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Rugby league clubs are constantly accused of massaging crowd figures to suit their own purpose.
Sometimes you’re left to wonder just how many people are in the bathroom or lining up for a beer and a drink because you swear you can’t see that many in the stands.
So it says a lot when an official from a club is so blunt in his assessment of how many people he expects to show up to a ground on a particular night.
Grant Mayer, the former Sea Eagles CEO who is now working for the Wests Tigers, tweeted this call for help, or perhaps call to arms, on Wednesday night.
“@gcmayer: sad to say that ticket sales for @Wests_Tigers game on Friday are shocking. Great pricing, great talent on show, is it just unhappy fans?”
That prompted a barrage of responses from Tigers fans with reasons ranging from the weather, selections, the inevitability of another flogging and one supporter even pointing out that it’s perhaps because there isn’t great talent on show.
Yes, the Tigers are doing it tough because of an injury ward that is bursting at the seams, but Leichhardt Oval has always been the exception to the rule.
Rain, hail or shine and win or lose – the last remaining bastion of rugby league nostalgia has always stuck solid.
The surge of people through the streets all snaking their way towards the floodlights as each turn also brought you closer to a local manning a makeshift sausage sizzle stand.
It’s the closest thing you’ll find to what your father or grandfather might’ve experienced in years gone by as you jostle for positions on the hill.
Now, it seems, you might be able to stretch out and relax on that same expanse of land.
Losing the Leichhardt faithful is surely the last step before hitting rock bottom face first.
The team has been through bad patches before, but last Friday night might’ve been the final straw.
Their performance against South Sydney, where the Rabbitohs ran through, around and over non-existent and ineffective tacklers was embarrassing to say the least.
The 54-10 loss led to a chorus of greats questioning whether the players were still having a “dig.”
It’s the ultimate insult for a professional athlete.
They cop plenty of criticism on the chin, but question their desire and heart and the rage starts to build.
It’s up to this group of players to show whoever actually turns up at the ground tonight that they do care.
If they’re not able to match the Cowboys in the skill and experience department they must at least play tough.
That is the minimum requirement.
Playing tough might not lift the side off the bottom of the ladder, but it should at least go some way to making sure people once again feel the need to hang out of trees and sit on rooftops just to get a glimpse of the footy.
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