed to go to Wembley for the Wigan Saints final, I had a ticket but couldn't go as I had whooping cough. I did however get there with my grandad in 1970.

So I would say that in my case its a family thing.