I am an exiled Leigh fan of over 50 years. I remember as a child Bev Rismans's debut. I saw Alex Murphy's debut. I was at Wembley in 1971 and at Whitehaven in 82. I ran on the pitch when John Henderson scored a late try at Warrington to keep us in the 1st Division in 87. I could recall many other wonderful memories over the past 50 years but i won't be boring. The problem now is that last season i attended 3 games and this year i have not been at all.

I ask myself why. I would say that i am totally disenchanted with the way the game has been managed in recent years. Super League is great if you happen to be in it. However i do believe that in it's current form it is damaging greatly the grass routes of the game. Rugby League in towns with a rich history in the game is dying. Huddersfield finished bottom of the top division in successive seasons but were allowed to stay up because they played in a good stadium. Keighley were treated very badly and should have been included in the first super league, whilst London won promoton to nowhere and got included. The sham of the meregers between Huddersfield / Sheffield and Hull / Gateshead - this was just a joke. The wilingness to help out London when they were in a financial mess whilst great clubs like Oldham would have been allowed to go to the wall. I won't even start on the fiasco's in France or the injustice of overseas player allocations favouring certain clubs. My dislike of the 10 metre rule and the fact i feel rugby league wrongly sold it's sole to Sky are issues that can be put aside. I dislike the dual contract system. Clubs that leigh should be competing with on an equal basis can now call the tune at my club - this is wrong. The final nail in my particular coffin can be sumed up in 2 words (promotion and relegation). I look at other sports. Wigan, Burnley, Hull and even Blackpool have all made it to the premiership - it is all about keeping the dream alive. This has been taken away in Rugby League. Promotion or allocation of franchises as they call it is decided not on the field of play. I can hear Mr Lewis saying that this system works in Australia or the USA. This is correct but what must be remembered is that this is not Australia or the USA. Sorry to be negative in my views but i do feel that they are fairly typical. PS just read Tomy Sale's bok and it is excellent.

are you really a fan though if you dont go watching because of how the leagues are run?
Thats hardly the clubs fault

anybody who has watched us for so long will always be a fan in my book

that's a breathtakingly crass comment. Even for you.

To be perfectly honest I think most fans will agree with the majority of that statement. It doesn't stop us from supporting our club though. If we all did that there'd only be one league.

I don't see how your gripe with the RL (some points I do agree with you), should stop you supporting the club.

With you again duckegg.

As a fan you ask yourself one question, would my life be better or worse off with LRLFC in it? Because if all lapsed fans never bothered then your club dies, as a fan do something about it - help make us great again or watch us die.

It's a free world , everybody has the right to make a choice , in fact I prefer the honesty in the O/P rather than some of the usual garbage people post as reasons for not attending

We had an interesting discussion about what makes a fan (and/or a supporter) t'other night.

Can you be a 'fan' without attending games? If so, just how 'fanatic' are you??

Can you be a 'supporter' without attending games? If so, how do you 'support' the team/club??

At what point do you stop being a fan/supporter and become an ex-fan/supporter (or simply a well-wisher?!)

I think I'm heading into that last category FL. When I first moved to this side of the country, I made every effort to get to LSV, and as many away games as I could as they tend to be nearer. This season I keep making excuses, although all are valid, but keep an eager eye out on a sunday on here.
I wonder if that will be as important to me next season?

We'll see.

i was amazed how many "lapsed" fans were at the international last saturday, i saw loads................obvious they still follow the game, but not the club, sadly.

No it isn't - it is a fair comment. The O/P appears to be disappointed with the way the sport is being run, which is fair comment. However, is this a good enough reason for not supporting his own club? He talks about 'the good old days' and how it's not right that clubs that at one time would have been considered the equals of Leigh are now calling the shots. Again fair comment, but does he not see that the stay away fans over the last twenty years or so are what ultimately led to the club's financial implosion in the early nineties. Can you imagine what could have been acheived at this club over the last ten years had we had the 4-5k average crowds that we were still getting up to the late eighties?? The stay-aways, whatever their reasons for doing so, are inextricably linked to the downfall of our club, and their insistance on staying away has helped to hamstring progress since.

A fan remains a fan for life.......until the day there is no club to be fanatical about!! And when that day comes, who is ultimately to blame? Those who stayed, and tried to help - or those who stood by and did nothing?

+ 100 Top Leyther Points to you sir.

Have you brought in a system of 'top leyther points'. If not, I think you should! Get a league going and everything.