The 14-5 Penalty Count : Mon Jun 01, 2015 5:10 am
A lot of anguish amongst the players about the ref's performance yesterday. I was sat next to David who was apoplectic about the penalty count. So why did we get caned by the referee? There is something about defending against a big side going forward who land on their fronts and get quick play the balls. But I think there is something more systemic than that. Can you imagine the outrage there would be during a game at Odsal if the ref gave a string of pens for nothing offences against the Bulls, killing momentum? No neither can I. The farcical 40/20 decision for example, from where I was I couldn't hear any reaction from the fans at all, nothing. Can you imagine what St Helens or Warrington fans would have said if that had happened to their side? There would have been blue murder. So here's the thing, I don't think the count would have been half as bad if the fans were on the ref's back from the outset. This is nothing new. Brian McDermott complained regularly that Quins were given the fewest penalties in Super League, and often the most against. There has long been the view that London fans lack the rugby league culture on this. How many fans are genuinely passionate about the game as opposed to merely interested? I'm just asking the question!
I do believe there is a lack of collective passion where fans are together making a lot of noise. Where are the Loyal and Loud these days? Mostly stopped coming, unlikely to return as a lot of fans are from those days. Disloyal and Quiet? For the few of us who stayed for the 2 days, this was particularly noticeable at the Summer Bash. London was the only match not to get noisy, animated support. Even North Wales Crusaders from Championship 1 did much better!
So what can be done? I don't know. After 35 years will the culture ever change? Could there be fans initiatives? All pretty unlikely, so we will just have to continue to suffer horrendous penalty counts forever, probably in silence.