Which team or teams do you love to hate, and why?
The team I love to hate is the SharksâŚ
I was originally a Newtown supporter. No one ever seemed to have a problem with that. After they folded, I spent a few years in the Rugby League wilderness, not really supporting any team.
I canât remember exactly which game I was watching, or even who the opposition was, but I saw Brandy playing in a TV game late in the 1986 season. Suddenly I found my team. From the 1987 season I was a confirmed Panthers fan.
At first no one in my area really cared about who I followed, but as time when on, I started having more & more problems with the locals.
It was later that year I was on the receiving end of some serious bullying at school, which started as just one guy pushing me around, and grew to being a group of 10-15, who were led by this guy, and would often bash me every day. My year master decided to put a stop to it (after my parents said they would sue the school if it continued), the physical bullying stopped, but I was on the receiving end of constant verbal abuse & a graffiti hate campaign from almost the entire school - something that would last for around 2 years, until I finally changed schools.
You would think that Panthers winning in 1991 would have at least shut the Sharks fans up a bit. Even before then I was copping taunts of âWestie scumâ, âHousoâ and âHow can you support those losers?â (Ironic when it would take them another 25 years to win their only premiership).
Even after school, there were problems with locals who I didnât even know at school, or I wasnât as school with. I was accused of a whole heap of stuff I didnât do, but everyone âknewâ that I did. In some cases, things I was accused of doing in the Shire, happened while I was out at Penrith watching Panthers play!!! I even had one of these people threaten to kill me for something I didnât do to him.
In the early 2000âs I was working for a car rental company, and my franchise manager was a Sharks supporter. Didnât have too many problems with him until I questioned him about paying me less than a person I was training. From here it was a downhill slide, with him accusing me of things I didnât do (sounds familiar), culminating in him making a disgusting allegation against me. He didnât even have the balls to say it to my face either, he just told everyone else & one of them asked me about it. Strangely enough, he lost half of his staff within a few months over that issue, with the bloke who asked me about it cornering the manager in his office & going to town on him about it. This all happened around the time of us winning in 2003.
All this time, and for many years after, Iâm still copping the same old taunts from the locals. I keep biting my tongue, and pushing it aside, but eventually started to give a bit back - usually saying 2-0.
During this time I was dating a girl, who I had planned on marrying. She ghosted me for a while & I started to wonder what was going on. Suddenly she reappeared, but there was something different about her. It didnât take long to work out she was cheating on me. When I worked out who it was I decided to call her at a time I knew she was likely be with him. He grabbed her phone & gave me a gobfull about talking to his girlfriend. After he finally took a breath I let him know what was going on, and he started up again, this time making some serious threats against me. A few weeks later he tried to stand over me while I was on a train, I gave him a push so that I could get away, and he fell over & started playing the victim. What does all this have to do with the Sharks? You guessed it, Sharks supporter!!!
About 10-15 years ago I was at Sharks Leagues Club to buy Grand Final tickets & came up with an idea for a laugh & a cheap shot at them. After I get home I put a post on Facebook about visiting the Club & taking a photo of the trophy cabinet, adding a photo of an empty cabinet. From here the Sharks fans have gone from one extreme to the other - if they beat us my phone & Messenger lights up with âUp, Upâ, often from people I havenât seen or heard from in years. If we beat them, I canât find any of them.
On top of all of this, after attending hundreds of games at almost every ground over the years, I can say I have only been threatened twice. Both times at Shark Park. The first was when we beat them 21-20 in extra time. The ball had barely even gone over the crossbar when I had a Sharks fan in my face looking for a fight. The second time was when I was there with a mate, who asked about one of the Sharks players, when I repeated what was said on the radio (he was suspect under the high ball), a bunch of Sharks supporters in front of me wanted a fight, especially one guy who was apparently this playerâs cousin.
In recent years, I have been keeping my mouth shut. Seriously, not worth the grief I cop from them. I have put our recent humiliation of them in my back pocket for next time they start up.
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Mutley, you feel about the Sharks the same way as I feel about Manchester United.
Notwithstanding this, I hate all the other NRL teams, just to varying degrees.
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I have a pecking order in the NRL:
Panthers
Dragons
Random teams depending on who I have money on, or want to win on the day, usually to assist the Panthers.
Eels
Sharks
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shit Mutley - you need to move to the Riff champâŚ
Hate the featherdicks aka Parra
My hatred started at school, the 81 GF against Newtown, was going for Newtown but loved watching Brett Kenny. I was a Wests supporter as a kid, first Jersey i had, donât know why or how i got it and loved Ron Giteau and ended up following him around until i finally ended up at the Roosters.
This aligned to the family, My Dad, all my uncles and Pop were Dragons and my Nan was a Rooster, so i chose to be on Nanâs side. Growing up in Bidwill, I didnât even know we were part of the Penrith district in Rugby League termsâŚwe moved to the Riff when I was 14 and I have been a supporter ever since. Not that i never liked the Pennies, I went to a few games, usually when the Dragons played them lol
The reason the hate for Yuk started was all my friends and everyone basically started going for Yuk after the 2nd and 3rd GF wins, all the latest shirts were on their backs and they basically became hangeronerers. I still get a bit of grief now for the fact iâve changed teams but supporting the 1 team for nearly 40 years is a justified support.
Nowadays itâs the media who play the Yuk pre-season theme song year in year outâŚis this the yearâŚI get it, they have a huge supporter base that blindly follows the family guise, most families have thisâŚbut the relentless Yuk support does my head in - THEY ARE SHIT.
The GF against them was my worst nightmare - BUT WE FLOGGED EM 
Anyway - F@#$ Parra I mean Yuk lol
Side story, corrupted my daughterâs mindset, she tried to test me when she was about 5, she said âDad I want to go for Parraâ I said, âPack your bags and get out of my houseâ after the 20 minutes of crying and cuddling, she learnt not to mess with me. We are not allowed to say the name in our house, hence the term Yuk. We have a footy comp - their games are withdrawn from the comp because we donât want the name on the tipping sheet 
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Jeez Kevin. And I thought Mutley really hated the slimy ones.
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Basically hate them all, but as a lifelong Panther supporter, the slimies are our arch enemy.
I took at the time & still enjoy today, great pleasure that we beat them in â22 GF
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I took at the time & still enjoy today, great pleasure that we beat them in â22 GF
20 minutes to beat them and then 60 minutes to savour the victory.
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