I think it's a shame that certain drunken idiots have ruined the reputation of a group who originally did a brilliant thing.

I loved it. All the flags looked brilliant. The world club challenge looked amazing on tv ( I had to watch it abroad) but the massive flag's that where waved and the atmosphere they created looked electric.

Same goes for the playoff match at Widnes in 2011 against Saint's. It was a brilliant atmosphere despite losing.


Now unfortunately the wrong people have gotten involved and ruined it with wearing balaclava's and scarves round their faces, putting stickers anywhere they possibly can and just generally being over the top.

There's no excuse for going around a town vandalising the place by putting "brigante's" stickers anywhere they see fit. I saw a pic yesterday on twitter of a lad who had even got one of the "ultra" emblems tattooed on his arm. and then a group photo of them all balaclavad up in a pub giving it the big I am.

I think the problem is worse away from home because the group are spending all their time getting tanked up on ale which they can't handle, and then it just escalates.

They where warned that going down the ultra route would be a bad choice, and it would seem it is now showing.

Rugby league is not European football. It has a totally different culture.

The problem with this business of putting scarves across your face/setting off flares/smoke bombs is its young lads trying to recreate what they have seen on TV in European football matches. When you go to Europe and watch football yes sometimes this does have a crackling atmosphere, with an undercurrent of tension that these are quite nasty people often involved in far right wing groups that fight for white racial purity, so when you go there as an English tourist you kind of think, well this is certainly an experience to talk about when I get home, but I wouldn't particularly want it at home matches...

Now aside from casting any judgement on whether its appropriate to be copying something with undercurrents of right wing racial hooliganism, even if you just want to recreate that atmosphere, you can't recreate that over here. One, being a working class sport, right wingers and skin heads have never been able to get a foothold in it especially as in France the Nazis banned RL....they would never be welcome. Two, the audiences are mainly families, in European football it is mostly males and they don't go with girlfriends/wives or especially kids, as a general rule, they go with their mates. This is especially true in places like Turkey, Eastern Europe where you get the real 'atmosphere'.

So if you get together a handful of English young lads, that aren't real authentic hard right wing skinheads, but are just pretending to be like that to look a bit notorious, and experimenting with smoke bombs and stuff, it just looks totally cringeworthy. Not only is it disruptive but its not even scary, we all know they aren't really hard, they are just knobs.

This isn't a post against Wigan as I am agreeing with most of the Wigan fans on here and the Warrington chavs get on my nerves too. With us we had a similar situation to the Brigantes business of young chavs spoiling good efforts from older supporters to try and encourage good atmosphere with the 'barmy army'. You would get a lot of hangers on around Geordie (who did a lot for the club) and his drum, wanting to be seen as 'hardcore fans' and then acting like idiots being offensive to other clubs fans etc.

Well said Matt and alot more diplomatic than I would have been.

I wasn't there on Sunday but from what I've heard it is disgusting and has been a long time coming. I'm just glad it happened at decent stadium where CCTV can be gathered from.

Neither you or any of the orginal group (I will not name names) who have tried and tried to make this not turn into what it has should not be made to explain.

It's high time some people stood up and faced the music.

If I hear one more time 'It wasn't me' i will scream!!! I would not stand by and let anyone around me friend or foe behave in that sort of manner.

PS - Invite on the way

Could the reason the group are more out of control at away games, simply be down to cause and effect.

If you get out of control at an away ground, the worst case senario is that you will be ejected.

If they got as out of control at the Wigan ground, the club would ban them and so stop their access.

Each away match is like an individual event with no long lasting impact on their activities.

come off it... more like 2000.

shame it was on a saturday would of been a fair few more if it was sunday

He was talking about the football. Hence why he said "yesterday."

He means at the football

Officials from the Wigan club are travelling over to Huddersfield today to meet with Police & safety reps of the Giants to review CCTV footage of the incident in respect of further action to identify, and take action against, anyone involved.

The Huddersfield Vs Wigan game I'm talking about was on a sunday

That was 2000 Latics well that's what they said on TV

They'd sold more than that when I got my ticket on friday and it was pay on the gate, so there were a lot more!

Good news. Get the little scrotes kicked out of all RL games.

The 'Brigantes' have always been an embarrassment to the Wigan club and Rugby League in general.

Wasn't it one of these muppets who battered a St Helens steward behind the Eddington end at Knowsley Road during the last derby there?

If anyone has any information/names of people involved in what happened on Saturday then please let the club know. I believe they are very keen to find out who the instigators were and hand out some lengthy bans.

I think Saturday was the first time I haven't stayed behind and clapped the players off the pitch as I wanted to get away from the smoke/fighting. Behavior like this isn't something we want associated with our club/sport.

[/u


No, he had no connection to the group.

With regard to the above - Good!
To all of you who do know me then you will obviously understand why I have to be careful about what I do/don't say & Bearing mind I've pretty much remained silent since Nov/Dec 2011 and haven't posted anything on the subject (As far as I can remember)for fear of being deemed to be stirring it with the ones who wanted to go "Their own way" around that time.

I'll keep it as short & Sweet as I can

I stopped being involved end of 2011 for this very reason and despite numerous warnings to 4 or 5 of them that despite my belief that none of them wanted to be involved in any violence/hooliganism element there actions were attracting this very element to them. I & others tried to express our concerns over numerous issues and at the last meeting I attended with them I made it clear that I would not be involved any more given their determined "ultra" stance.
I made the club aware that I would only be involved in erecting and taking down the Gantry flags and that would be it, Conroy (Hope you don't mind me mentioning yourself) on the other hand perservered for far longer than me and tried to talk some sense but to no avail.

Saturday was enough for me to break my silence and to some of those who received my texts immediately after the game I make only slight apologies for my anger in those texts.
Although I know you guys weren't at the game I still believe that some of your stance & actions of 18/24 + months ago are a direct link to the "Element" that are now prominant figures in these problems.
The details of this stance and these actions were done to death at the meetings 2 years ago and so much so I stayed till gone 12pm on a couple of occasions to try & persuade a different stance but to no avail.

There was to be No concession on "The Ultras" tag and for that reason alone I wanted no more to do with it.

In Hindsight I can sit here and think "i could have done more" to stop it, I could have explained my concerns to the club more back then than I did (And yes I did tell the club the reason I didnt want to be assosciated with anything other than the Gantry flags anymore), I should just have stopped doing the Gantry flags to bring the issue to a head.
I didn't and I'm quite prepared to take stick for not doing more (Albeit I was in a very difficult position) although those of you that know me know how vocal I was and the lengths I went to to discourage this.

For those of you that don't know me there have been one or two perceptive posts about something changing at the end of 2011, Some of the original people who wanted the flags etc walked away (After numerous attempts to curb the way some were going).

Whilst under 1 banner a few of us were involved in the Fund raising and charity stuff such as the £400 donation to Macmillan nurses (That some the the more Ultra element didnt want anything to do with) and the £500 raised for Wigan & Leigh Hospice (Which again I took stick for as some didnt want it to go to charity!).

I can however sit here and deep down know that when we had the meeting in late 2009 and set up the Flag group (As it was known then) 95% of the original people involved did so with the most positive of intentions and slowly 1 by 1 they walked away as they could see that some used this as a vehicle for promoting the more "Ultra" side.

Well you got what you wanted, I just only hope you don't hide behind the "it wasn't us" and "we don't condone this behaviour" stance previously taken. Not being at the game is not a defence.
Your words & Actions previously brought this on despite many,many warnings that were ignored.

I have lkeft numerous messages with the club this morning and I am waiting for a call back.
When they do I will tell them everything I saw and who these people are assosciated with, this may be uncomfortable reading but it will happen.
I saw everything that happened Saturday and couple with the other reports from Huddersifeld town centre I am appalled and can stay silent no more.
I will stay away from much more comment on here unless I have to but this has to end NOW.

Excellent news.

Well said Jukesays



It's a real shame that all of the hard work done by you, MattyB, RG et al to get the original (and successful) concept off the ground has been damaged by idiots with different motives. In the short term it's probably best for everyone to take a step back while the dust settles and allow the club to act as it sees fit. Hopefully in the future we'll get back the great vibe that came from the original efforts - supporting the club, not damaging it!

Positive leaders abandoning the Brigantes seems to me the root cause of the groups decline. Maybe if these leaders stuck around then these problems wouldn't have occurred because the group would still of had that positive influence. Instead a good thing has gone bad where the once negative minority now run amok and have greater influence on a group of fans.

I think the old leaders should return to the Brigantes and try to turn the groups fortunes around. If it was a good thing before then it can be a good thing again.

I'll leave it at that..

It seems to be true unfortunatley. Full marks to the Wigan fans (espcecially Jukesays) who is standing upto to this and not trying to brush it off. As I've said previously it is a real shame.

I agree entirely.

well said pal

Due to the Taylor Report a fair few football/rugby league stadia, including the DW, were built all seater. Not being able to sit with your mates, or like minded people, has seriously diluted the atmosphere and not just at Wigan.

Previously, if you wanted to sing and stand at games, you congregated on a terrace and away you went. Now, it's pot luck who you're sat next to and whether you're in a part of the stand that gets behind the team more, in a vocal sense.

Had it not been for the Taylor Report, there would have been no need for the Brigantes to start up in the first place. Not knocking the original concept at all. It seemed to work well initially.

Fair play then to the new builds at places like Warrington and Saints where if you want to sit, you sit and if you want to stand (and sing a bit more) you stand. Common sense prevailed, but you get a bit of common sense if you move away from assocation football.

I was sat just to the left of the Brigantes at Huddersfield and the moronic drum banging made it sound like we were on a Boys Brigade outing. Singing at Rugby League should be spontaneous depending on the flow of the game, who's winning, who's losing, time left and so on. Never orchestrated.

I missed the smoke bomb and scuffles as I left bang on the hooter. I did have a great bit of banter with a young Giants fan and his dad in the Yorkshire Rose before the game. The sort of behaviour by the (few) Wigan 'fans' would have put that little fellow off and that's not we want in Rugby League at all.

Your a bell mate.