Quote ="leeds owl"I'd heard that Manly were a disliked club, no coincidence you've just confirmed it. My own team Leeds are disliked and have been for a number of years. Teams can be disliked in England for a number of reasons, dominating the game and taking all the trophies, being a rich club and buying up all the talent, being a big city club and lording it over their small town rivals. Leeds have dominated the super league recently (champions 4 times in 5 years) as did wigan in the 80's and 90's. Both are probably the most disliked teams in superleague. Wigan were guilty of "buying" success in the 80's and 90's when they were the only professional team that had full time players and hoovered up all the most talented stars, while Leeds have always been classed as the big city club and disliked even before our recent successful period when we couldn't win a trophy for years. It would be great to live in a city where Rugby League is as massive as it is in Sydney but Leeds will never have the cross city rivalry that Sydney has due to the demise of the other two Leeds teams. Hunslet were a major force in years gone by and could pull over 20,000 for games in south Leeds, they now survive on crowds of 3-400. Bramley were the other team in Leeds but are now struggling to survive as amateurs. Hunslet suffered unlike any other team because thousands of "slum" houses were flattened in the Hunslet area and people were relocated to other parts of the city, that undoubtedly affected the support for the club. Motorways, industrial sites and shopping centres now occupy the majority of hunslet where the supporters once lived. It would be great to have a genuine big city "derby" match but those days are long gone.
One more question for you, who has the most vocal fans and where is the most intimidating place to play ? In England i'm sure most people would say Hull is the most intimidating place to play whether it be at Hull f.c or Hull kingston Rovers.'"
That's interesting, I never knew Bramley and Hunslet were that big, but I think you're being kind to Hunslet, I think they're averaging less than 1000 these days... I hear Bramley are coming into Championship One in 2013, still a long way from SL, but positive news none the less...
I know Leeds-Bradford isn't really a derby, but I remember when I first got into SL in 2003/2004, these were arguably the two best teams in SL and there was a great rivalry there... As a neutral, it made for great viewing...
Quote ="Rooster Booster"For me it was always Belmore, where the Bulldogs played. Their fans could be a little bit intimidating at times. Nowadays, I can't think of anywhere really.
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Yeah agreed. The thing about sport in Aus, compared to Europe, is that there is no unity among fans, they turn up with their friends as though it's a social outing and (many, not all) spend the whole time chatting and barely watching the game. Someone who actually tries to get up and start a chant gets ridiculed for it... Whereas in Europe, the fans are there to support the team and help them get over the line, so there can be intimidating atmospheres for players that have an effect on the result. I know in Greek football for example, home ground advantage is a huge thing because the crowd play such an important role...
That's true what you say too about the Bulldogs, they have a lot of scumbag supporters still today, but this would have no effect on the players at all, only on other fans who are attending the same matches as them...
, i said 3-4 hundred, they'd be well chuffed with crowds of 3-4 thousand. Bramley were never a big team but Hunslet were a major player in the early days of rugby league. They are one of only 3 teams to have won all four trophies in the same season. They were in those days,
