]

Saddened doesn't do anything else but "
Now it would be churlish to mention Saddened, Harry Pinner and Div voicing concerns for the 2009 season, but hey..

'"

does paulshorpe talk out of his behind all the time or just on this forum?

If anyone can provide a link to a thread from July this year, when Saints were clear atop the league and in the CC semi final, expressing these views I will happily concede this is not just petulant, arrogant Saints fans being petulant and arrogant.

I think you will find something - certainly even though we were top we were always in a false position in my book.

I think I said on an earlier thread the victory over Wigan at the DW stadium was one of the worst derby games I have ever seen.

Probably the same quality as Pilks Recs vs Wigan in the CC way- back -when

Link?

If anyone can provide a link to a thread where Ade Gardner said that Leeds can be caught, when Leeds were clear atop of the league, where Leeds fans were being arrogant, cocky and generally idiots, then i will happily concede that not all Leeds fans are obsessed and arrogant.

I am not so arrogant to suggest the reason for this thread is that saints haven't won anything this year, if you read my threads on redvee, i have been particulary happy with the season, as i wasn't expecting us to get anywhere near the grand final.. What my beef is is the genuine decline in quality of superleague across the board, this includes lying of from saints.. I find the national league games far more exciting to watch.. I can see further than my own team's success for a better, more entertaining superleague.. Even when saints had years of no success, games were still exciting to watch, with good tries scored, the only try that stands out for me this season is huddersfield's first try in the semi final.. If this had been a cas fan who started this petition, would it have been so vehemently argued against?

True. But at least he should have known the difference.

FWIW, nothing today is as funny as this thread. It's just made a miserable, wet, grey day seem like glorious midsummer. Definately deserve the Entertainers tag..

What i suggest you do is have a good think about matches that didn't involve your own team, that you've watched on sky, and think how many of them you have genuinely enjoyed as a spectacle? Some fans are getting hung up, saying i'm doing this because we've lost a grand final, i can appreciate that's how it looks, but i would also say to you that if the games were quicker, i could see saints struggling further, and leeds further ahead

I'll dig out plenty of articles but you'll have to look on Redvee. I'll dig out those from 2006 and 2007 too if you want. In fact, I do know I started a thread about this whole deal on RL Fans Virtual Terrace in February of 2007. You'll have to wait till tomorrow night though.

The reasons our average crowd increased were duty a variety of reasons

1) The fact that free season tickets were doled out willy-nilly to juniors for the price of a shirt

2) The early season games had some bumper crowds, notably the 17,000 for the opening day game against Warrington which makes up nearly the entire increase. A study of our gates shows a very sharp and serious decline throughout the course of the campaign, well before we relinquished top spot and were knocked out of the Challenge Cup.

3) Crucially, this is the first season that Saints have counted non-attending season ticket holders in the official match day attendance figures.

The crowd decline has been severe and is likely to continue down to worrying levels next season due to the rotten standard of entertainment on offer. It's a lot of money to spend when you come out of almost every game not having received value for money.

Whilst, of course, you will not see this as you are rightfully lapping up three titles in a row, it's nothing to do with us not winning things. In fact, we were told not so long ago that we were spoiled by success and were bored with winning. Not so, we were bored with the slow, predictable, monotonous 'entertainment' served up by ourselves, the opposition and just about every game witnessed on Sky.

Whilst we are getting ill-informed accusations that we are only bemoaning the game because we, as a team, have lost our way, it's interesting that the only fans on here trumping modern day Rugby League to be entertaining are Leeds and Warrington fans who, in their excitement about having finally hit upon a bit of success, are blinded to the fact that that game is now at it's dullest level since the abolition of the unlimited tackle era.