: Wed Mar 25, 2009 12:54 pm
There's a basic lack of common sense or appreciation of the true nature of a fan being shown here.... As fans we scrutinise what our team does far more carefully and indepth than we do with other team's players - it may be subconscious, but it's a fact nonetheless. Obviously, in flashpoint situations which are replayed over and over again, we then pay more attention to other team's players, but quite often we miss the quiet, unheralded things they do.
For this reason, every club has its unsung players - those players that the club's fans will notice, but opposition fans who don't see them week in week out don't. For a few years, JJB was a perfect example of this - quietly and unspectacularly going about doing a lot of hard work. Now of course he gets the deserved recognition for this. Bailey is a prime example of someone who puts in a lot of work and doesn't often get any recognition for it. Instead, opposition fans focus purely on a few flash point situations and base their opinion of him solely on that.
Fans who see Bailey avery week (well, those who have some degree of common sense anyway...) see Bailey as a damn good player, who has been in 3 Grand Final winning teams and 2 world club championship winning teams, and over this period has been picked on a regular basis by two of the best coaches in the game at the moment (as well as being picked to play at international level by the most successful British coach in the Super League era). Opposition fans see him as a thug. Which of the two opinions carries the most weight I wonder......