Quote: SmokeyTA "Just to pose an alternative theory.
Back in 2004 Leeds blew the entire league away, they were dominant. They had a team of young, hungry superstars, and the RL community feared them a little bit. Leeds had always been the bridesmaids, but a big city team, with big attendances, and this fantastic side full of players far better than they should have been at their age, could very easily go on to dominate the league with success of levels unheard of.
Then 2005 happened and leeds lost 2 finals, many people were relieved, it looked like Leeds were slipping back in to their old role of bridesmaids, 2006 and Leeds did nothing, poor end of year, behind the scenes issues, no finals disappointed play-off exit, and St’s were the new top dogs. Some people loved it, they jumped in both feet first. It was the ideal breeding ground for tall poppy syndrome at its worst. People revelled in it, laughing at a club so long starved of success, which tasted it, were going to be the biggest dogs in the yard, but they then fell. Leeds went from being on the brink of a dynasty, the edge of a legacy of success. Leeds were supposed to be the team of era and now look at them, 1 season of success then they fell away. This was supposed to be a golden generation, it was supposed to be the next squad of players elevated, it was supposed to be the next side we talked about like Late 80’s early 90’s wigan. But they had blown it.
So we had people shouting about how the players weren’t as good as they were said to be. Sinfield took on a role of ‘jack of all trades-master of none’ Burrow became a ‘one trick pony’ Mcguire ‘just a support player’ Bailey ‘a cheap shot merchant’ JJB a ‘penalty machine’ and Joe Vagana had ended Senior’s career. The Golden Generation had missed its chance. Leeds were back to being Bridesmaids at best.
Then 2007 happened, then 2008, then 2009, then 2011, then 2012, and people didn’t want to say they got it wrong. They didn’t want to see that 2005 was just unfortunate and 2006 a blip, they didn’t want to admit that the Golden Generation they had cast off, dismissed and mocked had shown them up.
So people, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, still want to break that group of players down, they still want to be able to find a way of avoiding the reality that right now, like we are every so often, lucky to see a group of players stick together, work together and achieve together in spite of any difficulty. So Mcguire is still just a support player, Burrow is still just a scoot-scoot one trick pony, Sinfield still isn’t big enough for 13 or fast enough for 6, JJB is still a penalty machine and Ryan Bailey is still a ehouse, a cheap-shot merchant, a big mean nasty man and it’s the quality of league falling that is responsible for their success, or St’s choking, or the play-offs system, or Leeds only play for 4 weeks of the year or the multitude of other excuses we hear to mitigate the success.
People want to have a go at Bailey, just like they do Sinfield, Mcguire, Burrow and JJB, because not doing so will force them to admit just how good they are.
And because he wasn’t part of that generation, in a strange way the opposite applied to JP, who if you listened to some opposition fans, is the only player to actually play well in the last 5 years at Leeds.'"
Classic Smokey - he says what he wants.
