Wow superb crowd is that! Great future for the game in South Wales! Wheres all the hype and promotion gone?

Ignore him he is just a small minded flatcapper who likes invading other countries you are better off without him.

Nope hes got a point.

Well lets answer it:

1. The Welsh news are complete a**holes who have only mentioned us when we were made and when we made it to the super league.

2. Bridgend has alot of glory supporters. Many thanks to those who will go and watch their team play.

3.The WRU will have something to do with it.

4.The Crusaders are not advertised enough.

5.We used to get free tickets given out too schools which bought in about 5000-6000 fans.

And there will be more.

It's always difficult promoting a team that has lost 10 Super League games on the bounce. The success will come definately you guy's down in South Wales are doing a fantastic job. This season was always going to be very difficult to say the least.
As for the crowd, Salford Quins, and Wakey hardly set the world alight. The Wakey v Wigan crowd only managing 5000 ish and that's with Wakey being in blistering good form. NOT good.

You need 1 or 2 international class marquee players. You should have started SL with them too.

As Celt000 points out:

1. BBC Wales ignores us. The BBC in general ignores all sports that it doesn't have the rights to itself. The BBC nationall even didn't bother reporting on the British Lions squad, because it is petulant that Sky has the rights. When your national public service broadcaster ignores you, it is a marketing hindrance.

2. Bridgend is a town of sporting SPECTATORS not sports supporters. We have the usual loyal core of fans, but generally in Bridgend if you are not winning or playing against a huge team, most of Bridgend stays at home watching the Eastenders Omnibus.

3. I know of many union clubs that are openly hostile to us. Now whether this is because of the Welsh exodus to League in the'80s which left Wales bereft of much of its talent, or because of pressure from the WRU who would clearly like to destroy a sporting competitor (there is a precedent for this, from the sporting body that eats its own young).


.......


For myself though, Cas was a brilliant game which, with better fitness, we would have won. We dominated right up until we ran out of puff (even with that hopeless ref).

We have the talent. We don't seem to have the stamina.

Diet and fitness needs to be looked at if we're gonna win a few.

Maybe stick a few more of the younger lads in the side to supplement the slower more experienced warhorses.

What an informative post, did someone lift the rock for to crawl out from under or have you managed to squeeze out all by yourself?

Things must be tight if he's trolling our board!!

Celt000 (can't get used to that name lol) I think the brought in 5-6k on free tickets is a tad over the top mate!

yeh i know but it bought in the crowds.

Just call me Ell if celt000 confuses you.

well here's a first. I said I'd never use the forum of a SL club, but here goes anyway!

1 - I don't think GanEden is a flat capper.
2 - Notwithstanding the barbed nature of his post, is his questions not worth asking??
3- The celtic club have been given a franchise to develop their playing and business operations. I accept Rome wasn't built in a day, but what do you measure as success and how long a time frame (if any) do you put on measuring that success. What do you consider to be a successful paying crowd - excluding all freebies!
4. Do you think the your club can sustain SL and given your criticism of the Bridgend public and the Welsh and National media, think you will be able to develop an appropriate level of support to maintain the club??

Not that this is ever going to change the world or the rules for any NL club. I remain ambivalent towards the crusaders as a club. I neither care if they win the GF or go into liquidation and fade into memory!
Back to my own place now I think!

1. doesn't matter if he is a flat capper or not it was pointless comment designed to cause trouble.
2. not afrer a 1/3 of the first season no. come back in 12 months time and yea it will be a viable area of dicussion
3.a crowd average at least equialent to Quins by the end of the 3 years hopefully more.
4. He never mentioned the welsh national media he mentioned the BBC the goverment funded "automonous" public service broadcaster. With a few wins the curious will turn up, there are two big cities swansea and cardiff with an hour of bridgend. so it is theoretically possible to attract large (sufficient) numbers.

GanEden is a tit. I'm surprised he found the time to get away from his incessant moaning about our own club to have a pop at Celtic although given we won a few games over the past few weeks we've not heard much from him and he probably had to find something else to whinge about to feed his habit...

You are a Fev fan course you would say that

Say what???? And What has the club I support got to do with my comments??
I'm asking relevant questions in an approporiate manner that is in line witht the theme of this topic!!

My feelings on the crusaders club has absolutely nothing to do with the team I follow. It is a personal view based on the management of the game by the RFL/SL!!

Firefly-half - you made some good points. I think everyone can sympathise with the attitude of the BBC. As indicated by the availability of the Superleague Show only on analogue in The North (of England), except via red button, the BBC is still stuck in the first half of the last century in treating rugby league as if it was a northern English sport. Which it hasn't been for some time.

I keep hopping on to this board because I'm a fan from the heartlands who is genuinely interested in seeing the Crusaders succeed but it's a real shame that some people come on here just to say very childish, silly things about this club. Personally, I want to encourage the fans here to keep supporting the club even though the team isn't winning yet and I think what you say, Firefly, about running out of puff is spot on: either your squad is too old or simply not fit enough (and this might explain why they fall off defensively sometimes too during a match). I hope it can be addressed because it's a shame to be winning games for 70 minutes only to lose them in the last 10! So frustrating for fans!

Wow a real Salford fan!

GanEden says that time will prove that Rugby League won't work again in Taffyland. Actually time is on the side of the Welsh to prove him wrong.
Why do I say that. Well a couple of weeks ago the Gillette National Youth League Grand Final was won by Celtic Crusaders who beat Leigh Miners Rangers. So at what level will all those players be at in a couple of years time.
In addition to that particular game, Rugby League is now being played and enjoyed at many schools right across South Wales. Won't many of those young lads want to carry on playing when they leave school.
I hope that Celtic do start winning a few games. But even if they don't they will have learned a lot from their first season at the very highest level of Rugby League in the northern hemisphere and this will surely help them prepare for their second season. And they will also know that there are many League fans up North wishing them well for the future too.

Toulouse have proven far more.

You not back under your rock yet? Have a read of the VT thread you started and see the majority of posts in support. You failed to mention our average crowd this season just pick on one match. As said earlier get back under your rock you're just a useless little troll.

I can't vouch for GanEden. His posts appear deliberately provocative, but I still believe his question is worth answering even if you believe Ganeden is not worthy of a debate.
Given that a NL club has been passed over the opportunity to play in Sl in favour of the welsh club, that they were allowed to play in the NL with odds stcked well in their favour, that the paying crowds and the results aren't what they would have been hoped to for and that any NL club, however well equipt, cannot gain entry to that comp until at least 2011- I believe it is a question worth answering all the same.
Chubbs1981 suggests it's a question not worth a response at this stage of the season. Fair do's. I do, but appreciate I'm hardly likely to get one from anyone that matters.

To repeat - I care not one jot positively or negatively for the crusaders club. But I do care about my club and the NL! My angst is NOT towards the club, but I remain and with all likelyhood - will always remain ambivalent to the celtic crusaders club.

Time will tell if Rugby League in Wales has a future or whether it's been another waste of time and money!

If you want a debate i'll happily argue it with you this time next year. if we are still playing terribly after a year and 11 games i'll gladly take you views on the chin however. we are talking about a squad literally given a few months prior to season KO to get together.

If the licenses had been dished out when they were but no enacted untill next february things might have been different and given us more time to prepare. but thats far to sensible for the RFL as we both know.

but i hope your hostility is equally directed towards quins. 10years in SL the worst attendance figures and in the biggest city! (loads of aussies so no excuse) i maintain quins only get to stay in SL on the fact they are based within sight of the RFU's HQ.

Read my post - I have no hostility! I just can'tbe @rsed!




You finished 2nd in a comp that every other promotee had to win!!!
With a team of players unavailable to the rest of the comp!




again - read the post!!! As I keep saying I am not bitter towards the Crusaders club, tho your lack of empathy and a simliar lack of understanding from some of your cohort doesn't exactly endear you to those 'angry fans' of NL clubs being excluded from SL..
What I am asking is "ganedens" caustic comments have a level of real concern that is whispering away throught he RL network. i.e. Is the project working, how is success evaluated and at what price?
And more appropriately, will the game gorw on a sustainable basis in wales? I believe there is a case for examining the preliminary evidence now! You don't. I'll live with the difference of opinion. It's not like it's going to change owt either way!

ok point taken about hostility but to reword my saying do you have the same ambivelence towards quins.

as for empathy towards the flat cappers do i have any yes i do. i like to consider myself a student of the game. (both codes) as a southerner born and bred its very difficult for me to see any league at all other than summer conference and or sky which i don't have. its great to have a team "locally" (163 miles away) to go and watch. thats an option i'd never have if another team got in. was i a cru fan when they joined SL no. i only went to watch them cos it was the game played at its highest level (well by the oppostition) and i like to watch and study the skill levels.

i appreciate that a handful of people like me is nothing of interest compared to a few thousand NL fans but with all due respect to them if they wanted to see the game at its highest level for the enjoyment of watching the game there is plenty of teams locally to watch.

you all let your tribal loyalties get infront of what matters being able to see top quality RL.

Yes, TBH I do!




But they're not my team. The team I've supported since 1973! Why would I want to watch anyone else?? It's the team I grew up with since being 12!
If there was no more Fev, me and rugby league would part company!

so your not interested in the game of RL?

Of course I am. How do you presume otherwise?
But until the RFL/SL ends the sporting apartheid it has against the rest of the game outside SL, - I really don't/won't give a toss about the top tier of the game.

I've never been to a SL game, I won't have sky and I will not support SL in any way.
I always said I'd never subscribe to a SL club's forum either, but as this thread has some relevance to my thoughts and feelings I've made an exception.