our side of the story

[Cooper-Man]

As we exited the stadium after the win we were abused and sworn at by many different types of people. In fairness to them, we were singing and chanting, but we were not making fun, abusing anyone or teasing them I guess after losing the game they would be upset, but what happened after that.............................sh*t i didnt expect it.

We were abused by this guy who was about 45 to 50 years old, and he followed us out from the hill and to the car park and started pushing one of the guys who was with us. We all run over and try to pull them away from each other and get to our buses. This guy just kept coming at us and we had about 7 guys trying to defend themselves from him. This guy was VERY intoxicated and could hardly stand. his own family were getting in the middle and trying to stop it all. We kind of broke that little thing up and move on and to my great surprize there is another BIG buy throwing full punches at my friends because they swore back at his female friend who was yelling abuse at us. (this is the lady we have been accused by macavity of hitting even tjough he was not there). This big guy was throwing punches at EVERYONE. my friend who was in the parra jersey who came along on the bus for the fun of it got in the middle and tried to calm this guy down, but this guy would NOT calm down and kept throwing punces at people. So my parra friend put him in a grip and we all started looking for the POLICE. To our greater surprize they were standing there watching and doing nothing. It was only till another passenger on the bus defended himself by punching this man when he came at him with his fist clenched and ready to swing that the police step in. between all that happening my cousin who is 16, got hit in the mouth with a helmet and punched also. The police took this big guy behind the police 4WD and hid him from us when we were asking to have him arrested, instead they took our friend who punched the big guy and started pushing him around and taking his details.

NOW the part that made this whole situation worse was the police men (both of whom ride dirt bikes in police gear) swore at two girls who were trying to stop them from pushing our friend around even though he was standing there and not resisting them. They turned to one girl and called her a s**t and turned to the other girl and called her a merkin. there was plenty of police present and non of them apparently heard this. I stepped in trying to keep people calm as I had spoken to the officer from Waratah police and told him we are not trouble makers. I got everyone to the bus and then tried to get some details from the police present. NON of them would even help me. they looked at me like I was a criminal and laughed at me.

I promise you this. This will hit the media and I will go to the police minister and request these * police apologise to these girls for swearing at them.


BTW Macavity, we have it all on camera and its cristal clear mate. I think your supporters a great, but just like all the other teams in the NRL there are some bad apples. They were out tonight and we didnt provoke any of them. maybe you should refrain from posting things that are un true because some of the guys are seriouslty looking at defemation for your untrue words.

We have 100 witnesses and they are ready to step in and defend each other. I tell you what. We did what the police wanted and didnt waive the flags unless we scored. We had no complaints and we enjoyed the trip.

[Macarthur Saints]

Are the police trying to find a new "bulldogs" group of fans to hastle ?

[The Major]

And if your mate hadnt intervened by changing the blokes mind for him.... After observing that he had ran 30m, through a line of police, and had his arm cocked high above his head clenched, about to land a whopping big 'king hit' on a 16 year old..... then there would have been a serious accident immediately following as the poor young bloke was walking away, not even aware that he was about to have his lights knocked out. I am glad your friend prevented what surely would have been a serious injury to the young fellow.
Though it was after the fact that the police acted and literally pulled your mate to the side which bemuses me. I think i know he has some, well alot of video evidence of all the officers involved standing there like pot plants, plus of relevant members of our visitors being the proactive ones and ushering everyone away and attempting to defuse the situation. Including the lovely young lady who was called a SL*T. She showed more backbone then all those police put together and stood proud and kept herself composed after being ridiculed and insulted beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Will be interesting to see what comes of this.

[Stranger]

The fun of going to another ground is you have to deal with f**king merkins that want to be heroes in taking on another fan base...

Thought the DA did a good job last night, no problems from where i sat... feel sorry for the bloke who has to clean the hill

[Willow]

Originally Posted by Cooper-Man

our side of the story
As we exited the stadium after the win we were abused and sworn at by many different types of people. In fairness to them, we were singing and chanting, but we were not making fun, abusing anyone or teasing them I guess after losing the game they would be upset, but what happened after that.............................sh*t i didnt expect it.

We were abused by this guy who was about 45 to 50 years old, and he followed us out from the hill and to the car park and started pushing one of the guys who was with us. We all run over and try to pull them away from each other and get to our buses. This guy just kept coming at us and we had about 7 guys trying to defend themselves from him. This guy was VERY intoxicated and could hardly stand. his own family were getting in the middle and trying to stop it all. We kind of broke that little thing up and move on and to my great surprize there is another BIG buy throwing full punches at my friends because they swore back at his female friend who was yelling abuse at us. (this is the lady we have been accused by macavity of hitting even tjough he was not there). This big guy was throwing punches at EVERYONE. my friend who was in the parra jersey who came along on the bus for the fun of it got in the middle and tried to calm this guy down, but this guy would NOT calm down and kept throwing punces at people. So my parra friend put him in a grip and we all started looking for the POLICE. To our greater surprize they were standing there watching and doing nothing. It was only till another passenger on the bus defended himself by punching this man when he came at him with his fist clenched and ready to swing that the police step in. between all that happening my cousin who is 16, got hit in the mouth with a helmet and punched also. The police took this big guy behind the police 4WD and hid him from us when we were asking to have him arrested, instead they took our friend who punched the big guy and started pushing him around and taking his details.

NOW the part that made this whole situation worse was the police men (both of whom ride dirt bikes in police gear) swore at two girls who were trying to stop them from pushing our friend around even though he was standing there and not resisting them. They turned to one girl and called her a s**t and turned to the other girl and called her a merkin. there was plenty of police present and non of them apparently heard this. I stepped in trying to keep people calm as I had spoken to the officer from Waratah police and told him we are not trouble makers. I got everyone to the bus and then tried to get some details from the police present. NON of them would even help me. they looked at me like I was a criminal and laughed at me.

I promise you this. This will hit the media and I will go to the police minister and request these * police apologise to these girls for swearing at them.


BTW Macavity, we have it all on camera and its cristal clear mate. I think your supporters a great, but just like all the other teams in the NRL there are some bad apples. They were out tonight and we didnt provoke any of them. maybe you should refrain from posting things that are un true because some of the guys are seriouslty looking at defemation for your untrue words.

We have 100 witnesses and they are ready to step in and defend each other. I tell you what. We did what the police wanted and didnt waive the flags unless we scored. We had no complaints and we enjoyed the trip.

Thanks for your side of the story Cooper-Man.

In the interest of balance, it would seem appropriate to post macavity's version here as well.

Readers can make their own judgment as to which side of the argument makes the most sense...

From the NRL forum, thread title 'St George = Scum':

Originally Posted by macavity

scum club.

first of all some toothless bogans in dragons jerseys hurl abuse at the group of Mexicans here for WYD who attended the game.

then another group of toothless bogan dragons fans, on the way out, abuse the middle-aged woman infront of us for no reason at all.

to top the night of off, the "Dragons Army" (who sounded good all night) start an all in brawl in the car park by first abusing then hitting a woman with her kids - and some toothless crusty dragon lady behind me starts screaming "hit the b!tch, she deserves it".

absolute scum - the cops were right to warn that they would keep an eye on them (albeit they did not keep a close enough eye it seems), just a pity for that woman (and the guys who tried to defend her) that the cops didnt bar them all together.

I used to have a soft spot for the Dragons. would have said they were my second team. not any more. scum club, sore winners, scum supporters. NRL would be better off without you.

[xofstgeorge]

seems a little to obvious who was actually there and who is just putting a story together based on heresay and accusations doesn't it!!!

[juanfarkall]

maybe his toothless bogan comment is a suggestion that some Newcastle locals have dumped following the Knights and crossed over to the Good Side.

[SerbDragon]

Bloody hell, im nearly 40. Ive been to so many dragons games..ive lost count. As far as im concerned, our fans are ALWAYS well behaved. Never have i seen an incident that resolved to violence at a dragons game.

Gentleman, the only thing going on here is, Dragons Pride (which is unequalled by any other club) is misinterpreted as hooliganism. fullstop To those people who class us as troublemakers i say, get a life and eat a dick. You will never have what we have. Fact

[grandorient]

Hi Folks,

Hope you don't mind me joining in, as I wasn't at the match.

I sincerely hope this matter gets cleared up, not just on this forum, but in general NRL circles.

The Dragons army, from what I have seen, are a bunch of people who are noisy, flag waving, despots, who are supporting our team to the hilt. For that, I love em. In fact, if I lived closer to Sydney, I would humbly ask if I could join and attend matches on a regular basis.
Sure there may be a couple who go over the top, possibly full of booze, perhaps not, just full of enthusiasm.

Its supporters like the army who make games a real spectacle. Who wants to watch a match where the crowd sit like stunned mullets, with an ocassional cheer when a try is scored.

The issue needs to be cleared as it is obvious to me that the army is good for the game and the current matter only tarnishes its reputation. Indeed, if there was unacceptable behaviour by some Saints supporters, it is totally uncalled for, to put everyone in that category.

Look, we all go over the top sometimes, and if some of the accusations do turn out to be true, then they will be dealt with accordingly. I hope it happens fast and accurately.

In the meantime, go you Dragons, keep up the magnificient effort and make your way to the semi's.

GrandOrient

[grandorient]

To SerbDragon.

Spot on.

GO

[Kogarah4Ever]

I was also abused by Knights fans as i walked out of the stadium by myself to meet my friend (i was not on the bus).

I had some drugged up bogan follow me screaming abuse at me all the way from the southern hill around to the northern hill, then had a group tell me I should cover up my Saints jersey "if i wanted to make it out". Security and police were near by but did nothing.

The Dragon Army was awesome last night i applaud Cooper Man and the others who organised the bus trip, it provided a great atmosphere and we really silenced the knights fans.

I've heard of similar things happening after the Roosters won there a few weeks back. I'm glad you've got video evidence to back yourselves up (plus the other 100 odd with u!).

I can also tell you i overheard security prior to the game discussing how they'll "give it" to any dragons fans who play up, they were looking for trouble from the start, and to the Army's credit gave them absolutley no reason to come near us during the game.

[Richard Gay Was God]

As a well travelled Dragon Armyite, I can vouch for what our boys and girls had to go through last night. Since the early 90's I've been travelling up there and when they used to beat us it was the inevitable s**tfight to get out of the ground and avoid being abused by Novacastrians. Not just the verbal which is neve a worry, but the physical side. Since 99 when we basically started winning all the time, the threat has lessened as the real boofheads leave earlier to avoid the traffic. However in my "opinion", the Newcastle home fans are the most ferrel after defeat. The lucky thing most of the time is that we are in a group, and therefore can protect each other from these people.

Head up Stel and the rest of you guys and girls involved last night. We know what really happens at that ground and how the police and security react to these type of incidents.

[Ribs]

People expect Police to do the right thing, but forget that these guys are often just thugs with a gun and the equivalent of a six month tafe course.

I'm not surprised Newcastle police did nothing.

[Hutty1986]

Cops doing sweet f*ck all... what a surprise! These c*ckheads at the game sound like the tosser Qld fans sitting near me and my mates at the game on Wednesday night. Hope the turds get whats coming to them

[Dragon]

Good to hear the other side of the story.

Take me back to the 99 GF. Me and my mates were abused something horrid by Melbourne fans after the loss, and even had a knife pulled on us. Some people are just idiots.