Loco posted:
At the end of the day they're still your team. Never boo! And it's not hte booing that picked them up all booing achieves is making wigan fans look bad considering 5 minutes later we where all cheering.
Booing is a natural reaction to the unacceptable effort that was seen in the first 30 mins, the culmination of which was the Manu try which was dire defence.
I understand people booing far more readily than people who never have a bad thing to say about the team when they play as poorly as that.
I doubt there is a set of fans in RL who would not boo their team after that passage of play.
it is a natural reaction as i did boo without thinking about it and i very rarely boo unless we are playing poorly and at the time most of the players looked half interested.
Not sure if anyone picked up a program and read Martyn Sadler's page on booing the fans.
i'll just take a few points from it and sum up.
'Rugby League players who have lost to a supposedly inferior team have left the field to a catcall of boos and jeers.'
Now, this for me says alot about some fans. i never boo my own team as i think it's a sign of disrespect to our players and the other teams players. i don't think some fans realise this sport isn't as easy as football where 4 teams boss the divison each year. do we pay enough respect to these so called 'inferior teams'? Hull KR for example. i bet 99% of our crowd would have bet on us beating them this season. so far it hasn't happened. which begs the question, do we pay other teams the respect they deserve? i don't think so.
he also goes on to point out the Paul Cullen thing from the warrington vs quins match. they made quite a big deal of this on the super league show to. Cullen and his men did their warm down to a ring of boos from around the stadium and Cullen stood in the centre of the field, looking every fan in the eye and nodding and applauding them. obviously the wire had the same idea as we did last week that we should have waltzed past the so called 'inferior team'.
he also mentioned Gary Hetherington, and some comments he had been making on Totalrl.com.
apparently some fans were not to happy about what he had said and Sadler uses a qoute by one fan:
"Who does he think he is telling us we can't show our feelings at the game?"
if Hetherington has said otherwise then he is a fool, and a stupid one at that. the fans pay their hard earned money to watch the rugby so i believe they should be able to say or act however they like towards their own team, even if this means booing them.
my final point would be about the closeness of the competition now.
'The days of guaranteed victories by the 'big' teams over the rest are long gone.'
very valid point by Sadler that. maybe 10-15 years ago, alot of people would have said it was a 3 or 4 horse race much like the premier league in football. those times are infact over. quite a few upsets this season, us losing twice to KR for one, and who would have expected hudds to beat bradford? i know they are on form but they really gave it to the bulls convincingly, and a few former wiganers stood out may i add (aspy, wild, brown).
wakefield were top at one point, so were KR, who would have tipped that? it's a much closer competition than some think and teams are no longer guranteed 2 points against 'inferior opposition'. i think some of our fans need to realise that and respect it.
"what ever happens... we stick together... we stay together... we survive."
Cullen and his men did their warm down to a ring of boos from around the stadium and Cullen stood in the centre of the field, looking every fan in the eye and nodding and applauding them.
I agree about the booing - it don't set a great example does it - we support the team through and through - even if they do play like the under 12's at times (actually, in the interval, they should've got some of those kids on, they were brill!) But what a great turn around!
The guy sitting behind us kept shouting how cr@p they were and calling the players every name under the sun, and generally just shouting abuse!
But let me tell you, if you think that's bad...we used to watch Newcastle Falcons RU - we're from Newcastle - and the lack of consistancy in that team is unbelieveable, which is part of the reason why we dont go there anymore, and are considering coming to nearly every home game at the jjb next season. I know RU and RL are totally different but my god it is soooo boring! I'd rather come down to Wigan every other weekend so watch the Warriors than pay £21 TO STAND and watch that drivel, in a cr@ppy ground, £3 for a program with like 10pages in, no atmosphere at all, and horrible food!!
