Peacock vs Schofield

Quote: af "Richard, let's be honest, your defence of GS is dry reminiscent of David Brent's of Finchy. "He's thrown a kettle over a pub! What have you ever done?"

You say he is a good bloke and his heart is in the right place. That is a subjective view and cannot be conclusively disproven without going into the sort of forensic detail that no one can be .rsed with. However, the fact that so many fans of the team he played the majority of his career for have such a low opinion of him should set a few alarm bells off, no?

You asked for specific details of him talking for attention rather than to express an honestly held view. Unfortunately I lent my Collected Works of Garry Schofield to a friend and I won't be able to get up to the British Library till later. His comments on Leeds would seem to fall into this category - predict their demise continually and crow when like a broken clock the reality eventually matches the naysaying. And like G1 comments, tone as well as content is important. Quoting tone is difficult but everyone who has ever heard or read Garry Schofield knows from his tone that his priority is heat rather than light.

His most egregious crime for me as a non-Leeds fan is his attitude towards the game in London. Scepticism is perfectly valid. However he shows no interest in learning more about the complexity of the situation in London, the incredible development that has gone on at grassroots level and the reasons that has not been translated into a vibrant Broncos. He prefers ignorance as it makes it easier to garner praise from fellow anti-expansionists and attention from those frustrated by someone using his still big name in the game to advocate the abandonment of our most promising potential source of future players. No attempt to engage in the real debate, too much effort and the danger of being sidetracked towards being somewhere near reasonable.

JP could perhaps have chosen his words better and he would certainly have wished for a better result to back them up. But he has built a groundswell of repect in the game throughout his career, even from the majority of Bulls fans who saw him join our nearest rivals as their star rose and ours fell. Schofield has his admirers, much as Richard Littlejohn and his ilk have - "You tell it straight, couldn't agree with you more". But in the end he is who he is, says what he says and does what he does. And it's a shame.'"

The fact you'd like to try and disprove Garry is a good bloke, despite - just giving one example here - doing all that work for that kid who needed life-saving treatment recently, yet only admit JP could "perhaps" have not called him a fat slob and a coward for not answering a number he didn't recognise, highlight your agendas pretty conclusively!

"Perhaps"?! It's been 24 hours, and those comments are still there, nor has he apologised for them. And his tantrum has made at least 3 of today's newspapers.

My 'defence' of Garry is simply to ask what he's said in the past that has caused so much offence, because, as far as I can see, all he writes about that causes offence is to say 'player A isn't good enough to play for England', or 'player B is a poor stand-off, but a much better loose forward'. He's never personal either. As an example, if he wants to criticise Nigel Wood, he'll do so without referring to his weight, unlike others. Schoey keeps it to rugby league and rugby league only.

So, other than London, where I'd estimate 90% of fans would agree with him, you can't remember any examples of things he's written that have ed you off?

As for London, his argument has consistently been that the grassroots stuff is great, but that they don't deserve a Super League spot. Is that such a whacky viewpoint?

It boils down to this: rugby league people are thin skinned and don't take kindly to the likes of Schoey and Alex Murphy. In other sports, it's commonplace and they just get on with it. What JP and his generation have copped is a fraction of what British footballers, tennis players and cricketers come in for.

What you say about Leeds and their fans: he's tipped Leeds to win trophies more often than not in the last 5 years, he's heaped praise on many of their players as I've mentioned in their thread. But you're only willing to look at one side of the ledger! Why is that?

Unpopular with their fans? There may be a few on here who don't like him, and probably more who don't post on here, but he has well wishers every day, he signs autographs on a daily basis (never refused one unlike a few GB players of his generation!) and he gets great messages on twitter from Leeds fans. His unpopularity is a myth because you're basing it on a select minority.

Some Leeds fans booed Adrian Morley when he announced his Roosters deal in 2000, and some Leeds fans booed Iestyn Harris when the 1999 Cup-Winning team were paraded at Headingley a few years ago. What does that prove? Fans aren't always rational!

His punditry is superb as his ability to get people talking about rugby league. Far better that than the bland, sit-on-the-fence crap we get from most other players and ex-players who take the media shilling.