Re: Still clapping the players off the field? : Thu Mar 19, 2015 3:18 am  

Rooster Booster wrote:

Here Rupe.

What did you do when we lost to Canberra in Canberra 66-20?

Did you sing?

I think I was drinking quite heavily during that game. I think I did sing but you can't compare losing away to Canberra packed full of Australian test stars to a professional London Broncos losing to part time Whitehaven!

Re: Still clapping the players off the field? : Thu Mar 19, 2015 3:31 am  

The Penguin wrote:

There's been some interesting debate here. And it's an issue that's bothered me for a long time. As fans, we are nowhere near demanding enough. Because of the club's turbulent history, I think a lot of us got into a mind-set of "just be thankful we have a club to support at all" - which is a point I understand, but we have to look for more.

When you're an expansion club, there should be an atmosphere of dynamism and growth, and there was never enough of either with us. Compare us to the Catalans. It's a really stark contrast. Decision-making was, and still is, muddled, underperformance is not challenged, but we as fans don't pull them up on it.

As performances got worse and worse and thousands of Broncos fans began to disappear it was this misguided cheerleading from the clique who were desperate for the players to shake their hand and still are that will perhaps ultimately cause the club to die.

A true supporter would have had the guts to stick their head above the parapet and confront players, coaching staff and owner in an effort to stop the horrendous decline.
I can recall doing that by myself only to be met with a volley of abuse from fellow fans along the lines of 'F off then if you don't want to support the team'. Well I did F off as did countless others.

If you have a child who for example spits at someone or hits another for no reason then you discipline it, you don't praise it. You stand by your child but you damn well tell them when they have done wrong.

Again, I cannot fathom how David Hughes himself stomachs it. I would love to see the contracts the players are on this season and how much of their wage is performance related. Quite frankly if I was the owner I would have put them on the living wage alone as a basic but with a generous league position based win bonus. Sadly I very much doubt that is the case.

Re: Still clapping the players off the field? : Thu Mar 19, 2015 8:33 am  

Again, I cannot fathom how David Hughes himself stomachs it. I would love to see the contracts the players are on this season and how much of their wage is performance related. Quite frankly if I was the owner I would have put them on the living wage alone as a basic but with a generous league position based win bonus. Sadly I very much doubt that is the case.

That's how you get the best players to come to the club. Why don't all clubs think like that. 'Contract inflation' and out bidding for players doesn't exist. But you're right lets go back to the 70's when every team won every week because if you didn't you didn't get fed.

Re: Still clapping the players off the field? : Thu Mar 19, 2015 11:51 am  

rupe1 wrote:

As performances got worse and worse and thousands of Broncos fans began to disappear it was this misguided cheerleading from the clique who were desperate for the players to shake their hand and still are that will perhaps ultimately cause the club to die...

Yeah right, and it was those same fans that stopped the players coming in the bar after the game, and the same fans that made the various poor recruitment decisions, and....

You're just trying to be provocative by having a pop at the people who still go. But actually what you're proving is that you're a half-hearted fair-weather fan. Trying to blame the clubs demise on loyal fans rather than those in charge is the kind of trolling we expected from gutterlies. Actually, come to think of it, you came back when he disappeared...

Re: Still clapping the players off the field? : Thu Mar 19, 2015 1:16 pm  

The demise of the club has been slow, public and painful. Few people would argue about that.

The idea that fans supporting players, the team, the club is somehow the cause of this is total nonsense. As is the notion in the opening post that if everyone had stopped supporting the club, things would have just been fine.

Re: Still clapping the players off the field? : Thu Mar 19, 2015 2:59 pm  

Rupe a question for you, if yr kid falls off his bike and hurts themselves what do you do punish em or give them encouragemrnt in hope that will provide encouragement for next time.
In answer to yr 50 0 question honest answer I applaud performance and effort so irrevent of the score if I thought the performance deserved it yep I would clap, on the other side I am more than willing and quite often do it will tell players and coaches exactly what I think if it'd rubbish
Yes I have walked out of a game in disgust that was Salford away but it'd only happened once.
Generally in any game there are at least a couple of positives
Brings me back to the first point, do you look at what went well and build on that or constantly critisise citing everything that went wrong?
Supporting any sports team is done in many ways, booing and throwing pies is one way, providing positive encouragement is another, as a fan it's yr individual choice.
But you have to be there in the first place

Re: Still clapping the players off the field? : Thu Mar 19, 2015 6:24 pm  

CrusaderPete wrote:

Yawn!Noone said we were happy GF, simply that we knew if the club wasn't financed in a way that ensured/insured we had a permanant base and a proper developement program, it would not work, we were right.

In 2012 We paid 210k a year at the Stoop rent. In 2012 we spent 1.6 million on "administration costs".......our demise isn't because we didn't have a proper home. Our demise is because for too long too many people have been able to steal a wage both on and off the field.
Yes, Central funding should have been greater, but the caravan trail that our homes took isn't the reason we got 500 to the hive a few weeks back.

As for your opening YAWN. If it bores you, don't respond to it. it's that simple.

CrusaderPete wrote:

The club has now been abandoned like a listing ship, only we the fans will ensure it doesn't shatter on the rocks and if that continuation is to be at a lower level, then so be it. We fully understand that the "fair-weather" fans will leave (99% of them have already done so).

The Club has not yet been abandoned, as Mr Hughes is still writing cheques. When he stops, the drop down the tiers will be too rapid for even the most die hard fan to stop.. As for fairweather fans, losses to part-time opposition on the road and scraped wins at home are maybe too much for many to bother any more.

CrusaderPete wrote:

I still go to games, I will go to my usual quota of half a dozen home games and an away game or two as I have done since Sept' 1991 (excluding the QRL period), I will buy my shirt and wear it with pride, yes pride, we are London RL, not SKY, not Soopah Leeeege or any bugger else!!!!!!!!

Good for you. I too will continue to support the team and will catch games when I am in the country, but I will not watch the clubs demise in some form of smu silence, saying "I told you so", because that serves no purpose.

As for the last 19 years in SL. They were fun and we'd jump at another chance, but the reality is, unless we are invited back then we are destined to end up in Championship 1 once Hughes stops backing the club.

Re: Still clapping the players off the field? : Fri Mar 20, 2015 12:47 am  

I opened with Yawn, because it's the same old same old GF.

We were gifted the chance of top-flight footie a good ten years too early, and those that took over the club never took the opportunity.

I am NOT going to abandon my club because of their mistakes!

Re: Still clapping the players off the field? : Fri Mar 20, 2015 1:04 am  

I see both your respected views,on what could have been or should have been..Just curious to know with all that money floating around,was any of it used to promote youth development..

Re: Still clapping the players off the field? : Fri Mar 20, 2015 1:16 am  

There was some, but I don't know the figures, not really the sort of info' I go looking for.

I always have and always will believe what we need is a HOME, until we have one, we will never build beyond a mid-table 2nd tier side and parachuting a club like ours into SL was an opportunity which, for reasons unknown, was not grasped because everyone involved wanted an immediate return on their outlay, therefore what we had was only going to last as long as we were successful on the pitch, unlike a Castleford, or a Widnes, who will come through a lean period, we would not.