I never liked them but now I truly loathe them.

Stupid club monikers that’s what.

They are cheap and meaningless and imo add nothing.

All the clubs who don’t have silly animal names and badges look so much classier.

HKR
Hull FC
Wakefield Trinity
St Helens (who had far to much class to ever entertain the idea in the first place)

All sound better and all have better logos and thus a far more professional look.

Of course some of the animal branded teams work better than others. Castleford Tigers and Warrington Wolves have a certain ring to them.

I accept there is a certain history to Salford Red Devil’s though frankly I feel it’s probably to late to really reclaim it.

The rest are cheap, meaningless and tbh these days not even effective - people have moved on from daft tat like that and can see straight through it.

Giants and Dragons and Broncos are all plain embarrassing. However the two worst one are Leeds Rhinos (what the hell have Leeds got to do with Rhinos) and Wigan Warriors, a seriously unimaginative steal from NZ.

Leeds and Wigan are two of our three premier clubs, hugely recognisiable in there own right. Leeds as a major city is worth its weight in gold it doesn’t need a silly name tagging on, pLeeds RL was just fine.

As for Wigan, Wigan are by far our most famous and recognised club and as such need no embellishment. What’s worse is they only seem to use the Warrior tag half heartedly, which makes it even worse.

I’m sure the amazing number of marketing experts who seem to inhabit the VT will tell me what a great marketing tool they are. Well maybe once at the inception of SL but now they just look tired and jokey so I don’t buy that argument.

When Wakefield reverted to Trinity I know Carter was very nervous and only did it due to fans demands. He’s never regretted it since as Trinity merchandise flies off the shelf in a way Wildcats stuff never did. Although some of that is due to the teams improved performances the bulk is not.

Almost anyone above the age of 20 prefers tradition to silly cartoon names and badges. If Leeds dropped the Rhino motif I don’t think they would lose a penny, in fact I recon they would only gain. Whilst the prestige of just being Leeds RL would be worth even more.

Get rid, grow up and show some pride in the past and some faith in the future. We are a traditional and prestigious sport, we don’t need it anymore, as with imagination we can and should make our past work for us.

Look at you just trolling having at go at other clubs that aren’t yours....who are you to tell Gary Hetherington how to run his club etc etc etc.

In seriousness there’s a big difference between Leeds and Wakefield when it comes to marketing itself. Wakefield doesn’t have another big sports team under that name like Leeds do with Leeds United in football.

In a city where if you call yourself a Leeds fan people automatically assume you mean football, then the Rhinos name does help differentiate us and give us our own identity, Wakefield or St Helens not having a football team don’t have that problem.

When it comes to these names though why don’t people ever criticise NRL clubs for having them? Or NFL clubs, with worldwide name like Dallas COWBOYS, New York GIANTS and Miami DOLPHINS, these more successful leagues and sports do just fine with them yet apparently they’re a problem for the stuttering SL.

I actually agree with much of what you say and how I’m trolling I don’t know. It does excuse Leeds a bit but I don’t reckon it’s needed now. Leeds RL does the job and many people in Leeds automatically refer to United as United whilst calling the RL team Leeds. I’m not from Leeds but have worked there for years and that’s my experience FWIW.

However Rhino, there has to be better.

The NRL is very different that’s why no one is so critical. They have embraced the American style of franchise for want of a better word.

Few of there clubs are original line ups. Many are off the shelf brand new. I suppose you can do what you like where there is no tradition.

Also a lot of the NSWRL teams were already known unofficially by their nicknames long before they started marketing it. Bulldogs, Roosters, Sea Eagles were all in common parlance even when I lived there in the early seventies.

It was already part of their game, they just rationalised it to suit them.

Well my experience I’ve had is that even people I’ve worked who for over 10 years and know I’m a much bigger RL fan than football, when they ask me what I did at the weekend and I say “I went to the Leeds game” they still reply something along the lines of “oh they won 1-0 didn’t they” thinking I meant Leeds United when I mean Rhinos.

Why does they have to be better than Rhinos? Because you personally don’t like, is that a valid reason in all due respect?

The key word you use is above is “embrace”. Whichever way clubs go, the key thing is embracing it. Whatever you think of the Rhinos name you can’t deny that Leeds have embraced it and made it work. On the the other hand Wakefield never really embraced Wildcats so it didn’t work....admittedly you didn’t really need one because you had the ‘Trinity’ name there all along. Look at Hull FC, does that work any better than Rhinos, or even Bulls when they were in SL?

I honestly don’t see how going back to just plain simple Leed “RL” inthe year 2019 would be an improvement either marketing wise or brand wise. Got to remember that moving forward you’re appealing to a younger audience, the future generations.

Always knew Leeds as "The Loiners" in my early rugby days. You are right about Rhinos, stupid name! The others are no better, Vikings, Wolves, Bulldogs and the others, scrap the lot.

More trolling from Wakefield's "vastman."

Sydney "Roosters." Best run club and one of the most successful in the history of the NRL.

1950s French influence in the club's jersey colours and design and in the name ("le coq"icon_wink.gif. Nobody minds the name.

I have lived in Aus since 1968 and the nickname for the Canterbury club was 'Berries' until changed in the late seventies(197icon_cool.gif to 'Bulldogs'.
'Berries' was considered too soft and the club wanted a name which implied grit and determination.

Where were you living in the early 70's?

I kind of agree with vastman on this. However, with the exception of football, sports these days just feel the need to give themselves a silly name.

Absolutely agree wholeheartedly!

They are cheesy gimmicks that belong in the 1990s.

A few years ago Wire were saying they were going to make a big announcement and, to a man, our entire fanbase were hoping that it would be the ditching of “Wolves” from our club name.

We were all let down as it ended up being the release of a new club badge.

Is that your nickname where you’re from?

Leeds currently have parents [url=https://www.therhinos.co.uk/fanzone/ronnie-the-rhino/throwing £110 a time[/url at the club to have Ronnie the Rhino appear at their kid's birthday party and £160 for their kids to run out with Ronnie on game day (and those packages are sold out). For the people that the "Rhino" moniker is really targeted at, it's anything but an embarrasing waste of time.

Wakefield dropped their nickname for two reasons. Firstly, it was a crap name that at best made it sound like an American High School cheerleading squad, and at worst a sleezy lapdancing club. Secondly, they spent too much time listening to the same old farts that they always listened to, instead of listening to the people that they might possibly be able to attract with the right approach.

As a posed to your moniker, “troll”

Petty pointless post.

They help with branding, marketing, advertising and also raise the appeal to the younger demographic. As others have already said, we need all the help we can get in enticing youngsters to become fans of the sport and like them or not, these names and brands help with that.

I think it works for some clubs. Especially for Leeds who have a sports club the nation know as “Leeds” who aren’t the Rhinos.

I don’t know a single Warrington fan who wouldn’t be happy to see “Wolves” ditched from the club name.

I don’t know any Wiganer who refers to Wigan as “The Warriors”. They certainly would not miss that name if they ditched it.

I was pleased when Manchester RL went for the traditional local rivival name of “Rangers” rather than opt for a silly animal name that has nothing to do with the city.

But if it works for Leeds then they shouldn’t change it.

Did the Roosters exists in the 70's or were they an area of Sydney ie Easts?

Having a marketable moniker is a tool with which to sell the club and it's merchandise. No one could surely argue that Bradford didn't benefit from dropping "Northern".

I suspect Leeds becoming "Rhinos" was partly a consequence of a rather tepid interest in rebranding at all. Then you have Halifax who seemed to miss the point altogether by using blue sox which really limited their ability to produce merchandise or even just to grab the attention of kids in local schools. Wasn't it the jolly fat chap who masterminded that error? It can't have helped capture the hearts and minds of people in Shelf etc against aggressive Bradford marketing.

They should have gone with Bombers instead.

I don’t see people complain about Australia and New Zealand constantly being called Kangaroos and Kiwis. They’re probably referred to and recognised by these names as much if not more than Leeds are by Rhinos regardless of it being a nickname over an official name. People yearn for the reintroduction of “Lions Tours” and day the Lions bane and brand is great yet a SL club shouldn’t have an animal name.

Hull F.C. were the sharks for a while which was embarrassing as they launched it with a dogfish borrowed from Scarborough sea life centre I think ,but in Hull Hull city are known as City Hull FC are known as Hull and Hull KR are known as Rovers

Some clubs have had nicknames/monikers etc for over a century. Hull KR for example. I don’t think any Hull KR fan could argue they haven’t benefitted from being called Rovers. You have some in football too. Wolves, Blackburn, Wycombe. Even the term United is a moniker. It’s just not animal related.

My view is if it works for your club like Leeds, Bradford, Cas etc then great. If it doesn’t then I’d say you should do like Wakefield and return to traditional name.

Well technically a Dogfish is a Shark.

That was the plan,but somebody persuaded them that people would associate that name with the IRA (terrorist bombers) not the Halifax Bomber. Mussed opertunity

I believe they were known as Eastern Suburbs until the 90's. Roosters was adopted in the 90's. However some clubs already had animals as their emblem i.e Eastern Suburbs was a rooster. Balmains a tiger etc.

I was going to say that myself after reading the comment about confusing Leeds with Leeds United. If you say you went to watch Hull, everyone in the city knows that you are referring to FC. And you guys had a very distinctive name to begin with, so had no need for a nickname.

It would have been quite difficult to borrow a great white.