Jon Wilkin writing for The Times timesonline.typepad.com/rugby_le ... olumn.html

Jon Wilkin writing for The Times timesonline.typepad.com/rugby_le ... olumn.html

Very good article , always thought that we should be a sport not afraid to play ' catchphrase ' and say what we see

Far too much bull and spin both in the sport , the administration of the dprot and most definatley on here

Of course a player can have opinions. Just don't be upset when people have opinions of those opinions.

Bit shocked JW thought "and if their children wanted to play the game, there is no way that can happen"
when there are plenty of RL teams in Scotland.

Its only a good article because it is provocative

You dont hang your dirty washing out in any business and as an employee, particularly one with a media profile, you must respect your employers wishes.

He went on about Wigan/Saints getting 20000. Yes they would if we played a third match but if it wasn't for this extra ordinary event it wouldnt happen

He has a typical small mind mentality, what about the publicity RL got from the event, extra finances the RFL made to plough back into the game.........

James Graham should think himself lucky he has played on the big stages with saints and England unfortunately that special event doesn't come to all players, more a select few.

I suspect he has to write a weekly article and he is hardly going to go on week after week about saints falling standards. If he is so disgruntled with what he currently says then change and front up-be a man and say the opposition were sh*t if that makes you feel better and you think it will do the sport a world of good

Quote ="Canyoubelieveit"Jon Wilkin writing for The Times timesonline.typepad.com/rugby_le ... olumn.html'" Statement retracted, you have an insane comment system though...

Quote ="Canyoubelieveit"Jon Wilkin writing for The Times timesonline.typepad.com/rugby_le ... olumn.html'" Statement retracted, you have an insane comment system though...

I was Graham's biggest critic at the time of his comments. However, I do think that players should be encouraged to speak their mind - but they shouldnt complain when their idiotic views and opinions get criticised by the public at large.

Exactly right.

Wilkin is basically saying it's unfair for us to have a poor opinion of Graham's opinion. You can't have it both ways.

What a bizarre thing to write. As has been said above, nothing wrong with having an opinion, that's fine, but others are allowed a different view. Does he want no-one questioning the 'superstars'?

As he's in The Times and on the BBC, aren't there any other players intelligent enough to 'write' a column than Wilkin?

Jamie Jones Buchanan and Jon Wells write columns for Rugby League World. And they both 'write' them themselves!

Why do people always assume that Canyoubelieveit is Chris Irvine?

What a load of crap. Of course he can have an opinion, but if he comes across as a whinging waste of a ginger wig, everyone else is allowed to (rightly) criticise him for it

It's either him or an over-dedicated student

who else would devote their life to linking every Times blog post on every forum on here?

I always assumed that Chris Irvine posted as, erm....[url=http://profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=36344chrisirvine[/url.

And seeing as he's advertised [url=http://viewtopic.php?t=402669&highlight=Wilkin's column[/url (and many other articles) before now as himself, I can't see why he'd adopt a pseudonym.

The RFU can relax, with high profile players like that in RL, they need do nothing to see us wither.

Magic Weekend is nothing to do with expansionism, but with publicity and revenue generating.

Never mind that there are precicely NO stadiums in the heartlands area that such a weekend could be played in, never mind that not one city in the heartlands would PAY the RFL what Cardiff and then Edinburgh have done for the privalidge of hosting this event and never mind that every single fan that attended considered it a fantastic experience, never mind that it generated huge ammounts of publicity (and even in this article continues to do so)

Messrs Wilkin and Graham perhaps need to take a long look at the career they have chosen and the wage it earns them, and the oppertunities it affords them and then decide if they want to continue on in it - or would they settle for a lower wage packet, lower oppertunities and an easier life?

I am sure if its the latter there are any number of National League clubs interested in their playing ability.

Er, because it is him...

Chris Irvine has his own account on here with the username "Chrisirvine", but I suppose it is plausible for him to have more than one account.

Yet another saints player in a "world class" whinge storm.

The thing that gets me is that saints players are acting like the overpaid huge egotistical football players who think they are bigger than the game and better than us mere mortals.

I really feel for the future of community based sport if this attitude infects the rest of the game.

Of course Graham was entitled to express his opinion.

Just as people were entitled to express their opinion that he was an idiot for expressing it so publicly in the immediate build up to an event being operated by a sport making concerted efforts to promote the game outside its' heartlands. A sport from which he derives his income.

Wilkin lost all right to have his opinions taken seriously following his whining after last year's GF about the intrusion of cameras into the dressing room. Showed him up for the small minded idiot he is.

How does not wanting cameras in the dressing room make him a small minded idiot?

If he's not then Chris Irvine needs to take out a restraining order.

How does having an opinion, that differs from yours, make Graham an egotistical football player? :S

Does he not have students to dothis for him?

Exactly. If he keeps behaving like this, he'll slowly become an embarrassment to those of us in who grew up in the East Hull community from whence he sprung. Hundreds of people - like my uncle who coached him and his mates as a kid - put in their time and energy for free to help get kids involved in our great game, and then the people who get paid a pretty decent wage for doing something the rest of us would love to have done decide to use their limited oxygen of publicity denigating our great game. What a kick in the teeth.

Don't give me all that freedom of speech balls either - the free market is like war, you may argue amongst yourselves behind closed doors about what is the best strategy, but when you confront the outside world you have a duty to your comrades to present a united front. If a member of my organisation undermined our direction like that, I'd fire them. You're either inside the tent p*ssing out, or outside the tent p*ssing in. Time to make up your mind Jon.

Too long in St Helens I think - he must have caught the small town hero disease from Cunningham... you know, the one that eventually leads to you not even being bothered to play for your country when asked, no doubt because they won't play their games at the end of your street.

So Jon, wake up and smell the coffee. People are starting to wish you never sprung from our midst seeing as that's your attitude.