Brace yourselves - we've got a new weekly columnist.

Read the legendary 'Damo Bit' [url=http://leeds.rlfans.com/readarticle.php?article_id=1278here[/url...

Quite tame by his standards.



Maybe his building up to something....................

to be honest my language is pretty foul at matches, alot less so if im near kids but pretty blue at times! i like to vent some stress at games, i find it quite cathartic. i know its the same for others but not for some. i say dont be a f**king prude you hear worse in the play ground or pub. in the heat of battle the ref gets some stick? big deal!

The Damo is a w*nker, the damo is a w*nker......

I’m more than happy for you to vent your stress at matches as I’m all for the freedom of opinion and expression. Rugby League after all is a rough and tough working class game that attracts likeminded supporters. Even thought rugby league presents its self as a clean and squeaky family game I don’t ever remember a family occasion when I was younger when swear words weren’t a part of it. I’m sure others can relate.

All The Damo Bit is here to do is create debate and hopefully it does just that.

In view of some of your other efforts on here I started to read the article fearing the worst but was pleasantly surprised.
Despite the odd sp mistake it was quite well argued.
Let's hope you can keep it up.
At least you had the bottle to have a go.

You might find that those stood close to you find it very stressful though, do you ever take them into consideration when trying to relieve your own stress ? Probably not.

I agree with Damo, RL is not a family-friendly sport at all and hasn't been for many years, its time we dropped the pretence that it is and its time that Leeds Rhinos dropped the pretence that they have some sort of control over what is shouted or chanted, its one thing to make it a condition of entry but if you haven't the will to enforce it then its a pointless clause.

What the rhinos have at the moment is Orwellian and scary. CCTV in the stands?

Not that this bothers me but it is creepy. They want to make it the friendliest stadium in the world yet need stewards to let people know were to stand and sit. Why can’t you just ask any old Rhinos fan that - aren’t they trustworthy enough?

I would imagine that the amount of stewards are required by the grounds safety certificate, and are presumably related to the capacity of the ground.

Health and Safety gone mad.

Well said!

Cheers for the compliments!

I’ve already posted off my second article for next Thursday of which I hope will be just as successful as this one. At least one person liked it and that’s all that matters to me. Anything more is a bonus!

Got the third one in mind as well and will probably write it down sometime next week. It will be based on some of the stuff that I’ve read in the history makers book.

Again thank you and really appreciated!

good read


good work Damo

Cheers

totally damo you keep writing your bits mate, good on ya for taking the time out and putting the effort in.

debate is good, you get the thumbs up from me on bit 001

I think the fact that I tone it down when I see kids near me says I do take into account others, Im probably worse than some who stand near me but not as bad as others, I have never been told off by stewards yet (fingers crossed) but see plenty who do, so I'm lucky or not as bad as I think I am. as for the family sport thing, I dont know if family sport is the right words but I do know compard to football the tension and anger/hate is a lot less. you can really feel it at football. At rl games it just not an issue for me!

I think most people don't mind if the odd swear word slips out when someone is annoyed about something, but its the people who use it every other word that can be annoying for everyone stood near them.

I remember going to matches when I was younger with my uncles father in law and he is what you’d describe as bad as they get. He was pretty funny so I see why some do it. No harm was ever done and never will be done because he know when to stop like a majority of fans on the terraces.

However it can be very frustrating when the sport promotes itself as a family game but doesn’t enforce it. Not that I ever want it enforced but its pointless saying it’s a family game when quite clearly thousands week in, week out see that its not.

slightly off tangent here, but shouldnt we also be proud of our game in being one where our players respect the ref (most of the time) and talk to him in a way that other sports should look to

also lets be proud of our sport in which fans can gather in everyones company and have a good time as we are all fans of the same game

I'd agree about bit about fans of different clubs being able to have a laugh and a drink together, but the players respect for the ref has been slipping steadily over the years.
All clubs play a part in this, when we weren't too happy with some refs decisions there were plenty of Leeds players gobbing off to the ref, and you only need to watch Calderwood or Wellens for example to find a lack of respect for refs.

I and others have posted many times about the lack of discipline at times,and whilst i think the refs are frustrating with the consistency of their calls at times it's even more annoying when players are chelping at the ref especially the likes of Ganson because we all know 9 times out of 10 he won't stand for it.

Yep, I'm disappointed by the ref's for not penalising it enough, far too often especially after a try has been scored there are 2/3 sometimes half the team complaining to the ref about something, and often waving their arms about. It doesn't look good and I do worry about us steadily slipping down the same slope that football did. RL fans like to take the p1ss out of football players (usually quite rightly!) but there are plenty of players in SL diving to try and get penalties and complaining to the ref when they're not the captain.

Surely it's not the ref's fault that they're not the captain?

No its not, but the ref's should be penalising for dissent more than they are, and be more prepared to sin bin players for dissent too.