Last Tackle: Silly Salford, baffling Bradford and woeful Wigan

James Gordon

Silly Salford

It’s hard not to feel sorry for Salford fans.

After years of disappointment and underachievement, they’ve finally got a team to be proud of Yet attention has been diverted away from them by the ongoing nonsense around the club’s attendances and the “will they, won’t they” rebrand the club to Manchester.

For Dr Koukash to come out and say just 57 tickets had been sold – whether true or not – is embarrassing.

Moaning about people not turning up is not going to make people turn up. It’s likely to have the opposite effect. It is already alienating existing fans who are trying their damnedest to support the team and encourage others to come – shown by a number of fans, including children, distributing posters around town.

Whether the attendances do rise to match the increased quality of the on-field product or not, it’s not going to happen overnight.

Baffling Bradford

It turns out a completely fresh start has done little to aid Bradford’s attempts to return to the big time.

Their official Facebook page is not a pretty sight this season. And just when you thought they couldn’t do any worse – they put out an announcement saying food and drink will no longer be allowed in to the stadium on match days.

As if there haven’t been enough reasons for Bulls fans to be irked by the club in recent seasons.

Clubs are businesses, yes. And rugby league wants to grow, yes. But the amount of things being done to alienate its existing supporter base is astounding.

Woeful Wigan

Wigan’s performance at Leigh on Thursday night was one of the worst I’ve probably ever seen from a Warriors team.

Yes they’ve got injuries (who hasn’t) but there was enough talent on the field at Leigh Sports Village to expect better than what was served up.

Leigh weren’t at their best either, certainly not near to their early season standards, and the win is a real boost for their run-in.

That said, I still think Wigan are the only team capable of stopping Castleford from taking every trophy home this season.

Speaking of Castleford, Greg Eden’s five-try haul continues his incredible run of form. He now has 30 for the season, and will surely beat the record Denny Solomona set just last season.

Let’s just hope he doesn’t retire too, especially with a World Cup on the horizon.

(Image permission: Richard Long)

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