My over-riding emotion...

...from the Grand Final is one of pride in my team. 

However.

And this is a big rant coming. 

The utter nonsense posted on the internet since the game has left me feeling like my love of this game is hanging by a thread, and a thin one at that. 

To expect Catalans fans to sell out half of Old Trafford with a weeks notice is ridiculous. Throw in Covid protocols, increased fares due to fuel costs and a whole host of other reasons that would have impacted the crowd from so-called heartlands clubs and you have borderline xenophobia going on here. 

I have said it before but it bears repeating. 

I am born and raised in the south of England and got into the game through my Father-in-Law owning a home near the Stade Gilbert Brutus. I try and extoll the virtues of the game at every opportunity playing touch in my home area and pushing a Catalans agenda whenever and wherever I can. 

Do I feel part of the wider rugby league family? 

Sometimes. 

But not at the moment. I feel like the likes of me and my club are not welcome in the UK and that the Superleague owners and fans would much prefer both Dracs and Toulouse to do a Toronto and vanish without trace. 

The sport is fantastic. Make no mistake about that. 

 The governance and some of the attitudes around it are not first class, nowhere near. 

There are things in the game that were Dragons fault. Signing Israel Folau for example. Bernard throwing his toys out of the pram about officials regularly (including this weekend), and some of the teams poor performances away to the likes of Leeds, Warrington and especially Wigan over the years. 

But I found myself typing on Facebook in response to a troll that I was more looking forward to the domestic Elite 1 competition (coming this weekend) more than the Grand Final based on the abuse I knew that was coming our way. 

That is a scandalous position to find myself in. This should have been the pinnacle of my Dragons watching career. 

Notice I have deliberately not mentioned officials. In the past I subscribed to the theory that we would get reffed out of the big tournament finals but having "let" us get to Old Trafford there was no point in rigging the game then. 

The Hull KR match would have been nobbled were that to be the case. 

For me the officials have a difficult job and make mistakes from time to time. So do players and so do club officials. So no blame from here there. 

So where do I go from here? 

I am going to spend the winter following St Esteve and hope that the lack of UK based internet crowd experts offering their stuffy self centred opinions might calm me down and get my love of the game back where it should be.