Lots of potential : Sun Apr 26, 2009 9:59 am  

Having watched your Thursday night match on Sky television and several of your other games this season, would just like to say how much potential and ability I feel some of your players have. I really believe that you need to enjoy watching them( as I know many of you do) while they are still at Leigh. When your team do not get the right result or play in the manner you would like them to, I feel that it is sometimes easy to overlook the players who played very well and indeed the talent that you have. (It is natural and understandable for supporters at all clubs to do this.) Then, when these players have moved on to pastures new and are enjoying good careers at other clubs, certain supporters realize that they wish that they had appreciated them a bit more when they were here. I may be wrong, but it would always appear to me, that no matter how well or how badly a Leigh team is doing, in general, your team always contains a few potential gems. I am not claiming that all of the following are wonderful players, (in fact some of them, I do not rate too highly ), however, what we cannot argue with, is that they are enjoying regular first team action or have done for teams currently placed higher than Leigh in the leagues. As you all know, the list includes Scott Grix, Miles Greenwood, Mick Govin, Dana Wilson, Dave Larder, Dean Gaskell, Lee Doran, John Duffy, Oli Wilkes, Kevin Henderson, Mark Roberts, Ricky Bibey, Tere Glassie ( a couple of seasons ago) Richard Moore, Marc Leafa,(Super League last season)Bryn Hargreaves, Paul Prescott, Craig Stapleton, John Wilshere, Anthony Blackwood, Paul Ballard, Mickey Higham, Simon Baldwin, Tim Street, Lee Hansen, Simon Booth,Jason Donohue, Dean Hanger some years back, along with Scott Martin etc and many more that I am sure that I have forgotten. Add to these, names such as Paul Rowley and Stuart Donlan, who played many years at Super League level , Neil Turley who tempted Warrington to go for his signature, Aaron Heremaia,(well we all know what happened there) plus many more (I keep thinking of more and more names but should probably stop there.) You might not personally rate some of these players, but someone else obviously does. How many of these do you think you were actually pleased to see at Leigh when they were with you? I do not claim that they all played really well for you, but they did and do probably all have some talent and or potential. My point is that sometimes some of your former players seem to thrive more in new environments. That frustrates and puzzles me. Why is that? From the list above, we can see that you have undoubtedly seen some talented players wear the Leigh shirt in the past 15 years or so. Who do you think will join the above list in the not too distant future? I hope you do not lose Hill, Higson, Meekin, Morrisson, Stanton, Mort, Rudd etc and really hope that your club makes the most of them whilst they are with you. I always enjoy watching you, because you continue to turn out talented players. Although, you are currently only sixth in the League, I believe that more than a couple of your players are getting noticed by higher placed clubs. Not a bad ratio for a club in 6th spot. Better than most other clubs in the league I'd say. Let us hope that you can get Joe Williams over here to play for you, you can start getting a break from the refs, you can recover from the horrendous recent fixture schedule that the RFL so kindly handed you and you can make the most of the potential you STILL have.

: Sun Apr 26, 2009 10:06 am  

Thank you for this positive reminder of our potential.

It has always been the case that Leigh have failed to hang on to good players. The 'youth' policy of Neil Kelly is a gamble in that we could be relegated and these players would move on anyway. Will the youth policy work and we progress with these youngsters? Who can tell?

: Sun Apr 26, 2009 10:22 am  

I honestly do not see you as relegation material at all. Your team will have a good rest next week, for the first time in a while and that should really help them. I still maintain that you do have talent and are not a lot weaker than quite a few others in the league. Let us hope you can start to fulfil this undoubted potential and let us hope you can get a good win at Batley and kick on from there.

: Sun Apr 26, 2009 10:46 am  

As for hanging onto players

Leigh are/have been/will always be

A selling club

Unfortunatley since the bosman ruling smaller clubs no longer recieve any profit from producing players

So there is no real benifit from doing so

That's the world we are in and it will probabley remain like that forever now

: Sun Apr 26, 2009 11:40 am  

Of course Leigh have had to and will continue to have to sell players on to bigger clubs. That has been the case for a lot of the less rich clubs over the years. That is not my point at all. My point is, enjoy and recognise the talent whilst it is with you and not when that player has got another club's shirt on his back. I have enjoyed watching some very good players for you over the last fifteen years or so and much further back than that. The trophies may have stopped in the early eighties, but the constant stream of talent coming in and out of your club, has not. Believe me, a few of your current crop ARE being noticed. ENJOY THEIR TALENTS! All clubs in this league will struggle to hold onto talent. However, it is better to admire and support them now than to bemoan their loss when they have gone.

: Sun Apr 26, 2009 1:09 pm  

etoile1 wrote:

Of course Leigh have had to and will continue to have to sell players on to bigger clubs. That has been the case for a lot of the less rich clubs over the years. That is not my point at all. My point is, enjoy and recognise the talent whilst it is with you and not when that player has got another club's shirt on his back. I have enjoyed watching some very good players for you over the last fifteen years or so and much further back than that. The trophies may have stopped in the early eighties, but the constant stream of talent coming in and out of your club, has not. Believe me, a few of your current crop ARE being noticed. ENJOY THEIR TALENTS! All clubs in this league will struggle to hold onto talent. However, it is better to admire and support them now than to bemoan their loss when they have gone.

Unfortunatley at the minute they are not displaying their talents , and much as you extoile the virtues of producing young talent it doesn't pay the bills and losing it for nothing hurts

I might be wrong but I'm afraid your posts are starting to become a little patronising , you are a fan of a SL club and you are basically saying we should be happy where we are , sorry but we aren't and never will be

: Sun Apr 26, 2009 2:24 pm  

I am genuinely sorry if my posts are starting to come across like that. I have obviously expressed myself badly. I want you to retain all the talent you have at Leigh and I am certainly not a Super League fan. Anything but in fact. I am not trying to extol the virtues of nurturing young talent, in my posts. I am merely saying I think that you have got now and always have had talent at Leigh. I doubt many Super League fans could even name you ten players in The Championship and they certainly wouldn't spend 99% of their time when on rugby league forums, on the Leigh, Toulouse, Donny, Batley, Fev, Widnes, Halifax etc forums. Most of them have absolutely no interest whatsoever in this league. Do you honestly believe any Super League fan would know all your players like I do and watch most of your matches ? I cannot prove it to you, but the only rugby I ever go to is lower league rugby. I do not think you would ever come across a more avid and keen supporter of these leagues than me. That is why I found your comments so ironic. If you have read the majority of my posts, you will notice a common theme( I hope). That is that I am always upbeat about Leigh. I have argued that you get a bad deal from refs, that the RFL have handed you a shocking fixture schedule, that you will not go down, that you have good fans, good players, good potential etc. I do not think you will find too many Super League fans doing this. I also do not think that they would take a keen interest in your penalty counts, your game in Toulouse, your reserve team players etc. I often think I am more positive about you than some of your own fans and I can assure you it is 100% genuine. I would not write post after post on these sites, if I was a Super League fan. You may notice that I think I have only ever posted on a Super League forum once. If you want to know my views on Super League go on the Halifax forum and read them there. I think players such as Mort, Hill, Higson etc have real talent and I hope you can keep them at Leigh. If I am honest, I have a soft spot for your team and always have had. I would have thought that was obvious from my posts. I am sorry if that has not been the case.

: Sun Apr 26, 2009 2:49 pm  

etoile1 wrote:

I am genuinely sorry if my posts are starting to come across like that. I have obviously expressed myself badly. I want you to retain all the talent you have at Leigh and I am certainly not a Super League fan. Anything but in fact. I am not trying to extol the virtues of nurturing young talent, in my posts. I am merely saying I think that you have got now and always have had talent at Leigh. I doubt many Super League fans could even name you ten players in The Championship and they certainly wouldn't spend 99% of their time when on rugby league forums, on the Leigh, Toulouse, Donny, Batley, Fev, Widnes, Halifax etc forums. Most of them have absolutely no interest whatsoever in this league. Do you honestly believe any Super League fan would know all your players like I do and watch most of your matches ? I cannot prove it to you, but the only rugby I ever go to is lower league rugby. I do not think you would ever come across a more avid and keen supporter of these leagues than me. That is why I found your comments so ironic. If you have read the majority of my posts, you will notice a common theme( I hope). That is that I am always upbeat about Leigh. I have argued that you get a bad deal from refs, that the RFL have handed you a shocking fixture schedule, that you will not go down, that you have good fans, good players, good potential etc. I do not think you will find too many Super League fans doing this. I also do not think that they would take a keen interest in your penalty counts, your game in Toulouse, your reserve team players etc. I often think I am more positive about you than some of your own fans and I can assure you it is 100% genuine. I would not write post after post on these sites, if I was a Super League fan. You may notice that I think I have only ever posted on a Super League forum once. If you want to know my views on Super League go on the Halifax forum and read them there. I think players such as Mort, Hill, Higson etc have real talent and I hope you can keep them at Leigh. If I am honest, I have a soft spot for your team and always have had. I would have thought that was obvious from my posts. I am sorry if that has not been the case.

take no notice i for one always find your post encouraging so please carry on making your positive posts they are most welcome as i prefer them to the very boring and negative posts that some put on here,i get really fed up with the constant moaning after every game take Thursday for example ,i thought we played very well 1st half but imploded for 30 mins of 2nd half then came good last 10 mins .There was some very good moves also resulting in our tries but some people just pick up on the bad aspects of the game every time and thats getting rather boring.I am a season ticket holder and will carry on being so no matter what ,dont get me wrong i want the club to do well but constant slagging of players is'nt the way I have had little moans on here myself but some folk come across really angry whats the point, we all know we are short of a couple of players whether we get them is another matter so until then we should just get behind and like you say we have some cracking young lads who i hope we can hold on to .

: Sun Apr 26, 2009 2:55 pm  

I agree, keep posting etoile1.
I remember when Marsh failed to use his obvious size to stop the Barrow Try in the corner on bank holiday Monday. Now I know the lads are grown up and can take flack, but I thought one particular Leigh "fan" was well over the top with the personal insults towards the guy while behind the sticks - he must have heard them. I mean what positive could come from that, its hardly contributing towards encouraging.
Leigh fans are great supporters and a good laugh when things are going well, but when things are going wrong some fans are the worst (Toulouse game aside).

: Sun Apr 26, 2009 3:09 pm  

etoile1 wrote:

I am genuinely sorry if my posts are starting to come across like that. I have obviously expressed myself badly. I want you to retain all the talent you have at Leigh and I am certainly not a Super League fan. Anything but in fact. I am not trying to extol the virtues of nurturing young talent, in my posts. I am merely saying I think that you have got now and always have had talent at Leigh. I doubt many Super League fans could even name you ten players in The Championship and they certainly wouldn't spend 99% of their time when on rugby league forums, on the Leigh, Toulouse, Donny, Batley, Fev, Widnes, Halifax etc forums. Most of them have absolutely no interest whatsoever in this league. Do you honestly believe any Super League fan would know all your players like I do and watch most of your matches ? I cannot prove it to you, but the only rugby I ever go to is lower league rugby. I do not think you would ever come across a more avid and keen supporter of these leagues than me. That is why I found your comments so ironic. If you have read the majority of my posts, you will notice a common theme( I hope). That is that I am always upbeat about Leigh. I have argued that you get a bad deal from refs, that the RFL have handed you a shocking fixture schedule, that you will not go down, that you have good fans, good players, good potential etc. I do not think you will find too many Super League fans doing this. I also do not think that they would take a keen interest in your penalty counts, your game in Toulouse, your reserve team players etc. I often think I am more positive about you than some of your own fans and I can assure you it is 100% genuine. I would not write post after post on these sites, if I was a Super League fan. You may notice that I think I have only ever posted on a Super League forum once. If you want to know my views on Super League go on the Halifax forum and read them there. I think players such as Mort, Hill, Higson etc have real talent and I hope you can keep them at Leigh. If I am honest, I have a soft spot for your team and always have had. I would have thought that was obvious from my posts. I am sorry if that has not been the case.

Fair do's , maybe it's just my suspicious mind

Not used to such positivity