Re: Hanley Blasts Super League Standards : Sat Jun 16, 2012 11:55 am  

it doesnt look good when McBanana picks Chase in the England side !

Re: Hanley Blasts Super League Standards : Sat Jun 16, 2012 1:26 pm  

We need to get into the schools and get the youngsters playing touch and pass from 5 year old up to 7 or 8 years.It will do the world of good as has been said the big strapping kid cant use his size to just bulldoze through.Not only will it get the smaller kids into the game but will develope the ball handling skill of the big lad and also bring on what to me is lacking in our game the habit of the player with the ball having options on who to pass to as the others will be backing up the man with the ball.Look at the last game against the ozzies they were offloading and it was as though the man with the ball demanded someone to be there and knew there would be.We need to do a lot more within the schools at an early age thats for sure.

Re: Hanley Blasts Super League Standards : Sun Jun 17, 2012 11:10 am  

Andy Gilder wrote:

Which is fine, but the elite coaches will invariably go where they can make the best living - the professional game.

True, which is why we should do it centrally.

Re: Hanley Blasts Super League Standards : Mon Jun 18, 2012 8:38 am  

In kids Hurrling in Ireland kids are not allowed to "lift" the ball in the first half, but can in the second half and get points for tehnique. They could do something similar in RL whereby the play tag rugby in the first half and then allow tackling in the second halfThat way there is emphais both on the skill factor and also on tackling /hitups.

Re: Hanley Blasts Super League Standards : Mon Jun 18, 2012 12:27 pm  

les-goose wrote:

We need to get into the schools and get the youngsters playing touch and pass from 5 year old up to 7 or 8 years.It will do the world of good as has been said the big strapping kid cant use his size to just bulldoze through.Not only will it get the smaller kids into the game but will develope the ball handling skill of the big lad and also bring on what to me is lacking in our game the habit of the player with the ball having options on who to pass to as the others will be backing up the man with the ball.Look at the last game against the ozzies they were offloading and it was as though the man with the ball demanded someone to be there and knew there would be.We need to do a lot more within the schools at an early age thats for sure.

They are making moves in this direction. Certainly in the midlands, each county has a community RL coach whose job it is to go into schools and get them playing RL. It starts off with touch and pass and progresses to contact at secondary school. Unfortunately it hasn't resulted in loads more kids coming down to local clubs, as lots depends on the parents willingness to take them etc, but a certain number come through and it at least teaches them that there are at least 2 types of rugby and one is much better to play Its a long term investment though, and hopefully the RFL will see it as such, and continue with it

Re: Hanley Blasts Super League Standards : Mon Jun 18, 2012 12:36 pm  

SmokeyTA wrote:

True, which is why we should do it centrally.

We currently do both.

Re: Hanley Blasts Super League Standards : Mon Jun 18, 2012 3:48 pm  

I know we do, but that is only to a level.

Im talking about completely taking away everything from SL clubs, They run a first team and that is it, where the RFL, paid for by the SL clubs, centrally take control of everything from coaching the coaches at the very young age groups, up to the coaching, nutrition, strength/conditioning etc of the elite higher age groups. With SL clubs only getting involved at the stage of taking players professional and into their first teams.

Re: Hanley Blasts Super League Standards : Mon Jun 18, 2012 3:53 pm  

SmokeyTA wrote:

I know we do, but that is only to a level.

Im talking about completely taking away everything from SL clubs, They run a first team and that is it, where the RFL, paid for by the SL clubs, centrally take control of everything from coaching the coaches at the very young age groups, up to the coaching, nutrition, strength/conditioning etc of the elite higher age groups. With SL clubs only getting involved at the stage of taking players professional and into their first teams.

A couple of points Smokey: How many players will this programme take compared to the current pro academies, and how will you split them.

Secondly, whilst centralising may get better coaching to identified players, it misses one key point: Attracting the better players in the first place. From my own experience of RFL RPDC/scholarship programmes, and pro academies, the prospect of being in a pro club academy is far more appealing to a young player than an RFL programme.

Re: Hanley Blasts Super League Standards : Mon Jun 18, 2012 5:07 pm  

I would look for something along the lines of the RFL to take on about 300 in each age group at so at any one time we would about 1200 affiliated at any one time. Which is a similar if a little smaller amount to the current academy numbers but spread over a slightly larger age group with about 300 ‘graduating’ each year.

The pathway I would look have would be amateur coaching (improved of course) between 5/6 and 14, with a much much bigger focus on touch/tag. The best 300 14 year olds taken into the RFL elite coaching scheme, split between 15 ‘super clubs’ throughout the country, here they would get maybe 3 additional training sessions a month, and about 8 matches a year, and access to elite facilities whilst still with their amateur club.

At 15 and 16, a similar thing happens, with more access from the elite coaches and a couple more matches. At 17 their ‘super club’ becomes their club in the same way they would currently, but again through these centrally funded clubs, they all play each other in a 15 team league. In the year they turn 18 they can join a Championship or C1 club, and still be eligible for their ‘super club’. The next year they will join an SL club or turn pro/semi-pro at a championship/c1 club, with a limit of 30 players being employed by any club at any one time.

The advantages I see in doing something like this is it means more kids get more access to better coaching, it stops the kind of thinking we saw at Hull FC where they picked 4/5 youngsters they saw as having SL potential and the rest were simply ‘filler’, it would mean kids could be coached to fulfil their potential not necessarily to do a job for a specific club side, it would mean we could employ people like JP or even someone like Andrew Johns to go be specific coaches spending one session a fortnight with each club doing specific skills coaching whilst paying them one wage, and I think it puts the focus on making the best rugby players these kids can be, rather than the best rugby players the clubs need.

As for how we distribute them? There are different options, we could have it that at the start of the year the kids turn 19 they can be signed by any club, anywhere, or we could look at some kind of draft system or anything in between really.

Re: Hanley Blasts Super League Standards : Mon Jun 18, 2012 10:47 pm  

Having witnessed the entertaining game of touch and pass that passed for rugby tonight Hanley is bob on.