Ok. Lets play this out a little for the sake of devils advocate. The Phoenix fans march to the stadium. A bunch, whom are not YF posters, start terrorising the Wellington locals.
What do you think the reactions of the club, YF exec, the posters on here and also their actions in seeing this, would be?
I got a bit of cash that says you, me, Patrick, Term and other regulars would denounce it, and if the police were involved, finger the people that did it. It would be momentarily asked/speculated 'Did the YF cause this?' of which the answer would be no because we don't organise marches, protests or anything that's not I guess 'friendly' or detracts from the image of the Wellington Phoenix.
Call it namby pamby but that's the difference between us and them. They can say 'They have nothing to do with us' but again, when those people got banned for lighting the flares and said 'Its not them, you got the wrong guys', they were not offering up the guilty parties as they knew EXACTLY who they were.
One of the things that happens when you form an official supporters group, is that by association, you end up taking on board the responsibilities for the actions of those that are not tied into that official group. Why? Because public perception lumps everyone in together as a supporter of that team here. That may well be the case with the RBB, but I don't see them being proactive about it other than 'well its not us'.
I'd also add to this, I don't see many people going 'Ooohhh I hope WSW win this weekend to complete the fairy tale' because from what I can tell, most people think their fans are tossers and thus, tars the image of the club and are knobs by association. People would rather see CCM win (also Wee Mac factor as well)
Hmm. Things havent been and arent always wonderful here, we have had our moments.. .and have matured through them, so that yes, any crap would be officially denounced (as RBB have done officially, see earlier post)
As to what action would actually happen if something of that ilk came about, well I would like to think the fever would step up, but its only theory.
I think most of their fans are great, they have brought a lot of energy to the games and the League. They are well organised, similar in some ways to early YF, but with more grunge, which should perhaps be expected given their demographic. Yes they have loud hailers etc, but everyone buys in to being loud and proud.
Dont tar them all with the same brush - that would be like reading a couple of the negative churlish posters on this site and moving on, you would miss out on some of the brilliance and general good humour and good football banter that happens
I hope they win actually, they have done fantastically well this year, regardless of the miff around the imports, they deserve it. (Plus that CCM song is lame)