You could be onto something as Bailey is the only black player in the league.

Never said he was. And my opinion is generally he is a pantomime villain. But it would be ignorant to think no one hates him because he is black

One of the primary reasons people feel the need to point out Ryan Bailey's shortcomings is to provide a counterpoint to the drooling and unjustified adulation that is heaped upon him by some Leeds fans; particularly this cult of persistently labelling him TMFMISL, which to everyone outside a few goobers on the Leeds board, is puerile nonsense.

As I said earlier in the thread, before the loonies played the race card, he's a player with many good attributes but a poor attitude - his poor attitude is typified by the cheap shots, niggles and ref-baiting antics he regularly displays, together with his habit of back-pedalling rapidly when someone retaliates.

Once again - players cannot go around putting their hands on the officials; the penalty is appropriate, particularly given his behaviour immediately afterwards.

I never said you have, because you're unable to. What you have done instead is to state that the massive unpopularity Bailey suffers from is down to the colour of his skin. It either is or it isn't. If all you're saying is that in [isome[/i cases that's what it is, then fair enough, I've no doubt that there will be some people who do indeed dislike him purely on racial grounds, but I think where you and I differ is on our belief of how prevelent that particular circumstance is. I believe it to be in the minority, you appear to believe it in the majority.



Ironically I believe a 3 game ban for what he did to be OTT





You're like a wriggling worm. Either you're saying that the majority of people dislike Bailey simply because of the colour of his skin, or you're not, and you're not really saying anything interesting at all - a bit like Stevo & Eddie who never shut up during the match commentary but don't really say anything of note.



I know you're using the exact same phrases (re: we all suffer from prejudice to some extent) as he has done on many occasions when we've discussed this.







See the above. You either believe people dislike him because of "the big dark elephant", or not. If you believe it is, then you may not have used those exact words but it's what it implies.



So what's the main reason behind many people disliking Ben Cockayne? A deep rooted prejudice against people who ... no, sorry, I'm at a loss. Both players play the game right at the very edge of what is acceptable on the field of play. Both players are either loved or hated/disliked. There is no difference.



Not really. Blind prejudice leads to over-reactionary or utterly absurd generalisations about entire groups of people. That's what racism IS. In the racism case it's based on the tone of their skin. In other cases the connecting trait can be their dislike for a person or organisation. In your case, you are immediately prejudiced against people who outwardly show/say that they are not fans of Ryan Bailey and automatically assume that they have some kind of deep rooted racially motivated prejudice.



And yet the original comment is that the reason people don't like Bailey is because of "a big dark elephant". What puts you in a position to say that without it being unsupportable prejudice?



And yet people who dislike Bailey fall in to the "dark elephant in the room" prejudice. It would appear that you're not evolved enough to recognise that so many people en-masse may just have formed a negative view of Ryan Bailey on anything other than the colour of his skin.



I would say there are others in the league who are probably worse, agreed.



Absolutely. I did my part and gave one of the 5 examples that have been called for, I'm sure there are others but the one example I gave is the one that comes immediately to my mind.



I'm afraid you've hit a dud note with that one, try again. You still seem to be under the impression that I foam at the mouth whenever Bailey takes the field willing for him to be sent off, or some such. I don't, I simply dislike the way he plays the game, and the same goes for many other players in the league. It's simply part of being a Rugby League fan.

Yep, it's usually as a result of people accusing them of being racist

But those that do hate everybody that's black so why out of all the black players do people voice their dislike of Bailey? perhaps it's not his colour that people dislike him maybe (like me) they dislike his actions. when discussing Chris Bridge's action that got him a ban, nobody defending Bridge from other posters suggested that it was because he is white as other players including black ones have done similar in their career.

I can live with the final sentence as a conclusion to this discussion.

You think Cockayne is as discussed on here as Bailey? I don't.

And how does my perceived prejudice manifest itself?

Again, that their opinions are based exclusively on this issue are your words, not mine. You're having an argument with yourself.

And yet they don't appear to attract the same level of ire. Why is that do you think?

Then I think I have hit the nail on the head actually. Because if a prop forward does not play the game aggressively in an effort to dominate his opposition then, IMO, he's not playing the game properly. It's probably precisely because of the way he plays the game that he's earned domestic honours and international recognition and been continually selected by a string of very succesful Leeds coaches and retained by the management ahead of players like Dowes, Carvell, Scruton and Burgess.

Maybe because they got better offers elsewhere?
Or no one else wanted Bailey.

Either way, any valid argument you might have had is swept way utterly by the overwhelming idiocy of the majority of your postings

Spot on. I think we've heard enough from the Bailey fanclub now, so can we have this thread locked please.

Bailey is crap. What a tragedy it is for England rugby league that this thug is named in the training squad. Should have locked him up and thrown away the key he's a disgrace to the sport and a sh&t prop

Aye, we'll agree to disagree.

Nice level headed post well thought out with a brilliant insight.

He is not a s@&t prop. To play at any team in super league (even one at bradfords level) makes him not s@&t. He isn't the best player in the league but for me he is either well over rated by some or underated by others. He isn't a James graham or Jamie peacock (cannot think of a good Bradford prop sorry) but he does a job and is a solid player in a squad game. Personally glad he plays in our team