cpwigan wrote:Here's a thought. Rather than creating a separate group as they did, would it not have been better for the 'originals' to have worked as part of the Supporters Club? I think several already are part of the supporters group and have MUCH to offer that organisation, indeed something different from existing key figure. Some of the 'originals' are potential leaders / leading figures in the supporters club.
Instead of trying to imply we are a distinct section of the club be very much a part of the club so every fan can 'exert influence' over the odd idiot and that is what they are instead of fans pointing the finger at the 'Brigantes'.
The 'originals' were / are decent devoted responsible supporters. The desire to be distinct allowed the idiots to take over in a way none of the 'originals' ever intended.
I hope the originals have a think and I hope the supporters club leaders try to incorporate / utilise the energy and effort of the 'originals'. There are potential supporters club leaders in those 'originals' Have a meeting together?
Lets not divide Wigan RLFC into different groups, we are all supporters.
Can I first say (as one of the 'original' members)that none of us had/have any links/connection with any supporters groups before we began the 'flag group' as it was first named, the reason we started it all was to try and make the DW stadium feel more like 'home' on match days by designing, buying and erecting the flags you saw, and will (I hope) still see, this was quite a success and we got some great feedback from both the club and fans, we then moved on to what we called 'phase 2' of the plan by having banners and wavers in the crowd, this was highlighted by the display put on prior to the World Club Challenge and at various home & away fixtures (semi final at Warrington etc), this meant we needed more people to become involved and our numbers began to swell.Unfortunately, not all fans enjoyed what was happening, we had regular meeting with officials about letters of complaint about various matters, one person complained the noise was stopping him enjoying 'the players pre-match warm up', another complained he couldn't see because of all the flags being waved in front of him (we then discovered he sat in the East stand were there were no flags), a steward reported that 9 seats had been broken during a game, I read the maintenance report and yes, 9 seats had been broken, 6 in the North stand (away end), and 3 in the opposite corner to were all the group congregated, none it appeared had anything to do with us, one man got thrown out of the stadium for being drunk and unruly, we were told 'he's one of your lot causing trouble again' when I asked how they knew he was 'one of our lot' I was told, 'because he's wearing a 'Brigantes' scarf, he in fact wasn't wearing our scarf and none of us had ever seen him before !. Lots of things like this began happening and myself and other were getting fed up dealing with it, then sadly, because of the success of the group we attracted an element that attached itself and had its own 'agenda',we genuinely tried to get rid of them but because we (as merely fans) had limited powers it proved difficult, and impossible, and culminated in what happened at Huddersfield , I cant see anyway that the 'original' people involved will take this on again, its really sad because some of the plans for what was to come, and how far it could have gone, were superb, thanks for all the good wishes and apologies to all those who didn't enjoy it, keep supporting our great team, the futures bright.