cant help but notice how the RFL always seem to just mix fans together and tonight, seeing fights inside the ground to the left, right and above me between fans, makes you think they should do a little more to split up the fans, at a big final youll always have people who have too much to drink and act like idiots and something needs to be done from stopping this in the stands. anyone else catch these little scrapes?

Yes, and although people will say "Well you would say that" because adults in fancy dress or OTT colours are well known to be a pet hate of mine, in my experience at Wembley and tonight they were the worst for it.

Coming out of our end at Wembley I witnessed Wire on Wire aggro where the main culprits were grown men in face paint.

Tonight I saw a man in a Wolfie costume boo throughout the minute's applause for two innocent dead girls, then him and his jester hatted mate had bother with Leeds and Widnes fans at half time resulting in a domestic with the wolf's girlfriend, a moody second half, then confrontation with other Wire fans as they left with five minutes to go.

I've often read about 'unsavoury incidents' at games, usually on RL fans. Maybe I have been lucky in that I have not seen much myself, but tonight I witnessed just how badly some fans (Wire, Leeds and, in my experience tonight, mostly neutral) can behave, and I would say that 99% of these incidents are alcohol fueled. I'm sure I read earlier this week that you risked being refused entry if you were drunk - what crap. The guys who completely ruined my evening (no, not Silverwood or the Leeds players) were absolutely poopfaced, and I'm sure they didn't get into that state after they got into the ground. And did the fact that they were out of control drunk stop them buying more ale in the ground - nope.

Before our semi v Saints I was considering taking my 72 year old dad, and 7 year old son to tonights game if we won, but fortunately circumstances mean't that was not possible. Had my dad and/or my son been with me tonight I would have left well before half time. Supposedly a family sport, based on my experience tonight at the premier event what garbage.

I was sat in the 2nd tier of the North Stand for the Grand Final. I couldn't help but notice the vast amount of police in the Warrington end compared to the Leeds end. What was the reason for this? I noticed on a couple of occasions police were required in the Wire end, but there was also a number of Leeds fans located in the Warrington end, so did this conflict between fans cause them to be thrown out?

Would hate to see the Grand Final be split into a segregation of fans, but this is how I see it panning out in the future.

I've been to most of the Grand Finals and I missed this one, however I have never seen any trouble at any of them. I think it has something to do with Wolfs fans as it is your first GF.

I was in the NW corner and I noticed numerous numpties. When it comes to finals you are always going to get blokes who have never really been to a RL match or even take an interest in it. But as its the final the 'glory fans' turn up.

I have no problem with this. I just think sometimes people turn up get leathered and think its a football match where abuse hurled to other supporters is acceptable.

To have a bit of a rant, walking back from OT the were a few idiot Leeds fans.. running up and screaming in our faces etc. I don't mind banter between fans but these were idiots who were clearly out to purposely wind Wire fans up.

Other than that, the whole GF experience was amazing, being in Manchester from 12pm and spending the whole day soaking up the atmosphere and just generally feeling the OT ambiance, it was worth the next 'X' amount of finals we get to. That day will be with me till the day I die.

I loved it.

I agree I do think the alcohol plays a huge part in the majority of incidents throughout the stadium, but to have a handful of incidents during a game between 70000 is manageable. I think its also a good idea to not allow alcohol to your seats as it would only make matters worse!

The GF experience is amazing! I've been going to GF's since 1996 and it is an awesome spectacle regardless of who is playing, the atmosphere is great and its always going to be an high intensity game! I thoroughly enjoyed today's game and it is definitely up there with one of my top GF's!

I was sat in the west around where the police officers were "based". I saw 3 lots of trouble:-
1) was when a group of Leeds fans were zealously celebrating a Leeds try but then 1 or 2 decided to get all "in your face" with the Wolves fans next to them.
2) was a group of fans (I assuming supporting Leeds) who were giving it some chanting but then took offence when the chanting came back at them
3) A group of lads from Widnes who I overheard claim "they had come to support Leeds and wind up the Warrington fans". I was told that one of this group had actually threatened to push a Wolves fan over the rail at the front.

So I could say that these incidents were as a result of mixed fans BUT I also saw incidents of police officers and stewards speaking to individual fans (who did appear to be Wolves fans only) and therefore the only common factor is now.........................alcohol.

Its the same thing we saw at Wembley, once you are in the ground normal licencing rules dont apply. If you are sober enough to open your wallet, your sober enough to have another drink.

To be perfectly honest I think there should be segregation, and the only reason why there isn't is because neutrals are relied upon to fill the ground at both major finals because no two sets of RL club's fans could sell 70,000 seats between them with no outside help.

In my view there was far too many Leeds fans in our end, as well as a large number of Widnes fans altogether who were mostly supporting Leeds. Now I know some people will say they enjoy "banter" (I hate that word!) with other team's fans, and fair enough, but that is not to everyone's tastes - especially at emotive times. When you have the gut wrenching feeling of defeat in a match you're so desperate to win, is it really so hard for some of you to accept that not everyone will appreciate being surrounded by celebrating opponents, or, even worse, supporters of a rival club who aren't even playing and whose fans are clearly just revelling in your defeat?

In my opinion the RFL website and phone lines should only sell tickets along the sides and there should be approximately 20,000 tickets at each end of both Wembley and Old Trafford that are held back and ONLY sold by the competing clubs. These should be complete ends, with not one single seat allocated via any other method. No tickets sold online before the competing clubs are known on these areas, no freebies given away, no competition seats, nothing. All of the above should be along the sides and sold as they are now so people who want to go every year or want to mix with other fans can do so as normal knowing that will be in "neutral" territory. People who only want to go if their team is there and who want to be in their own fans end can then buy from their club safe in the knowledge that they won't find rival fans all around them when they get in the ground.

The only downside to this is neutrals will feel hard done to as many will buy in the corners or behind the sticks because those tickets are cheaper, but it's the only sensible solution I can think of. If that's the case they should have to wait for the competing clubs to be known, decide which one they want to win, and buy tickets from them. I'm sure that block of Widnes fans in the South West corner would have had no problem at all in the Leeds end last night, but they were a red rag to a bull in the eyes of many wounded Wires. Leeds fans should simply have been at the other end and that's all there is to it.

I am shocked to say, I agree with Dropkick Murphy. As at Wembley, we were surrounded by bloody Leeds fans, even though I had specifically told the bloke from the RFL that I wanted to be in with only Warrington fans. Not that I saw much of the game; apologies to the people on the end of our row for my 3 kids playing toilet relay.
I feel inhibited from my own celebrations as well as resentful of theirs when sitting with opposition fans.
On our way out, my little girl was telling me about naughty men punching each other. Family sport, not so much last night. I probably wouldn't take the girls to GF again.

Funny after the last few grand finals, same sort of threads come out. As you say the Wolfs haven't been been before. Go figure

I believe it was of because of excess trouble at a Leeds v Saints final a few years ago that they banned taking beer to your seat...Now troll off...

The 6pm kick off time does this event no favours at all...I along with many others can have a day out and drink responsibly sadly there are too many that can't... I think segregation really needs to be looked at... As i've said on another thread i saw nothing in the ground however Sam Platts bar pre match was awful...

what dropkick murphy said is exactly right, all tickets behind each goal should be sold to supporters of finalists, and neutrals can buy tickets down either side of the ground, there will always be fans from the final down the side as they want better seats so pay more, so for the neutrals who want to chat to fans of finalists (like wire fans at there first gf) they can do so.

It's been a bellends day out for a few years now whoever has been in the final.

imo fans that buy tickets before there team has got to the grand final should only be allowed to buy them on the sides, the seats behind the sticks should only be given to the teams that get there and no-one else, all the fights i seen were behind the sticks and included other fans starting with our fans, if all nutral fans were on the sides and the teams fans were behind the sticks that would stop crowd trouble in the ground.

Clubs should be fined for these incidents.

See, this is a genuine shame, and to me is as much the fault of the RFL as it is those who were doing the punching.

Too many people on here (and in RL circles in general) concern themselves with not wanting to get involved in what they describe as "football fans' behaviour". Needless to say very few of these people regularly attend football matches and therefore have no real clue what they're talking about anyway.

As it happens my football team got to both domestic cup finals this year and my RL team got to both RL finals this year, so I have attended all of them. I was also at all four semi finals, one of which was a very high profile derby match at Wembley which to all intents and purposes felt like a final. Both teams had one win and one loss each in their finals, so I had mixed emotions after leaving them all.

Now I'm not gonna lie - the atmosphere outside the ground before the match was unsurpringly a lot moodier for Liverpool V Chelsea than it was for either RL final, but the only actual kicking off I saw was after the Challenge Cup Final. That was the only one where I actually stayed and watched the trophy lifted, so if any of the others - last night included - got moody afterwards then fair enough, I wasn't there to see it.

However, the only match where I saw any trouble whatsoever INSIDE the ground was last night, and it was largely as a result of rival fans taking a dislike to each other. They should not have been mixed.

Newsflash for you: Rugby league is not lawn tennis. It is not watched by a primarily upper-middle class crowd sipping Pimms and eating strawberries and cream. It is a northern based sport, watched by a primarily working class crowd, many of whom - shock horror - like a drink. It is also a highly emotive sport where people support their team passionately and occassionally that emotion can get a bit hard to contain.

As such it probably has more in common with football than it does with any other sport, and therefore people need to accept that occassionally organising it in a similar way might be quite a wise thing to do.

I saw one Wire fan being held up by two of his friends as they were exiting the stadium, his blood alcohol level probably 20 times over the legal limit. God knows how he managed to watch the game, he was probably asleep throughout.

A young kid, probably only about 17 or 18 was drinking water outside the Thirsty Scholar and was getting berated by his group of mates for being off his face, and this was at 4pm.

First ever Grand Final appearance and you're that wasted two hours before kick off that you probably miss most of the game. It beggars belief sometimes.

Yes, that must be it. I mean, it's not as if Leeds fans and Saints fans were fighting amongst themselves in the Grand Final a couple of years ago now, was it....



But no, it's always the fault of those pesky Wire fans. I think you need to get the facts before spouting your Anti-Wire bile on here.

Who's were the undercrackers that were bing thrown about near the big screen?

I question whether all seating stadiums make the problem worse. If you’re unlucky enough to be seated near a numpty, you no longer have the option of moving away. Last night, sat in the west stand, I had a bloke who wanted to stand up all night in front of me and a bloke who (in his own mind/ mouth) was the greatest coach, player and referee the world had ever seen, sat behind me... And these were Warrington supporters. So, segregation by team alone would not have worked in this instance. TV maybe my way forward.

I was near the screen in the West stand. No trouble it was like a morgue. no atmosphere

It really grinds my gears having to sit down at the match. Absolutely detest it. But being respectful I sit to not block others view.

However every time I stood up to see down the far end when we looked like scoring or the high bomb, I had some bloke going "Sit down mate" "can you sit down?" "I can't see can you sit down?" felt like screaming in his face: "Neither can I its why I'm standing! I've paid the same amount as you I'll do what I want" He was making out like I was standing right in front of his face for the full 80 minutes.

As if that's not enough he was complaining about the singing and clapping "Oh I was they just shut up" "*huffs, tuts and puffs* Their arms (from the clapping) are blocking my view" Id hate to see a game by his rules. we'd all be sat in silence with the occasional "well done lads"

Are some people ever happy?

Were you at the Etihad Stadium by accident?

I was in the West Stand, 2nd tier and the atmosphere was fantastic.

Still, anything to moan at eh.....