viewtopic.php?t=400449 You really could not make it up how insullar some folk are.

viewtopic.php?t=400449 You really could not make it up how insullar some folk are.

I know it's not really the point but I don't think Smith would be particularly missed. To say he was once rated as the top youngster in the world along with Inglis just isn't true, I know a few of the lads at Leeds who are suprised he's even made it to SL standard.

Smith as good as Inglis? Blimey, who wrote that? You're right, that's a nonsense.

However, it would be a great loss if this guy went, he's still an underatted player in my eyes. Thought he was not gonna make it when he first came on the scene, but think he's a top player now. We're not talking Inglis or Folau territory, but he's a good 'un all the same.

When the Australian Schoolboys toured the UK Inglis and Smith were opposing fullbacks all the hype at the time was around whichever player got the upper hand between that crucial duel would play a major part in who would win the series.

Inglis kicked on significantly, Smith did not, but now he has shown sign of developing again and maybe could reach his initial potential.

Good grief. I could barely read past the second page. If any RL folk want to know why their game will be firmly back in the amateur ranks in a few decades' time (except for the three or four clubs who have merged with Union), it's all enshrined in that thread there.

Some of those posts take my breath away. But it's no surprise. Half the RFL officials share those views, so why should a few idiots who can't see beyond the crumbling mausoleum that is Belle Vue feel any different?

OMG!!!! Those people really are stupid.....

jonh

I stood in a Pub in the Gold Coast a couple of hours after our Dismal Semi-Final defeat and listened to many different aruments on the subject.

Mine was this!

There were 12 of us at that bar & We could go outside and bewteen us have a "Competitive" game of Rugby!

It Wouldn't mean we were Any Good though Would it!

In my opinion we have lost sight of the one thing that we should be striving for and in our efforts to make the game "Competitive" we are not delivering "Excellence!".

Maybe I am being Nostalgic etc but I look back 10/15/20 years ago & I do not see us producing the "Quality" that we did back then that can compete.

Even 5 or 6 years ago there were a better crop of "Quality" players around compared to today IMHO.

I went to OZ last year for the WC and the squad was Dismal!

A dozen of those players wouldn't get a game in the NRL & we (Well Some, not me actually) call them "World Class"!
However
It's like Turkeys voting for Xmas! They arent going to do it!

Why should Wakey/Cas/Salford/Hudds etc worry about growing their businesses when the others are Hmastrung down to their Level????

As long as you have the 1.6m to spend like everyone else then why worry about Growing the game??

PS

I put something up the other day about wether the SL was actually more competitive than when Wigan dominated etc

I think we have manufactured a way for it to be more Competitive but to be honest with you I'm not so sure!
Over the last 5 years if it was 1st past the post I would suspect that Saints would have won it every time and the CC as well.
How would that be "More Competitive"!

All that "it's not my club, so I'm not bothered" rubbish drives me mad. On some issues fair enough, you only care about your club. Top players leaving the game is another.

The same people saying that will be complaining when England RL are getting flogged 40-0 by Australia in a few years time and the England RU backline has Ashton & Smith in it running in the tries.

When I read that thread I could have wept.

As long as it doesn't affect my club (XXXXXXXXX insert name) then I don't care, appears to be the majorities attitude.

Then they moan about the number of foreigners at Wigan, but never mention where all their players come from (they are not from Wakefield)

Like Jukesays so well stated, competitive yes, quality no.

I'm afraid the tail is wagging the dog.

I almost did.

Utterly pathetic attitude, its clubs just like Wakefiled and their joke of a franchise that are going to hold the game back and refuse to allow the game to stand a chance of progessing.

Pathetic

Soon as clubs like wakefield or swapped for the likes of leigh and widnes teams who are trying to move forward. this game may start to adopt a new attitude

yeah a couple of people weren't bothered because it didn't affect Wakey. Hardly representative of the feelings of West Yorkshire is it?

i think the thread kind of went off topic and i agree it is an issue that needs looking at for the good of the game.

but is hardly a reason to go Wakey bashing is it, you seem to have enough excuses as it is.

If you look at the attitude though a few are hedging there bets saying nothing needs to be changed yet but may well in the future after the next pick of franshises, ie hopefully when Trinity have a new stadium are secure and then the whole League can move forward.

I enjoy posting on there I really do but this attitude has stunned me, I would not expect any rugby league supporter to think losing a player like Smith is ok, as long as it is not in there back yard.

LOL.... They are in a proper lather now...hehehehe.

great season init , Union , A leeds player and the Wakey board top of your agenda is it

forum /"fO;r@m/
· n. (pl. forums)
1 a meeting or medium for an exchange of views.
2 chiefly N. Amer. a court or tribunal.
3 (pl. fora) (in an ancient Roman city) a public square or marketplace used for judicial and other business.
– ORIGIN ME: from L., lit. ‘what is out of doors’.

thanks for clearing up the definition , i now feel safe in the knowledge that i too can use the wigan board as a medium (don't mention mediums in wakey) to express my views and opinions.

IMHO

you are talking out off your bum if you think the cap is killing the sport

Of course you are free to express your opinions...as indeed am i...

It absolutely sickens me to think about how much of a hold RU has got over us at the moment with regards to pinching our players. I know at this stage it is just a rumour, but even so if lee smith goes it will again be a massive knock to our game. I really was quite shocked to read the attitudes of some of the Wakey support, in some respects I find this more concerning that the fact that union are poaching our best players after all that is only natural, why would you not want the best?.

Jonh, I thought you fought a good battle with those numptys, however the old saying “there is no point arguing with an idiot” springs to mind when I read some of their responses (especially about Farrell being pot!!!!).

I am on a bit of a downer after reading this, I always thought that to be a league fan you had to have this “us v them” attitude. I can’t believe people would condone it, never mind encourage it because it does not affect their club.

It beggars belief.

That thread is the main reason why i dont bother posting on other teams boards. As soon as they find out your a wigan fan, it turns into a anti wigan rant about how we only want the rules changing so we can buy success again.

I dont even bother to tell them the reason we could 'buy' success, was our success was based on the intial winning of the team and a want to become the best team in the world at our sport.

Any reasoned argument is usually followed by

Well you only won cos you were the only full time team, or more recently

you should have been kicked out of the league for breaking the cap!

You cant reaon with people who have made up their mind regardless of facts!

it is us against them , i think the cap as secured more clubs in SL than it has harmed . Why is it whenever some folk have a difference of opinion it makes them numptys. FACT when wigan could spend all they wanted and won everything as the little clubs scrapped up 8th rate aussies the sport was about to die , The cap evens the field why should i agree when its quite clear that soom wigoners want a SL like a premier League where Chelsea buy whatever and whoever. Clubs will die if the cap vanishes but off course that's my opinion .

that im afraid comes part and parcel off being the club who did monopolise the league . look i have nowt against wigeon fans on this board and at the jjb i find them to be some of the most knowledgeable , friendly welcoming fans in the whole SL the way our the club still gets 15k plus is amazing i just don't think especially with the addition of franchise that we could operate the sport in the same shambolic way as the 80s and 90s

people are not "numptys" for having a difference of opinion to myself with regards to the salary cap. people are numptys for this "if it aint wakey, i aint bothered attitude". how can you be so wrapped up in your own team that you fail to notice the the sport your team plays is suffering and laugh it off??? i really dont get it, truely.

Believe it or not that really wouldn't bother me and i can't see why it would bother anyone else other than jealousy because they know their clubs could never be the top club. If Wigan wanted to go back to a policy of promoting the best young players and buying the best talent around then I can see no problem with it as at least we will be trying to be the best club in the world rather than the Wakey attitude of just wanting a good cup run and making the playoffs.

Teams are punished for wanting to achieve?

Got a fair few British lads in the team that would not be given the chance at other teams.

People say they want to see the young British lads given a chance and that is what Wakey are doing.