You pay your money to get to the game, you can say what you want, clap if you want and boo if you want "Simples"

What is a supporter. According to my dictionary it refers to one who supports. Whilst I understand those who choose to boo the team are somewhat disappointed I wonder how they can equate booing with supporting. It seems to me that it is the complete opposite of supporting your team. there are clearly other ways of making your point - one of these is of course this forum or you could contact the powers that be yourself. I just feel that booing the team is self defeating and in the end will only make matters worse - which I'm sure none of us want.

Oh, absolutely, everyone should heartily cheer and sing them off the field and sing "For they're all jolly good fellows" however abject the performance0.


Thanks. I never thought of posting my views in this forum. I'm sure nobody else here thought of it either.

OK. Now you've cracked that one, I suggest you move on and get everybody to be nice to each other on Twitter.

Some people use their first post in a way that it makes an impact, and you do not disappoint here whatsoever.

Not in a good way however.

This, to me, is a result of the namby-pamby society we live in these days where kids are being encouraged in schools "not to win" in case the losing side gets upset. It is ridiculous.

I don't think that booing is self-defeating at all. If the product on display is crap, then people have a right to say so. It would be worse if they were clearly not trying yet people still lauded them and praised them for all their "hard" work. I have said it before on many occasions, players of all sports are more than happy to take all the kudos when they are playing well and winning, so therefore they should be able to take the stick when they are playing crap and losing.

You don't win any relevant silverware just for having nice happy supporters do you?

We seem to be going back to that, 'we're the Bulls and we ought to win', mentality. No-one has a right to win - all you can ask is they put the effort in and do their best. Booing people who have done that does nothing to help, imo.

Fine. We pay our money and can boo if we want. That's not a problem, it's just that I'm not 100% convinced that that is what 'real' supporters do. As said up the thread, booing the players doesn't help anything.

At the end of the day, we had a number of players missing [not to mention the no.7 we haven't got, away from home against a decent side, we came up four points adrift - well into the area where one decision going the other way changes the result. It wasn't the fault of the players who were booed that we don't have a genuine scrum half who might well have opened it up a bit more for us. Whether it's the fault of the management or circumstances is another point - booing the players who did their best, in trying circumstances, isn't the answer.

But you are assuming they did their best. There are two possibilities:

1. They did their best. That is, the squad we had on the field can't do any better.

In this case, we may as well pack it in. If that is the best they can do then we would lose by at least 50 in any SL playoff game. Last out please turn off the lights.

2. They didn't do their best, but can in fact do a whole lot better.

This seems to me almost infinitely more likely. Look at the personnel, consider the wages they are likely on, and ask yourself the question again.

Even Ferres has publicly said they are not doing their best, referring directly to them not showing the same degree of enthusiasm as opponents. He is right. And that isn't "doing their best".

As someone who has been inflicted by being a supporter of some of the crappiest sports teams in the country, one thing I would never do is boo someone who is giving their all but lacks in ability. In fact, I would much rather have a side full of hard-working, honest triers than a team of gifted individuals. This I appreciate greatly.

I also accept that it is unrealistic to expect players of any team I follow to necessarily have the same love and passion for the side as I do. (Unless you are a fan of the club you play for then you won't have the same emotional attachment IMO).

What is NOT unrealistic however is to expect the players on the park to come off at the end having given it their all, drenched in sweat and pretty fatigued (within reason). If this is the case then I would never boo a player as they are clearly doing their best.

And, I guess, for the sake of this discussion you can only decide which way you look at it is if you think that the players are really giving 100%?

Or, for that matter, if it even IS the players that people are voicing their opinions on, or if the boos are aimed at the people who recruit them, and coach them.

Effort is one thing, whether the effort is applied/guided correctly is another I suppose.

Good point, I'd assume the booing is at the overall performance, and aimed at the club generally and how things have come to this, rather than simply at the players.

You feeling okay dude?

Wouldn't argue with that, but as I pointed out, given the number unavailable and lack of direction [no no.7, which isn't the fault of those who did play and the closeness of the result I don't think the display [from the guys on the field was quite as bad as some are portraying it. It was though, those blokes who copped the flak and not the ones behind the scenes who maybe are more culpable?

I clearly didn't make my point very well in my first post. I agree wholly with Bulliac. The players should not be booed but there are others in the background who need to be held to account.

People grow disillusioned with things though Bulliac. The result v Halifax was just another in a long line of poor results and (according to many on here) poor performances. The general consensus too is that no lessons from last season have been learned, and, in fact, things have gotten worse.

People will vent their anger at things and, given the clubs recent form of deliberately misleading their fans during the Q&A nights etc. probably feel that there is no other route to go down in order to make their point.

Mystic E - Delberately misleading?? I seriously do not understand your assertion . Can you give some examples ?
To me, the current management has been far more straightforward and straight talking than previous regimes. I have not agreed with some of their decisions but have never felt they were deliberately misleading any of us.

BN. Sorry if I was unclear. The present regime ARE an improvement (despite the continued existence of the teflon-coated media man) but people have been Peter Hoodwinked for too long. Any concerns were swept under the carpet whilst the board bled the club dry. It is easy to be unconvinced that words would be met with any concern from the board whatsoever.

Especially given the rant by Ferres at the very people who pay his wage. He is a man who needs to look in the mirror.

I watched the match again on BullsTV yesterday and, to be right, we defended very well for most of the game, as did Fax though it's fair to say we caused them fewer problems. Our goal-line defence was quite superb, in fact.

One thing we seem to have given up on is off-loading. We rarely did so and this is one of the reasons we caused so few problems to the Halifax defence [they off-loaded quite a lot in comparison, it's amazing how we divvied up the ball quite so often when we played so conservatively. For sure there were plenty of, 'who are you', and 'what are you doing there', errors, but given the much changed side I suppose that was to, to some extent, inevitable.

The pitch looked much muddier and covered in sand on TV than it did on the day, particularly the Skircoat Rd end, running in it must have been difficult for both sides.

Hope you all clapped them off today.

I have given all of them a STD. Let's see what that does for their feelings of adequacy.

It's like clapping them, but in a bad way

The players were awful today,the exceptions being Fleming who played with heart and O'brien who was often the first man in. The defense was none existent and they didn't deserve to be clapped off in the end.

Brainless rugby played by individuals rather than a team.

Sheffield weren't particularly very good. We were that bad! !

Something needs to change as these players are playing like shadows of their former selves.

^ This

There's no passion, no ideas and no structure. Even at 12 - 12 the Bulls players looked knackered and despondent. We're a shadow of the team we were last year even!

Well said.

Thought STD was something to do with telephones?

There's no good way with that sort of clap.