His editor will endorse whatever sells more papers. How many RL fans would've read it had there been half a page match report, the same as you can find on the BBC/Sporting Life/wherever else?

And I didn't suggest they are all anything, I said he wrote it to provoke a reaction. He'll no doubt get a couple of radio phone-in appearances out of it and that'll be that.

The ironic thing is that he's a Millwall FC and Cricket fan so probably doesn't even know the definition of excitement.

Billious and hate filled ?

Aside from a few cliches and stereotypes (and what newspaper report would not be complete without them) the report is pretty much correct in its assertion that the final failed to sell the game to the uninitiated and neutrals as well as failing to sell the corporate ring and indeed to its own supporters for whom a bank holiday weekend in London has become an expensive un-necessary addition to the family budget and an easy option to cross off in favour of watching on TV instead.

And the reporter is not all criticism either, or did you miss the bit where he mentions...

I'm afraid you've all been outraged by the truth, our game is failing to expand, will surely withdraw from London shortly and could not sell itself to the nation on one of its self-proclaimed flagship events - this is not a criticism of either club who took part in the final so remove your ancient and loyal goggles and re-read the article and see if you can see the underlying truth in it.

To be fair to him, where I was sat was chocker block with massive blokes with big bellies.

Us fatboys are allowed to attend/watch/enjoy RL too you know

typically nasty article damning with faint praise.

I would bet the intent of this diatribe was thought of well before the actual day itself. This is just another example of the dark side at work; the southern based old school ties network at the BBC also had a go on the day by giving the director’s job to a zombie, the same one who tells Robbie (Hunter) Paul to keep up the good work in promoting his beloved sport. The guy who wrote this load of sh*te will probably wax lyrical about the dark sides six nations come the autumn. I’m only surprised that they didn’t include a few pics of an old ex-miner rigged out in his beer stained vest, pit belt and flat cap dragging a whippet on a lead while chuffing on a Woodbine as he makes his annual pilgrimage up the Wembley way. It’s just a load of biased stereo typical southern upper class old school, know your place sh*te!

OK, rather than moaning to ourselves on here let him know what you think. Try to be constructive. Twitter https://twitter.com/CalvinBook

OK, rather than moaning to ourselves on here let him know what you think. Try to be constructive. Twitter https://twitter.com/CalvinBook

Of course that is criticism, it is one of the most obvious jibes in the whole piece, have you never heard the phrase damning with feint praise? It is basically taking the Michael out of the sponsors that Rugby league has and the fact that Rugby League cant get decent sponsors. It is certainly a valid criticism but it is criticism all the same and certainly isnt meant as a compliment to Rugby League.

I do get the impression that no matter what the game or general occasion was like that article, or a slight variation of the same theme, would have been printed anyway. I have seen many similar articles over the years, in various Newspapers, even after some cracking finals.

Just reading some of his responses to people show that he is proud to get exactly the reaction that he wanted. I have to say some RL fans dont help themselves though and simply make some of his points stronger and make it quite easy for him to appear to be the rational one.

Mine was very measured, I could see he was lapping it up.

I decided to tweet some sensible comments to see if I could encourage a grown up debate with him. However, he blocked me after just 5 tweets and further insults from him! He is a small time journalist seeking attention and clearly incapable of any reasoned debate.
Just in case he is only doing this to raise his profile and sell papers I will make sure that I never buy the Independent!

Kinda the issue with League in a nutshell though isn't it? On the one hand the strong community feel in the heartlands is a strength because of the close connection with the towns, but on the other hand, that deep relationship makes it difficult for other areas of the country to really feel the sport is for them.