what I find particulary amusing is that a large section on pop side who spent all last season abusing platt, have spent this season sinnging 'michael platts barmy army'.

Not good enough. Doesn't deserve the constant booing before he's even done anything.

I am as guilty as anyone of abusing players who don't try hard enough. Michael Worrincy is not guilty of that. If he underperforms the blame lies at the feet of the coaching staff either for their poor coaching or poor selection.

And which part of the pop side are we talking about ?
I stand with `The Michael Platts barmy army ` and we are the hard core fans who have supported michael through thick and thin so whoever your talking about hopefully aren`t the fans that stand on the half line about 3- 4 steps from the back.

your in the right general area but its not you lot right at back I mean. Theres a group immediately below you lot just below 1st barrier who were on platts back all last year.

That's not too far from where I used to stand before moving to the Tetley's stand.

I know you all very well.

That`s good to hear !!!

unfortunely we do have some proper numpties at our club and they tend to bring it down.

Platt was deserved of a lot of the criticism he recieved, just as much as this year he's worty of all the plaudits he is recieving.

Platt would be one of the first names on the team sheet for me, and that is coming from one of his harshest critics for all the previous seasons I have thought him not upto standard.

As Dilli said last night, there isnt anybody in this team that is determined as Mick. At times he has been the only one looking to make things happen.

He's a good asset to us.

Are you too posh for us now then !

Not all mate.

I'll still be the tight bugger who pays £10 in at Hull KR to stand behind the posts rather then pay £20 to sit in the golf seats.

I think certain players end up getting stick because they are seen as epitomising the general weaknesses of the team as a whole.

Scott Naylor was a generally popular player in a generally succesfull team. However when that team did struggle it was often put down to too much emphasis on power and brawn at the expense of finesse, it was the so called "no plan B" team. Naylor wasnt exactly the most subtle of players and would usually struggle more than most in those games.

For me 2009 was the year of the blown leads, the defeats snatched from the jaws of victory. Platt wasnt solely responsible for those defeats, but most of them seemed to involve him playing well for an hour or so before having some sort of brain fart that changed the course of the game.

And this year I think Worrincy just about sums up the Bulls weaknesses, particularly the frailty in defense. He wasnt the only player that missed tackles but he has become synonomous as the player that misses tackles in a team that concedes soft tries.

It certainly doesnt justify the booing, but I can see why Worrincy has become a lightening rod for the fans general frustrations.

Cibaman is correct. When you look at the stats on the SL website Worrincy doesn't stand out as badly as you'd expect when compared with fellow Bulls backrowers.

For instance in terms of missed tackles his total of 30 is behind Menzies (49) and Whitehead (59).

In terms of errors his total of (icon_cool.gif is some way behind Menzies (32) and Whitehead (13).

Ok so he doesn't spend as much time on the field as those two. So compared with Glenn Hall:

Metres per carry: MW (6.3) and GH (6.5)
Busts: MW (15) and GH (16)
Errors: MW (icon_cool.gif and GH (10)
Missed Tackles: MW (30) and GH (32)
Penalties: MW (13) and GH (20).

Compared with Langley it's a similar tale. Fact is that Worrincy stands out more as he's easily spotted on the field, being the only black player. So when he makes mistakes people notice them more. The stats show us that his teammates are often equally fallible.

Now this isn't to say I think he's good enough to keep. His role in the side as I see it is to be a running second rower that makes busts and makes an impact.

In this respect his stats are poor. He's made fewer tackle busts (15) than any of Langley(20), Hall(16), Menzies(31) or Whitehead(2icon_cool.gif.

just to add to that, Hall isn't exactly a fans favourite either.

I dont think Worrincy's mistakes are highlighted more by the fact that he is black. That's ridiculous.
Personally I go to watch rugby players play rugby and I'll notice mistakes and poor play in they are white or black.
Michael Platt's mistakes were certainley highlighted as much as Mikes and he's a white dude.

Worrincy is indicative of the decline at the Bulls and the quality of your players. Perhaps this is why he now appears the 2010 scapegoat.
There are a lot better players in the squad and few worse.
The simple fact is he is not a SL quality player.
You need to replace Menzies with two quality forwards who will help the very good younger guys like Whitehead etc develop as they need to do.

Absolutely.

I think perhaps some people have missed my point.

I'm not saying people get on Worrincy's back because he's black or that his mistakes are highlighted more because he's black.

I'm saying people notice him on the field more because he's black and pretty much everyone else is white. You may see a forward miss a tackle or hang around in the centres dowing nowt quite a bit. However when that forward is Worrincy, because he's a big black man is more noticeable and he's unmistakable on the field.

You might see the opposition score a try and sometimes it's dificult to see who missed the tackle in the general melee. However Worrincy is unmistakable in these situations so gets more flak.

As for the comparison with Platt - Platt's main brain farts were when he played at fullback. An isolated position on the field like a goalkeeper. There was no mistaking him either.

After reading that I couldn't read the rest of your post.

You should try.

Ryan Bailey syndrome?

Interesting comparison. The stats show that Bailey is far more disciplined than many fans would have you believe. Yet he gets singled out for the sort of abuse that worse culprits got like Barrie Mac.

I'm not saying Worrincy is the best backrower at the club, he's not. However he does get singled out too much. I think that's because he's visibly more recognisable rather than any racist thing.

That's because he is one of the situations where stats are, quite frankly, complete b0llocks.

Stats say how many penalties they have against them and how many bans they've received. They don't show the amount of cheap or high shots that DON'T get penalised. Which is what a large amount of criticism towards Bailey is about. No stat that I've ever seen shows how many bad tackles a player has not been penalised for.

As Bailey has never been sent off in his career and has never really been a great conceder on penalties I think it's more likely that his reputation has been blown out of proportion.

Surely refs would've cottoned on by now if he was really an animal getting away with murder? He's been playing for 8+ years now.

I think he just winds people up with his occasional cheap shots that don't do any real damage. He's never clotheslined anyone like Barrie Mac or gone mental like Newton did for Wigan versus Saints.

Bailey's a niggly sort of player who winds people up, in some ways he reminds me of Graham Bradley.

Being honest, I disagree. I don't think it's blown out of proportion at all and I still find myself watching Leeds matches and wondering how the hell he isn't penalised so much more.

I agree he's more of a cheap shot artist than a full on "take your head off" type, but he the shots he gets away with are the sort of thing I would associate with a thug. And he does get high shots in too that don't seem to get caught (although not as bad as the ones Barrie used to do).

The fact he's never been sent off is absolutely ridiculous on the referees' part. If there was any sort of "highlights" package available showing the sort of thing he has done in the last 8 years or so, I can guarantee you'd see a number of things worthy of a red card.

He's by no means the only player who gets away with these things, but I can't think of a single player that gets away with more. The nearest I can think of off the top of my head is Keith Mason.

If you're looking at players who get away with the littly niggly things that wind players up, you need to look more to the likes of Senior, O'Loughlin and Wilkin IMO. Bailey is a dirtier sort than those.

Bailey's a pantomine villain and you need the odd player like that. Admit it as opposition fans we love getting all excited and hurling abuse at him. He doesn't care either because it works. Because of this reputation he managed to get a key man sent off in the first ten minutes on Saturday to help his team get that all important 4th spot.