Quote: Mild Rover "How do you calculate 128? Purely academic question… i’m curious whether you counted the LLS for example?
Perfect storm, Rovers could win a trophy. Like Leigh (and very nearly Rovers, in fact - but no cigar) last year. But it remains unlikely.
How many of those 128 trophies were won by Wigan, I wonder? And how many is optimal to maximise joy through a fan lifetime without getting desensitised? Like if you’re a Celtic fan, how to you celebrate a 12th league title in 13 years? A slightly bigger blob of ketchup than normal on your chips?
I’ll probably not see Rovers win a major trophy in my adult life. 1925 to 1979 was a long wait, so it is not like my generation of robins is uniquely afflicted. And there’s footage from the more recent golden era in times of need. This is probably as good as it gets, so might as well make the best of it for as long as it lasts. In amongst the subplots and oddities. I suspect there’s more fun here, in some ways, than as a fan of the dully impressive silverware production line clubs. There, I’ve cheered myself up, even if I have had to rely on adapting fugly person’s ‘good looking people don’t develop personalities’ argument.'"
Good morning, Mild Rover. Good to see you have stayed philosophical after Saturday's result, always the best policy I find in these situations!
To answer your question; the 128 trophies (which was off the top of my head, I admit) was as follows:
JPS/Regal Trophy (1986-96): 11
Challenge Cup (1985-2024): 40
Top-8 Prem./SL play-off GF (1985-2023): 39
League Championship/SL LLS (1986-2023): 38
Total: 128!
I included the 1985 Challenge Cup and Premiership finals as they took place in the weeks after rovers 1985 championship triumph. The four categories listed are what I would consider to be the 'major' top-grade trophies to contest.
The SL-LLS is a slight anomaly. Is really a 'major' trophy? or merely a pit-stop enroute to the main prize (The GF). Certainly, whoever receives the 'hubcap', the celebrations always appear to be somewhat muted, so I'm not sure how much clout the honour has within the game, although I would reckon if either Hull side were to finish as league leaders we would be hailing from the rooftops! I included it above mainly for reasons of completion.
If we were to calculate based on Champions (by whatever format used to decide), Challenge cup, Regal, Premiership, then the total becomes exactly 100 today (38/40/11/11), putting the LLS to one side.
As for who has won what, I'm not wholly sure, but even a cursory glance at the record books tells us that the Wigan/Saints/Leeds axis has been dominant since the late eighties. If you add Warrington and Bradford (1996-2006) to that list, then the rest of us really are fighting for scraps when it comes to winning silverware.
I've often wondered (reflecting on your Celtic analogy) if Wigan fans who are, say age 50+, having witnessed so many trophy victories since '85 that they have simply lost count! Even the Wembley wins become nothing more than yet another perfunctory notch on the bedpost (so to speak!!).
The difference between Fc and rovers, in this regard, is that when an opportunity to possibly win something presents itself, we have, on four separate occasions, managed to grab a trophy. Since 1985, Fc have had roughly three half-decent sides (1989-91, 2004-06, 2016-17). In each of those three periods an opportunity rose in front of us and we grabbed it with both hands, just in time before we very quickly slid back to being mid-table mediocrities once more! Those trophy wins have stopped ourselves from also staring at a forty year drought, wistfully looking back to a long gone time!
Also, because those wins have almost become a once per generational event, they have a resonance and meaning with our fanbase that I suspect Wigan/Saints/Leeds fans would not quite be able to appreciate (or possibly even understand?). Having said that, I wouldn't be averse to Fc winning so many titles and cups that I lose count of them all!!!!
Now, of course, rovers are a slightly different proposition, due to the fact that for 35 years (1986-2021) you were so far off the pace that the thought of winning a major RL trophy was inconceivable. Even Wembley 2015 was nothing more than a fingers-crossed, let's-hope-for-an-upset moment. The difference since 2021 is that you have manoeuvred yourself into a position in which a trophy win is slightly more plausible. The problem you have now is that you are close enough to be able to see the big prizes, but seemingly are not quite good enough to reach out and grab one, which in some ways is even more frustrating than being total no-hopers!!, a case of a small amount of hope is actually more painful than having no hope at all. As Fc fans, we know that feeling all too well down the years!!
It is difficult not to see last year's Challenge cup as anything other than a major missed opportunity for you. A cup final with opponents who are not one of the usual suspects, a scenario which doesn't tend to come round very often. Unfortunately, for you, it ended up being Leigh who grabbed the chance to end their own trophy drought and not you, and in gut-wrenching circumstances to boot.
So, can rovers win a major RL trophy once again? Yes, they could, it's not impossible by any means, but I do think your best chance is the Challenge Cup (along with the rest of the mid-table sides). Super League seems to have become a closed shop with Wigan/Saints always seeming to find something extra when it really matters in September/October. In truth, I don't see that changing in 2024.
Maybe rovers will be the team who finally buck the trend later this year, someone has to at some point surely!!!, but Wigan's victory on Saturday, from your perspective, did have a feel of the trophy door slamming in your face for another year. Like I said above, it's the (small) hope that ultimately does the most damage!!
