That's Enough Now

Hello everyone.

Firstly, let me begin by thanking you all for your continued support of the blog, the MNL account and more recently the Junior account. The support and praise, and naturally any criticisms and advise, are greatly appreciated as we look to continue both developing and improving as a whole. We have a couple of potential new features and ideas in the works, which are taking some time to finalise and arrange, but if they become a reality we hope you enjoy them. With that said, I should get into the main purpose of this article. One final word of warning, it will probably be a long one and feature a few strong words, so grab a cuppa and strap yourselves in. So, it's been a while since I've written an article for the blog. I was initially going to wait a bit longer in order to do a little mid-season review and look at the team and the players and their performances up to that point in time. Both positive and negative of course. However, recent events over various platforms of social media have brought me out of hiding a little sooner than planned.

Now, by all accounts, this whole situation began in part thanks to a poll that was made on our Junior account. I have stated previously that such a poll should never have taken place on any account that carries the Frozen Steel name. It did not reflect who we are as a collective group of fans and did nothing but show us in a bad light. We have since apologised for the incident and have dealt with it internally.

Off the back of that however, it has caused what can more or less be described as a bit of a social media shitstorm when it comes to having an opinion. Through all the back and forth between fans and club, to me what has been missed is the real issue. The issue, in my opinion, is how some people are portraying/wording/delivering their opinion.

Don't get me wrong, everybody is entitled to an opinion. As David Simms himself once said to me a few years ago, "opinions are like arseholes - we've all got one", which let's be honest, is the truth. We all make a judgement on something and thus form an opinion. That's how life works. The issue is how you express that opinion. Take the events of this past week as a perfect example.

The club has, by most accounts, just enjoyed a successful weekend in Denmark in the Continental Cup and therefore progresses to the Super Final as a result. A terrific achievement for the club and also reflects the continued growth both on and off the ice under Tony Smith's ownership. What we encountered a few days later was something that focused on nothing but the negative. We should have collectively been celebrating the success in Denmark and looking ahead to the weekends upcoming games against Milton Keynes and Coventry Blaze, but we didn't do that, did we?

Instead, we ended up with fans voicing their opinions on a negative minded poll and discussing the polls results, but we then also had one of the players (who incidentally featured by name in the poll) state his opinion on the whole situation. Like I said just above, we are all entitled to our opinions. Whether that is as a paying customer/fan, or a club official, or even one of the players.

For me, Ben O'Connor had every right to state his opinion, both in defence of himself and also in defence of the team he plays for and how he thought it was silly to be focusing on a negative after such a good weekend for the club. He was absolutely right to do so. He was right to call out the Junior account for making the poll. He was right to call out some of the fans for focusing on a negative after such a good weekend. He was absolutely right to reply back at some fans that were addressing him in an aggressive manner over social media. That was the main issue recently, the manner and/or tone in which people expressed their opinions.

The people that cross the line are those that use aggressive language and punctuation. What also is an issue is the whole use of social media and how some people think that because Ben is a professional sportsman, it is unprofessional of him to reply back to fans of the team he plays for in the way he did. Yes, I'm well aware that part of that statement makes me a hypocrite as I am using a form of social media myself for this very article and also when I do my Twitter updates on the MNL account, but just hear me out here.

Social media is a wonderful thing. It is a terrific platform for people to use every day in all sorts of ways. That said, in Ben O'Connor’s case, something needs to be made clear. When he (or any player or member of staff for that matter) is out there on that ice, or in the gym training with the rest of the team, he is a professional sportsman. Away from that environment, he is a human being. There is a clear and definitive difference. Unfortunately, social media is a very grey area. When is he a sportsman on social media? When is he a human being on social media? The answer to that is very much divided and there is no real definitive answer.

Now that whole "Pollgate" situation got seemingly put to bed towards the latter part of last week and we had the two games at the weekend to focus on. Unfortunately, as a result of the harrowing defeat in Milton Keynes, along with it came a lot more criticism and once again some of it was phrased/worded/stated inappropriately, which has led us to today and this evenings press release through the Sheffield Star.

We once again find ourselves in a situation where a club official was essentially calling out the club’s fans over their opinions and once again (judging by current social media reaction to said press release) what seems to be getting lost in the article is the actual point that is trying to be made. The point that is trying to be made is how those that are using strong language or an aggressive tone towards playing and club officials are the ones crossing the line.

I get what Paul Thompson is saying in principal. There is no way players or club staff should be directly tagged in tweets or Facebook posts etc. where they are getting slammed by people in an overly aggressive manner. The same goes for league officials for what it is worth. For example, say I post a tweet saying that I think "Player A is a sack of shit and should be released asap" and go on to say that "I have seen more effort from a baby trying to have a poo" and then go and then compound that further by tagging said player in that very post. That would be, and is, completely uncalled for.

The right way to post something, in my opinion, would be as follows: "Player A didn't have the best of nights tonight. You can see he wasn't happy with things out there. We all have those off nights though. We know what they are capable of. More than confident it will just be one of those things. Go get them next game, you got this!" and that looks a heck of a lot better. If that player is also tagged in that post, they'll see that and be more inclined to think "yeah, that was an off night, but yeah I do have a lot more to give, thanks for the morale boost" and that sort of attitude effects professional sportsmen in a much better way than telling them they are shit at the job they are paid to do, for a team that they care about, in a sport that they have grown up having a lifelong passion for.

If you want proof of a positive attitude from fans having a more beneficial effect on the players on the ice, look at last year’s Playoff Final. As fans we let everything out during those overtime periods. You could see it physically and emotionally lifting the players and spurring them on. Take a look at Denmark as another example. 3-0 down against Rungsted when it all looked doom and gloom. Then we get a break and convert and pull it back to 3-1. Right after that the travelling fans were superb. Cheering non-stop, and I mean non-stop. We made that building in Rungsted ours and we made sure the boys on the ice could hear us. Within a few minutes it was 3-3. By the end of the weekend we have won two games and got progression to the Super Final. How do the team repay the travelling fans? By coming into the fan zone just down the road and coming in and saying thank you and socialising with the fans and celebrating with them.

You can even take Saturdays loss in Milton Keynes as another example. 4-0 down and by most accounts playing poorly. Then, we get a glimmer of hope by making it 4-1. It lifted the fans a bit and it gave the boys a little boost. Then all of a sudden, it's 4-2 as the club’s long-time captain gets a shorthanded goal. Suddenly, the fans are loud, the home support is quiet. The bench is lifted. We go at them again for a couple more shifts and after one of those shifts, Jonas Westerling skates past the travelling fans and starts lifting his arms up at the fans while shouting "come on, come on, come on!"

Now, why does he do that? Simple. As an experienced player, he knows that support and particularly that volume of support in both numbers and voice seriously lifts a bench up. Sadly, on that occasion MK went on to go and run away with the game again, but there was a professional doing something very simple to try and get a much more beneficial result. Sometimes in life the tiniest things make the biggest difference, whether it is positive or negative, and that should be remembered. Then I look at this evening's article in The Star and all I can think of is this. Is that article in The Star really necessary?

For me, it's not. Sure, I understand exactly where Paul Thompson is coming from in his comments, but does he need to be speaking in an article about such comments made on social media? As I said, I don't think so. Likewise, does Bob Westerdale really need to do such an article for the paper and release it? Again, for me, no. Don't get me wrong, Bob Westerdale is a seriously good asset to our club and has been for a serious number of years now, but I just don't see how that article benefits anybody in the bigger picture. All that social media business took place a number of days ago now, so why are we bringing it up again? All it has seemingly achieved, judging by social media reaction, is yet again more of a divide between the fan base and the club. It all just seems completely unnecessary to me, but that's just my opinion.

This isn't the first time in recent memory this has happened either. I remember at some point in the last couple of seasons I took to the podcast and called for the unity between club officials and the fans. Again, it all started because of some members of the fan base being overly aggressive in how they expressed their opinions, and in some cases, making the players and staff aware of them because of directly tagging them in the comments.

Why the heck, further down the line, are we back to making the self same mistakes? Why are we starting to go back and forth at each other again? It's completely unnecessary. This very article shouldn't even be necessary, but here I am repeating myself from previous seasons gone by, because like the rest of you I damn well care about this club and very much its image.

There are people on both sides, fans and club, that could do with bucking their ideas up a bit and for all manner of reasons as well. I'm all for you all having your opinions, but think about how you're going about it. Again, that seems very hypocritical of me, as I've put my foot in my mouth on more than one occasion, but this niggling between club and fans has simply got to stop. It's tiresome and we are all much better than this. Let's just put the negativity of the past week or so behind us and for once just damn well leave it there.

Some of you may be reading this and agreeing with me. Likewise, some of you may be thinking this article is complete tosh. Some of you may both agree and disgaree in part. Some of you many just think I'm a complete prick that's talking above his station. Guess what. You're entitled to think the way you do, and if you want to express that as such, then go ahead and be my guest, but for the love of everything keep it flippin' civil because having opinions expressed in an uncivil manner has been the root cause of all of this.

It benefits all of us if it is kept in a civil manner, both fans and club as a whole. This isn't the first time I have said this, but I damn sure hope it's the last time I say this. We are much better than this, so let's be better than this. Unite. Become one. Be a force to be reckoned with. Be one orange army. We all love this club. So, let's go out there and damn well show it to each other and the rest of the league.

I'll see you on the road.

Alan

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