I find this post really offensive, are you really saying that becuase I dont live in an LS postcode I shouldn't support Leeds.
I went to my first Leeds game over 25 years ago (Barrow at home in the cup 90-0), and have seen the worst times as well as the recent success.
I have seen many great players don the blue and amber over the years (as well as some terrible).
I was at oldham when we lost in 1996 and I have been to every grand final leeds have played in.
Im a leeds fan becuase my dad is, who in turn went with his dad. I have held a season ticket for years and am a proud southstander.
For a keyboard warrior like your self to criticise loyal fans is a joke.

Swiftcorn reminds me of the little scruffy kid with his nose pressed up against the sweetie shop window, lacking the means to purchase any of the goodies on show, consoles himself by deciding he wouldn't like anything anyway. So there!

He is right though, in that the Rhinos is a commodity brand, and whether its the atmosphere in the Southstand, or any of the matchday catering options, its all marketed as The Headingley Experience. Onfield success simply boosts the brand and hopefully attracts more paying punters, but it's not really the be all and end all that many fans think.

Look at the Bradford Bulls. A below par performance on the field over the last three years hasn't affected the ability to raise 500k for the brand name. And even better for the BOD, it's all donations! There's no need for a new share issue when the gullible obligingly hand over their hard earned in exhange for the continuance of a well promoted brand name.

Now, if there's any Bulls fans interested, I have an iconic and world famous London structure available for a quick Easter sale...... with an extra 10% discount for season ticket holders, or those who Pledged!

The full season ticket is poor value for money, it's discount is such that there are enough freebies and other discounts about that you are better off not getting one.

There is also a fair point to say that the quality of the product on the field makes it difficult to justify to myself in buying one. In recent years I have found the effort put in and the quality on show has been sadly lacking. I'd rather watch a poor side that tries and loses than a good side that doesn't show it's potential and wins. The number of awful teams in the top division doesn't help.

The squad is rarely improved and quality players departing are not replaced. The squad is supposedly good but fails to turn up in the big games (see our results against top 5 sides over the last two seasons) and often loses to the worst teams in the division. The club also prioritises the latter half of the season over the first in stead of looking at every game as important.I see buying a season ticket as endorsing these practices so for me I can't do it. Whilst there are thousands who will pay year in and year out no matter what these practises are unlikely to change.

Would love to have a Gary Mercer, George Mann, and Kevin Iro in this squad right now.

Whilst in the last couple of years the results in the weekly rounds have often been dissapointing, I wouldn't criticise the effort the players have put in.

I cannot comment on the Bradford game as I wasn't there, but certainly in the Hudds game the effort was there, we just couldn't make it count due to the lack of our creative players.

We should remember both 2010 and 2011 the team was badly dissrupted by injuries which was always going to affect results.

At the worst times last year you could see the defeats and performances hurt the players, but they stuck in there and got their reward. As long as the players put the effort in they will have my support, win or lose, it isn't our divine right to win every game.

Are you seriously insinuating this is not the case in Super League? That the players and teams do not switch off and enter coasting mode when up against opposition in fixtures that don't really matter? Do the top clubs not rest players and field weakened teams in games they deem less important because they can afford to lose those games without affecting their chances of being in the play-offs?

Feel free to call it disrespectful (you'd be correct in doing so) but that is the reality. A lot of games during the regular rounds are meaningless, they don't matter and the quality isn't there. Leeds losing 3 in a row doesn't matter either. They'll still comfortably finish well-placed in the play-offs. That is the Super League product currently on offer and that's why I don't consider the season ticket commodity as a value for money purchase. If you wish to assign reverential, puritanical and mystical devotion to what is nothing more than a commodity, that's entirely up to you. It's still a faulty product not fit for the purpose and the worst part is that you're not covered under the Sale Of Goods Act for repair, replacement or your money back.

You say the same every year. Sometimes though, we seem to win the GF.

This thread is scraping the bottom of a very deep barrell

4 pages (possibly 5 with this!) for one of the lamest trolls in decades? Really?
Keith will be livid. At least he makes an effort!

You are free to purchase any commodity brand name you like in the same way that I prefer to purchase Heinz Salad Cream as opposed to other lesser well-known salad cream brands because I think it tastes better. I'm merely illustrating the difference between being a Loiner and supporting a club which represented the Loiner community, as opposed to purchasing a particular brand or commodity like the rhinos.


That was a long time ago when you supported a rugby league club. You may still believe you do but in reality, you don't. Unless you somehow believe that purchasing products related to the rhinos brand is the same as supporting a club which represents Leeds and the Loiner community. The rhinos brand doesn't and it never will. It's now a business first and foremost selling it's branded products to appeal to a larger market. Sure, the business will try and convince people that it does represent the Leeds community, for instance by expropriating the MOT song on a matchday, but for those who can see through the marketing bull, it represents nothing of the kind apart from engendering a faux community spirit in the hope of further maximising sales and profit. I have no feelings of abiding allegiance or loyalty to businesses selling their branded products, particularly when they are of a shoddy quality for the most part, hence why I wouldn't purchase their season ticket because it doesn't represent quality or value for money.

Well said, and spot on.

That pretty much sums up my feelings and opinions as well. I'll pick and choose what games I wish to see and many of them will involve real community-based clubs as opposed to the rhinos brand in Super League. The rhinos play London Broncos tomorrow and that's about as unappealing and unappetisingly drab as it gets. No chance of a quality game there, especially only 3 days after the previous drab performance and encounter. I have absolutely no interest in this game, yet I'd probably end up going if I had a season ticket. It matters not a jot if the rhinos win or lose that game either. Just another run-of-the-mill regular round game against inferior opposition where Leeds will probably coast to a win despite an ordinary performance, yet also another meaningless regular round game which they can afford to lose without it making any difference to their chances in the long run.

Interestingly, I used to get scolded on here in the past for having the temerity to criticise rhinos performances and results during the regular seasons on the basis that those games don't matter - it's not even JULY yet - and Leeds will produce when it really counts - BELIEVE, etc. Now I've seen the light and changed my views on this (mainly due to the new play-off system which now rewards mediocrity throughout the regular season), the very same people are now critical because I'm being dismissive about the importance of the regular rounds and discourteous to other clubs in the competition when the rhinos lose to them. The levels of hypocrisy which emerge on this forum are truly stunning.

Leeds Won 36 - 22

LeedsSubsTriesGoals: Graham Holroyd (3), Francis Cummins

You feel no connection or belonging to this Rhinos 'brand commodity ' yet you spend so much time on a Leeds RHINOS forum.

Hypocrisy.....its a terrible thing ain't it Keith.