How the RL family is no more .......

Quote: kinleycat "RL supporters in general are some of the nicest people I have ever met, and are as generous as any people I have come across supporting numerous charities with their hard earned money and equally their time and compassion.
The RL family is something of a modern day myth though, more so now in the dog eat dog world of professional sport and business. In the old days of the semi pro game when much was done by favour or good will I can imagine this family may well have flourished.
I cannot imagine it has existed as anything other than a legend in the last twenty years and it is and (I imagine) gone forever.
I can't name a team or a group of supporters that don't hold a grudge against another, the RFL or whatever, and self preservation has become the order of the day.
As much as I wish Bradford or any other club well, it would not be at the expense if my beloved Wakefield Trinity and I'm sure that's how most others feel.
The contrived way that the RFL manufacture hostility amongst fans of rival teams doesn't help, I don't feel hostility in a matchday towards Cas or it's fans, but as we both scramble for safety in new stadia we are at each others throats on an almost daily basis.
The eutopia of SL causes much anger and animosity and causes the clubs to behave irrationally, and if the truth could come out, that the game is bent, because the governing body is inept, negligable and corrupt, we could all probably regathering our strength and composure and once again concentrate on what really matters rugby league.
Kill the SL myth, maybe the RL family may emerge once again from the Red Hall cellar'"

I've never been one to get drawn into the "hate" mentality. Our big rivals are Leeds and I detest losing to them more than any other club and obviously enjoy our victories more too. but I don't "hate" the leeds club, or its fans. In fact, I recognise that the rivalry between the clubs has a positive effect on both; the games are regarded as big events by both sets of fans and are exactly the sort of things which drive the popularity of the sport. Not only that but I've worked with so many Leeds fans over the years (and Fax, Cas, Wakey, Dewsbury, Hudds Batley, Keighley etc) that, well it's pretty hard to dislike nice people to be honest. At the end of the day all fans are, in general, the same.

One of the drivers of "hate " is the social media though. When individuals turn up on message boards making downright nasty comments it only causes others to reply in a similar vein. The boards are powerful tool and are very useful for enabling fans to 'mix' but they do have this downside. What is worse is when a comment from one individual is taken as the general feeling of the fans of a particular club. [iAny[/i fan of [iany[/i club who wishes bad fortune on another is just a numpty, imo, and a low end numpty, at that.