Truth is he was having some cheap pops while making some half decent points.

The game has got problems, which hopefully it will address it the coming years, but something that will probably prove to be harder to change is the attitude of some "outsiders" for want of a better word.

RL at times comes across as amateurish, and low key (for example the guy awarding the Challenge Cup). Hopefully in the future we can big things up a bit more which should help a little.

The other aspect is the fans, or more accurately the view of RL fans to journos like the one who wrote this article.

Watch a RL game and when the camera pans across the crowd you will see some people overweight, some with bad teeth, some who look a bit "loutish", some who have a lot of tattoos, some who look drunk mixed in with what you may call the average looking people.

Now watch a Football game, and you will see exactly the same, same with Union, same with most sports, yet one of the things that constantly gets thrown in these articles is references to our fans.

Rarely is it mentioned that opposite fans sit together at times and have good banter, or that a lot of families go with kids, or just how much fun the fans have.

The bottom line, if a journo wants to write a piece showing RL in a good light, its easy. Equally if they want to write a bad piece, its just as easy.

Right now, more of the big papers so to speak like having people write bad pieces, and there is not a lot we can do about it. This comes down to money. You get a big money sponsor, and money pumped into the game, you get advertisements and more exposure. You get them and suddenly, newspapers arent so keen to belittle what could be a good pulling piece for their paper, and a paying advertiser at some point.

RL used to be described as the Working Class game, and it was something to be proud of. These days that isnt the case, peoples views have changed. You want something to be successful, you make it Premium.

The only thing I do hope is that if RL ever does do well and flourishes to the point everyone wants a piece of it, the people in charge remember who tried to help them up the ladder, and the people who ed on them while they tried to move up it.

We know the game has issues, but this guy's basic knowledge of RL seems non-existent at best - he's in no position to slag off the sport. Admittedly, there were a couple of decent points made but it was lost in all the 5h!t he was spouting. A proper RL journo would have written it much better and had more credibility...

As a Broncos Season Ticket holder, I regret to say that his line about the semi-final was all too accurate.

To the fans it was patronising and laden with stereotypes but hidden in it was (unfortunately) some home truths that we pretend don't exist.

I'll be honest, I'm glad be wrote it, not for the fans, they don't need to be treated like they're second rate citizens but to the RFL who are the worst for burying their head in their s.

I always wondered what I'd do if I ever won the quad rollover euro lottery, I often fantasised about buying a club and helping them out, possibly build a stadium and let a fans consortium run it.
Now I would just spend millions on the best marketers and directors my money would stretch to. I hate the clueless idiots we have and I hate the fact that the clubs have a say in how everything is done, it's hard to evoke change with all the self interest the clubs show.

I think the RL fan needs to realise that rugby league as a business sport has very little value and significance. We have been losing primary sponsors now for quite a few years now and now rely on secondary sponsors and partners of no real value.
We have no media presence and the editorials can always make cheap shots knowing the RFl have no backbone to offer a constructive response.
Also SKY have got the game on the cheap, they are viewer orientated and are not interested on the fan support at live games and can manipulate games 5 days a week.
The RFl have a lot to answer for and the current administration is not fit for purpose, they cannot produce a working model to halt the decline and the club chairmen/owners are very fragmented because of it.

They are almost going into meltdown about it on that other forum. Extremely insecure lot over there for sure. Some of them ought to know better. Thin-skinned fans with their heads stuck in the sand. The amount of chelping on twitter is even more embarrassing.

try being me with the London Broncos mate......

OMG 3 pages of drivel from chippy iccle SLE fans

No idea who he is, so he's a nobody to me.

Calvin is a Millwall Fan, so the concept of Community sport is lost on him.

I blame Wigan/Hull/the ball/the RFL/the weather. (delete as per your agenda)

The Independent is aptly named, as it operates as a medium for journalists to write independently of any actual readers; as such, this article will do very little additional damage to RL's already stellar reputation.

I did not think it was too bad actually.

I was expecting a lot worse.

While there may be one or two legitimate points mentioned in the article, it certainly paints a grim picture of the sport and if any wavering supporters were thinking of watching a game of RL, if they read this particular article, they would stay away.
I did however, like the comment about the gimmicks that the game uses, being wasted on its audience.

There's some points that, unfortunately, are true, but when you look at the article as a whole, I just sort of think "why bother"?

Why bother writing it? Why bother reading it?

The difference between now and 10 years ago is that these articles are rare and there are many more positive articles from other sources and a much more positive treatment by national BBC services on TV and radio.

It used to be horrific.