Leigh Leopards’ owner Derek Beaumont has followed up his contentious tweet from last night with yet another in which he labels those reacting as “whoppers”.
Beaumont has led Leigh Leopards to Super League and Challenge Cup success and righty should be praised for making rugby league thrive in Leigh, last night was a perfect example because in spite of the loss the Leopards recorded a crowd of 10,308 for the club’s defeat to Wigan Warriors.
That attendance follows on from solid figures of over 8,500 in their other two home games so far in Super League, showcasing that Derek Beaumont truly has revitalised rugby league in the town.
For that he cannot be criticised, however, his use of social media last night did come in for plenty of criticism with the Leopards’ owner berating the admin of the club’s official X account for the lack of “set by set coverage”.
With Beaumont out in Barcelona and set to watch the Catalans Dragons and St Helens clash tomorrow night, he was clearly wanting regular updates which is something that he didn’t believe the Leopards’ X account was providing.
What did Derek Beaumont post?
Credit: Imago Images
Beaumont’s frustration at the lack of coverage led to the following post: “@LeighLeopardsRL this twitter feed is a joke for supporters trying to follow the game! Has someone resigned without notice? Set by set coverage is the brief!”
@LeighLeopardsRL this twitter feed is a joke for supporters trying to follow the game! Has someone resigned without notice? Set by set coverage is the brief!
— Derek John Beaumont (@derek_beaumont) April 4, 2024
Rival fans jumped on Beaumont for failing to use proper channels to make his request, with his “public shaming” being subject to widespread criticism, particularly given the incredible number of people who saw the post. At the time of writing it has been viewed a whopping 170,000 times.
Derek Beaumont has now followed up, replying to his own post with the following post: “What a meltdown! So the world of X can viciously and abusively criticise owners coaches players refs and the governing body but an owner cannot bring into question an unknown to the public nameless faceless admin of its own account in a non toxic manner? Some whoppers on the line, non more so than those commenting on the great coverage of the account which started after it being questioned! Oh and the obvious one who thought I was complaining before the game had started read the timeline it explains your thought process is pie in the sky! Some impressions though. Queue another meltdown.”
What a meltdown! So the world of X can viciously and abusively criticise owners coaches players refs and the governing body but an owner cannot bring into question an unknown to the public nameless faceless admin of its own account in a non toxic manner? Some whoppers on the…
— Derek John Beaumont (@derek_beaumont) April 5, 2024
That post has since also garnered plenty of reactions, something that Beaumont himself said was likely, but the reactions themselves are mainly negative.
“Sometimes it’s better to just say nothing Derek,” was the response of a Wakefield Trinity fan, whilst others contested his argument that his actions weren’t “toxic”.
One fan posted: “I’d say calling out an employee in a public domain is very toxic, actually”, with another noting: “It was pretty toxic and this isn’t a sincere apology to the person you directed it to.”
No doubt there will be another post later on with more of Derek’s famous fishing reel emojis but as for his initial request of set-by-set coverage, as he pointed out it did improve.
Unfortunately for Beaumont and for Leigh the coverage mainly talked about Wigan tries with Matt Peet’s side running in eight as they romped to a 40-12 win which Adrian Lam reacted to post-match as being full of effort.
