I hate Ryan Bailey with a passion, but would I like to see another five Ryan Bailey type players in the competition....damn right I would.
He's the type of player that get the crowd going, we all love pantomime villains and our game doesn't have enough of them.
Shaun Edwards was hated by supporters from almost every club
Les Boyd was detested here at Wigan
Paul Bishop another one hated by all at Wigan
Neil Holding is another
All were great players, all were detested but all were great characters of our game. Sadly we lack these type of players in the modern game.

Alex Murphy was the most hated of the lot by us.
But by heck, he was one of the greatest ever RL players of all time.

Bring back the biff !

Hey, if you're happy watching what you're watching, good luck to you. However, please don't mention Bailey in the same sentence as Boyd, my sides might just split wide open.

WHAT????

I love watching players like Bailey.

Its makes it all the better when a proper hard man like Paul Sculthorpe smacks 7 bells out of them.

Your doing pretty good at posting your own rubbish to be fair. You like ballerina rugby and I don't, you don't have to agree with me just as much as I don't agree with your postings, that's the joy of forums. People in glass houses and all that.

what do you go for these days....??? the chicken wing tackles, the cannonball tackles, the crusher tackles, James Graham ear biting in grand finals......???

the fact is Boyd was part of the 82 invincibles squad because he was a tough and highly skillfull ball playing forward. Ryan Bailey is a very average player that spends large periods of games niggling and putting in cheap shots and he hits small players something Boyd stated publicly it was what he detested Kurt Sorenson for. Boyd did commit two nasty incidents that got him ridiculous year long bans that others before and since have got a few games for. He was a great bloke on and off the field for Warrington.

some Call him a thug but also it's not difficult to see why people would rather see players like Boyd, than todays tattooed up "hardmen" like hardaker, and Bailey for just two examples.

Les Boyd was a thug on the field, sometimes. But your right, Bailey is a 'cheap shot merchant'. Boyd was an hardcase.

Having said that, I have always written that Boyd had no need for that side of his behaviour. He was a very good RL forward and no mistake.

I do think that in todays game, he would rip through the current game as we have an absolute dearth of talent throughout the game. Would I pay to watch 'Boydy' ? Yes.

I can recall his physical battles with Hanley and 'Westie'.

The total lack of posts on the forum these days is an example of the fact that Wigan supporters are very maffed off with the state of the current game.

The one's who write on the forum that the game is better than ever today, are probably young kids who smoke the funny fags and have not seen higher quality players.

“The young have aspirations that never come to pass, the old have reminiscences of what never happened.”

Rugby League is, was and always will be the greatest game. It's not perfect, and it has never been perfect. The game has been "on it's knees" and "dying" for 100 years. It has evolved, and changed and is almost unrecognisable from the game of "the good old days". I'm sure everyone whom is championing the game of the 80s and 90s was told by the generation before that the game was rubbish and not as good as it was in 60s and 70s etc. The fact is people get older, they become cynical, and misrable, music becomes rubbish, films become rubbish, the country gets worse, people have no manners, or respect. Their priorities change and a trivial thing like RL doesn't matter as much as it did in their youth when your team losing would ruin your whole week. So perhaps the game is still great, it's just different. I still love watching the game now, there's things I'd change but I still love it, and you can say I'm on the the "funny fags" (becareful using that word )if you want, but you don't have to carry on watching a sport you no longer enjoy, the rest of us will carry on without you.

I know he's the man of the moment but I don't think anybody, especially the man himself, would claim that Hardaker is a 'hard man'.

It's very interesting that you refer to Ryan Bailey's cheap shots yet don't mention Ben Westwood - a player who likes to fight half backs and usually players at least a foot smaller than him e.g Brent Webb. Westwood's attack on a defenceless Blake Green was far worse than anything Bailey has done on a rugby pitch.

If we can’t put together some semblance of a good performance tonight then I can’t see anyone fearing us in the playoffs. I’m hoping it’s the big match that will lift the mind-set with the team, they need to show something of the champion spirit going into the playoffs, or will it be just another bad day at the office?

Everything points to a Leeds win imo. Our home record in front of big crowds over the last few years is shocking.

Our current form is poor and I can't see that changing this week. I will be happy if we show some signs of form and something to build on over the next few weeks. Keep things simple, complete our sets and some ruthless defence would be a start!

Correct the previous poster.It ain't a must win game!That may come in a few weeks.

Leeds don't travel across the pennines well. It'll be a bloodboiler, for both sets of fans, with poor decisions both ways and some dust ups on the field. Wigan by 6.

I think that tonight's game will be a bit tasty with maybe a bit of biff and although it's not a must win game both sides could do with the points. I also think that Leeds will not want to see Wigan intimidate them like we did at the Magic weekend game and they will be coming to try to do the same to us. Hence it should be a bit lively.