Whilst I agree with you on your sentiments about Manly's fans and their lack of support for the team in travelling to finals at the SFS in recent years is terrible (although scheduling an SFS Manly home final on a Friday night is the worst possible scheduling time), this criticism coming from a Raiders fan of all clubs is a bit rich. Canberra fans have hardly earned the moral high ground on crowds. Manly's home average - in a dump of a ground that's currently with restricted capacity due to redevelopment - still averaged higher that Canberra's in a modern, shiny, all-seater facility.
Canberra has made the finals this year, and hasn't missed consecutive finals since 1985-86, yet your crowds are the worst in the league and have been pretty much close to the bottom in averages in recent years. I know you don't want to hear this and I will cop a spray for it but that's pretty disgraceful to be brutally frank.
Even Penrith's crowds (which are also a joke) are marginally above Canberra's but at least the Panthers fans had an excuse this year - they have a crap team. What's Canberra's excuse? Sorry the "cold weather' arguement doesn't wash - if Canberrans choose to live there then you have to cop the good with the bad of living in a place like Canberra (although I agree Sunday afternoon games during the cold winter months would be best - but every club has to cop the scheduling rough end of the pineapple throughout the season).
Sure, the crowd at the semi final was fantastic, but where have these fake bandwagon supporters been all year? (and I'm not having a go at the true diehards that turn up every week).
Canberra went close to becoming the first club in years to have a season average of below 10,000 this year. So before having a go at other teams, have a look in the mirror and look past the one-in-a-Halley's-Comet semi final capacity crowd of fake bandwagoners for the finals and be honest about Canberra's embarrasing crowds.
