God, really? Sounds a bit convoluted in so much as a nickname of verbal convenience.

as a bit of a thicko plus being a southern softie,can someone tell me why Bradford called themselves 'Northern' ? when they are obviously in the 'North' !

And why on earth did they feel the need to change to the Bulls when Northern was such an established 'brand name' ?

I love to confuse my Aussie counterparts St George Illawarra are Dragons, St Helens are Saints, Catalans are Catalans.

Bulls was easier to market than Steam Pigs!

adopted a name that clearly marked their loyalties.

ok,thanks

I think the biggest problem there was trying to find a picture of a Northern for the club badge. Or in slightly less cryptic terms, Bulls was a far more easy name to work with for the marketing team.

I don't call a single club by their 'new' nicknames, and I only started watching in 2001! Shows how crap they are really. Unless we're counting 'Saints' as a nickname, rather than the obvious shorthand for St Helens. I use Wire too.

They aren't there for your benefit. You were, presumably, going to RL games before SL.



The nicknames, logos, mascots etc are for the benefit of small children and journos.

No, like I said, I only started watching in 2001. I was 6 when SL was introduced so would have been a little difficult to be going to games before that xD

Bulls

Cas

Catalans

Crusaders

Dobbins (no apologies, I'm sure they will respond accordingly)

Hudds

Hull

Pies (not in an offensive way)

Quins

Salford

Saints

Wakey

Whinos (juvenile I am fully aware)

Wire



Or other names if we have just lost

I'm only 20 and started watching RL in 1999 but always refer to clubs by their 'proper' name i.e. the name of the place (apart from Quins although still sometimes say London) or a shortened form like 'Hudds', 'Cas.' etc. Occasionally use traditional nicknames like 'Wire' and refer to Saints as 'Saints' bcause it's shorter and more convenient. I would never want us to adopt it in the club's title or to be anything other than St Helens RLFC. I rarely ever use the tacky Americanised nicknames. Maybe it's because Saints never adopted one so I never bother with them but I am quite a traditionalist when it comes to this, one of the things I do actually admire of the round-ball game is the continuing with historic club identities and not adopting modern rootless nicknames. I can understand that some people can identify with these brand names but it will never be as significant as the club's 'real' names to me.