BP1 wrote:
Oh dear, bubble burst!!!
So, the trophy-less clock ticks on remorselessly, getting ever closer to the FORTY year point!!
Or, to put it another way, there has now been 128 'major' top-level RL competitions played since April 1985, all 128 of which have passed our nearest and dearest by! That is a long time between drinks, even the likes of Leigh, Sheffield, Castleford and our good selves have had the occasional sup since rovers last taste!
Wigan simply suffocated, bullied and dominated rovers, made absolutely sure right from the start that there would be no repeat of the league game from a few weeks back. Way too strong for rovers in every department.
Rovers are going to have to pick themselves up off the floor and quick. They have two shots left or the clock really will tick past the forty year mark next April.
How do you calculate 128? Purely academic question… i’m curious whether you counted the LLS for example?
Perfect storm, Rovers could win a trophy. Like Leigh (and very nearly Rovers, in fact - but no cigar) last year. But it remains unlikely.
How many of those 128 trophies were won by Wigan, I wonder? And how many is optimal to maximise joy through a fan lifetime without getting desensitised? Like if you’re a Celtic fan, how to you celebrate a 12th league title in 13 years? A slightly bigger blob of ketchup than normal on your chips?
I’ll probably not see Rovers win a major trophy in my adult life. 1925 to 1979 was a long wait, so it is not like my generation of robins is uniquely afflicted. And there’s footage from the more recent golden era in times of need. This is probably as good as it gets, so might as well make the best of it for as long as it lasts. In amongst the subplots and oddities. I suspect there’s more fun here, in some ways, than as a fan of the dully impressive silverware production line clubs. There, I’ve cheered myself up, even if I have had to rely on adapting fugly person’s ‘good looking people don’t develop personalities’ argument.