By Ian Gatward @gatwardian
As they say in sporting terms what a difference a year makes. This time last year we had just survived a winding up order, we were scratching around to raise a squad and wondering if we even had a ground to play our home fixtures on. In other words we literally were becoming a laughing stock in the game and also you could hear the Anti London Broncos brigade ready to plunge the knife into the club. Look at us now, not only have we a coach who I believe with a lot of luck can take us back into top flight Rugby League but also recruited a mixture of seasoned professionals and young players who have both the experience and talent to get us there, but also what a thrill to see them unveil the new kit, the throwback to Fulham Rugby League Football Club with its Black with white Chevron and red piping. Now I have to say that I don't normally get worked up or excited too much about kits as it is who plays in them and the results of the team that matters more but 35 years on from that wonderful day at Craven Cottage I have to say a little lump in my throat was there as straight away my memories came back of those great Sunday afternoons down by the River Thames watching players I had never really heard off but seen on TV. I was asked to give my own views my own personal memories and my favourite times supporting the Rugby Club I have seen through good,bad,disastrous and nervous times. Let's go back to Sept 1980 when Reg Bowden led out the Fulham side against Wigan who was led out by George Fairbairn, now I never expected a large crowd but 9,500 fans turned up to see Fulham beat Wigan 24-5, seeing players become legends like Ian Van Bellen, Tony Karalius, Mal Aspey, John Risman etc etc, the following week they travelled to Bramley and lost but during that season some moments stuck out for me, Fulham played Leeds in front of 12,000 fans in the John Player Trophy and 15,000 v Wakefield Trinity in the Challenge cup of course the experienced sides beat us but all of a sudden Rugby League in the capital became the hottest ticket in town now who would have believed that, I recollect going to Mount Pleasant home of Batley and Hunslet who were sharing, I cannot remember who we played one Sunday afternoon but York were already up as champions and with the last kick of the game David Eckersley had the opportunity to kick the goal to give us victory and see us gain promotion, he was just short but the impressive part of it was we took 2 coach loads of fans and people going up by cars and on the grassy banking behind the ground we all gathered but it was not to be and the chants of Fulham Fulham certainly made the locals sit up and take notice. Now earlier in the season we were on our way to Rochdale to play Rochdale Hornets but that game was postponed because of heavy snow which meant that the game had to be played again on the Thursday night after the game at Batley, now the game was played in what was a dust bowl, don't forget the game was a winter game and as per usual the grounds pretty dried up and on an emotional night, Harry Beverley scored the match winning try to ensure we got the points we needed to make it to Division one of the Rugby League, wow first season and promotion already. But the story of the season was not to end there. Bradford Northern Chairman whose name I forget made a statement that suggested something along the lnes that we were not good enough to make promotion so therefore a £10,000 winner takes all challenge match was to be played on the eve of the Challenge Cup final at Craven Cottage and on a Friday night 10,000 or so fans with a lot made up of the cup final participants saw David Allen score a hat trick as Fulham beat Bradford, in that same year we visited grounds like Blackpool and Huyton and Doncaster who were always the bottom 2 teams in the championship playing in front of 200 or so fans in fact my memory was of a man called Geoff Fletcher who singlehanded kept Huyton going. So there was the first season of Rugby League in the capital as I knew it in my next part I will explain how massive the gulf was between Division 1 and 2 in the championship the gulf between Great Britain and Australia in those days and the Jimmy Hill factor on the club. You can always find me on Twitter @Gatwardian or e mail me on [email protected] in the meantime in the off season let us go and get new fans and take friends and relatives to show them what such a great sport and a great club we have. Until my next segment, All the very best, Ian By Simon Webb (@Sim0nWebb)
This Sunday sees the return of that pre-Christmas TV favourite, the BBC Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY). With it, comes that pre-Christmas tradition of discontent at the 10 nominees on the shortlist. There was a time when this would be confined to a few newspaper columns (sometimes in contradiction to the list of nominations supplied by the sports editor of the same paper) and pub talk. Now thanks to social media and e-petitions, everyone can be a disgruntled activist. In previous years we’ve had vocal campaigns against a lack of women and disabled athletes on the list, both of which were important points which needed to be made. In the days following the announcement of the 2014 SPOTY shortlist, my Twitter feed was full of references to the omission of Sam Burgess. As SPOTY day approaches, I’m anticipating this one to return. Even MPs, who you’d have thought would have more important things to do, have got involved, with the Parliamentary Rugby League Group backing a fan campaign to boycott the BBC vote. Greg Mulholland MP (Leeds North West) even tabled a motion in the House of Commons over the issue, although quite what was meant to happen as a result of that is anyone’s guess. Interestingly ‘Early Day Motion 574’ highlights the 2013 World Cup as a factor in why Burgess should be selected for an award based on 2014 performance. I’d like to think had England won the World Cup, there would have been recognition for this on last year’s programme. There is no argument that Sam Burgess was one of the biggest sports stars in Australia, his legacy set in stone forever by his man of the match, playing with a broken cheek bone for 79 minutes, performance in the NRL Grand Final. There is no doubt that were Channel9 to hold a similar vote for overseas sports people, he would be the heaviest of favourites to have the trophy flown over to Bath. Whilst it was without question a fantastic performance which should have received greater coverage in the UK than it did, I don’t believe it is enough to see him included in the SPOTY top 10. Is winning a domestic championship really enough for inclusion on a list of the 10 best British sports performers in 2014? I don’t see anyone from St Helens, Manchester City, Celtic or Northampton Saints on the list either. In fact a look back through recent shortlists show that it is unusual for domestic titles to be considered sufficient for inclusion over those who have succeeded on a European or World stage. Mulholland’s motion “notes other footballers play their sports in competitions outside the UK”. At the risk of being pedantic there is only one footballer on the list, and Gareth Bale is listed for his achievement in winning the Champions League, an international competition, all be it one that involves clubs rather than countries. 2014 has seen the Winter Olympics, Commonwealth Games and Ryder Cup as the biggest global events with British interest. I could list ten worthy nominees from those alone. Twitter being the platform for people to rant, I’ve seen some strange things said on the subject of the absence of Sam Burgess. There’s the opinion that were he a Rugby Union player he’d have been a certainty for inclusion. Well, I’ve got news for anyone who holds that view. It may have escaped your notice – and I confess this has past me by until recently - Johnny Wilkinson not only won a domestic title in France, but the European Cup too. I’ve looked very closely but I can’t see his name anywhere amongst the 10 and I don’t think a broken cheek bone would have altered that. It seems to me that deep down this argument is fuelled by the continued belief that Rugby League is under represented in sports coverage in general, and not so much about whether Sam Burgess is more deserving of a place in the top 10 than footballers, Winter Olympians, swimmers, runners or F1 drivers. Although far from perfect, better national scheduling for the Super League Show is long over due, the BBC does a pretty decent job of bringing rugby league into a football saturated world, far better than virtually every national newspaper it should be pointed out. Two matches a week on national radio (all be it digital), a simulcast of the ABC coverage of the NRL final for the first time and rating pulling coverage for the recent 4 Nations amongst their contribution to the sport’s profile in 2014, alongside their long history with the Challenge Cup. And, given that the shortlisting panel is not exclusively BBC employees (The Independent, Express Newspapers, Sunday Times and Sport Scotland were represented), it seems illogical to direct complaints solely at the corporation. If the focus on Sam Burgess during either the TV show or Radio 5 broadcast which runs alongside it, is on his move to union more than his achievements in the NRL in 2014, then the BBC have some justifying to do, but, whilst moderately disappointing, I don’t consider the Burgess omission to be worthy of outcry. By Dr Bob Phillips @drbobphillips
Now, anyone who is waiting until August for the Championship to get televised (and presumably video refs with the games) might be annoyed by another rant about the use of the square in the air. Sorry. But I’m guessing that most folk will be watching a bit of SL or representative action in the meantime. And, perhaps, someone somewhere on a social media site or blog may say something a bit like “The video ref F**ING SH**FTED us, it is SO UNFAIR that all games don’t have them” Well, unfair on who? If Team A play Team B, both groups are subject to the rule of the slo-mo attention grabbing suit wearers whenever the eye-catching chap (unless we have a really rapid promotion of the very few female refs, it’ll be a chap) on the pitch asks them. It’s not going to be unfair on Team A or Team B; both have the same restrictions and annoyances. Sure - the games may have more tries chalked off, but the same opportunity for wiping is present for both sides. The only thing that it might do is alter the overall scores (reducing them?) or points difference. So what about Team C and Team D, who aren’t under the glare? Well they might get away with more subtle things -- but again, both teams will get away with them, or not, equally. And if it’s not equal, that’s not the lack of a video ref but the skill of the on-field officials that’s an issue. It’s fair to both. It might be unfair if, at the end of the season, we find that Team D and Team A are identical on points, and it’s all down to points for vs points against, and on top of that, one team has had fewer video games and takes the prize. But this must be as uncommon as requiring an all-in-cage fight between mascots to determine league table position. (Take an extreme alternative example to think about the same point another way. Say instead of the video ref, the thing that varied was that some games were played only allowing 5 interchanges instead of 10. The coaches would, perhaps, play this match a little differently, but both teams would have the same handicap, and if the number of matches played this way was even, it would be ‘fair’ both within the match and across the league.) Irritating, inconsistent, and irrational the decisions made by the video ref may be - but having them is no more ‘unfair’ than any other official. |
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