Quote ="The Dentist Wilf"To see our coach just about in tears last night at the end did, despite everything I've said make me feel for him.
This whole debacle of a season is such a sad situation for me. It’s interesting to read the views of the fans on here because so many of you really care about the club that we obviously all love. Yet once again we witnessed a depressing defeat at the end of another final third of the season stuffed with them! We are just going nowhere in more ways than one. I know I’m seen as a bit of a doom and gloom merchants but I defend my right to have my say, (all be it again at length) and watching the game back again this morning I feel worse than I did watching it in real time. It was as a game a performance and a spectacle, depressing. On a game by game basis, the whole thing is pretty disheartening which is bad enough in itself, but in the bigger picture, just as is happening in the country, our club seems to be spiralling backwards in a situation akin to a perfect storm. In 64 years of watching my family Club and being a season ticket holder, I can honestly say that when you step back from the day to day week by week drama’s on the field, we are likely in as big a hole as we have ever been in as a club.
I know a lot won’t agree but back in the mid 70’s when less than 1000 attended games, in the mid-nineties when we were in danger of going bankrupt and even in the David Lloyd years there was always the chance that someone would ride in on a white horse with a barrow load of money and messiah like bring back our former glories. Indeed on occasions they did. Now though with the standing of the club in the league, our lack of a ground that we own, the declining status of the game in the field of British Sport and most importantly the state of the British economy that is about to impact us all, that ain’t going to happen. If you speak to anyone at the club they will tell you that we are past the point of money being tight and so any of the dreams of paying off players and coaches and re-engaging new top liners to replace them is pie in the Sky. We’ll be lucky to just keep going.
For me that perfect storm scenario sees on the field yet another season of mounting injuries, long runs of defeats and pastings at the end of the campaign, the like of which have almost become the norm year in year out. The attitude that exudes from the players on the field is there for all to see and the fans are undoubtably alienated by that apparent lack of pride and focus. All they really want to see is 13 blokes in that famous shirt, that for just 80 minutes a week run themselves into the ground and that are passionate and who want it as much as we do out there on the terraces. It doesn’t matter if they are all academy players.
Then there is that much talked about rationale running through the club (DNA) particularly in the senior playing group that looks to all of us as if some just couldn’t care less. Whatever the excuses we simply ain’t getting that commitment from them that we give as supporters to the team. I don’t care how many injuries we have you should be able to expect professional players, in 80 minutes, to be able to pass, tackle, keep their mouths shut and keep penalties to a minimum. You’d be able to get school kids to do that.
What’s more, how can we improve when our shortage of cash is obviously affecting recruitment and watching the game back today the body language of some of the players, the almost heartbroken state of the coach at the end and the frustration on the face of our owner, it all speaks volumes as to just how far we have sunk. Yet apparently we have a plan.
Off the field recruitment since Motu left has been sketchy at best and decidedly poor over the past two years. I can’t ever remember so many people particularly in my age group who have stopped going and/or who are no renewing their passes next season. Its there for all to see, for I wouldn’t want the person who calculated a gate of 9000 last night working out my gas bill!! Unlike other years that resistance to attending and renewing is no longer an idle threat, for I can tell by their oblivious attitude that they have simply had enough. That inertia will impact on game day income massively as well as on merchandising sales, corporate hospitality and other essential income streams. Central funding via Sky is diminishing, we have few if any means of raising income outside rugby and so it’s hard to see how Adam can keep things afloat for much longer. We are well supported by sponsors, but how long in the current situation will that go on for.
Look across the river at the Dobbins. They are struggling as much as we are on the field but there is light, they have bought their ground, got a new Aussie Coach coming in and made some signings that will I believe inspire their subscribers to buy into the club again next year. they have at least bought themselves some time. In addition, they keep their fans well informed ( since our new CE was appointed we seem to be by and large kept in the dark, can you remember the last fans forum?) and they also engender a family approach to the sport. All of which is Hard to accept and even harder for me to say, but true I think just the same.
In the end I guess all I’m saying is we should be careful what we wish for as fans, we can’t afford to get rid of the Coach or the senior player ‘mafia’, unless the former resigns with a broken heart, nor can we afford Marquee signings, in fact it’s hard to see with this perfect storm scenario, just how we will rise again. Our youth is our biggest asset but we saw last night what happens when too many of them are thrown to the lions. Still as long as they give 100% for us lot we can ask for no more. One things for sure selling season tickets to even the most faithful of fans is going to be an uphill struggle in 2023, because so many people seem to have just had enough of disappointment, frustration and of course, jam tomorrow. But it is the bigger picture closing in on us, that is our biggest threat as a club.
Here endeth the Epistle'"
Great post Wilf. The drive back to Leeds was very depressing last night after that performance, made worse with the M62 being shut. I'll renew next year but my patience is getting very thin. With I guess more bans coming I've wondering who on earth will play be the time we get to next Sunday after the Thursday night trip to Salford.
