Re: New pro comps : Fri Nov 25, 2016 4:17 pm  

Leaguefan wrote:

Can't understand why they aren't following the British model. Don't run academies, reserve teams or have anything to do with local teams. The results are there for all to see.

Miserable T₩@T

[Wildthing]

Re: New pro comps : Sat Nov 26, 2016 8:58 am  

Biff Tannen wrote:

Dont know why you bother with rugby leauge or posting on here, everything you put is negative or a sarcastic put down.

Rather monotonous isn't it?

Re: New pro comps : Sat Nov 26, 2016 8:53 pm  

The NSW country championships will now be an under 23s comp.
This is a knockout comp for teams representing all the country "groups" or competitions.
It usually comes down to Newcastle v Wollongong - but often the Canberra or Central coast groups come close.
As an under 23s comp, it should let a few late developers grab the eye of NRL scouts. Some players in the past have come out of Newcastle rebels to get a chance - Josh Mantellato, George Carmont, Nathan Ross to name a few.

[Mild Rover]

Re: New pro comps : Sun Nov 27, 2016 6:21 pm  

roopy wrote:

The current national under 20s is funded to allow players to be semi professional and there are requirements in place that players should be either studying or in employment.
The new state based under 20s will have very little funding and just be similar to current under 16s and under 18s - amateur comps.
All the good players aged 18 to 20 will be playing as semi professionals or fulltime professionals in the expanded NSW and Qld cups, and all the club funding will go into those comps.
The theory behind the under 20s was to give kids every chance to develop their football skills, whilst making sure the 90% who didn't go on to be professional players kept up their education or employment skills, so you didn't get large groups of guys in their early 20s with nothing on their resume except failed footy player.
The problem with the under 20s is that the standards of defence and physicality are way below NRL standard, so good players at that level are often exposed as pretenders when they have to play against men.
The well funded under 20s was a good idea for the welfare of young players, especially the majority who weren't go to make the grade, but it's been next to useless for developing good players, the majority of whom are already playing in the seniors by age 19 or 20.

Makes a lot of sense. The obsession with not missing the next Jamie Peacock has led us in the opposite direction - without proper funding, obviously.

On this side of the world, I really think we'd be better with a bottom-up rather than a top-down approach.

Re: New pro comps : Tue Nov 29, 2016 7:46 pm  

Mild Rover wrote:

Makes a lot of sense. The obsession with not missing the next Jamie Peacock has led us in the opposite direction - without proper funding, obviously.

On this side of the world, I really think we'd be better with a bottom-up rather than a top-down approach.

Yep. We need to drastically increase the number of people playing the game, drastically change the format of how the amateur game is played and drastically increase the quality of coaching at that level.

I don't quite remember the stats exactly but it's something like Sydney alone has 4 times more kids playing the game at age 12-14.

It's no wonder we're behind just by that measure. But then we don't help ourselves with a poor format and poor quality amateur setup.

Re: New pro comps : Wed Nov 30, 2016 2:34 pm  

Him wrote:

Yep. We need to drastically increase the number of people playing the game, drastically change the format of how the amateur game is played and drastically increase the quality of coaching at that level.

I don't quite remember the stats exactly but it's something like Sydney alone has 4 times more kids playing the game at age 12-14.

It's no wonder we're behind just by that measure. But then we don't help ourselves with a poor format and poor quality amateur setup.

I'm involved in the grassroots game in Leeds, and the amateur club I'm involved in get's a great deal of help from the Rhinos Foundation as one of it's ambassador clubs. They help us to train coaches in terms of courses and Brian Mac masterclasses ( ), funding ideas & help, launching new sides, and events (raffle prises, Ronnie appearances, player appearances etc). They uses to bring the trophies with them quite a lot, but not sure where they got to .

We get very little help from either Leeds & District (who, rumour has it, are sat on a huge 6-figure bank balance), or the RFL.

I recently spoke to a friend who is on a committee at an amateur club in Hull, and he said they get no help whatsoever from Hull & District RL, Rovers Foundation are nowhere to be seen, and Hull FC Foundation do as much as they can, but tend to charge for certain things.

These are Rugby League's two biggest cities, and we're not doing great in either to be honest. The numbers aren't so bad up to U12's, but they then fall off a cliff by U15/U16.


On another note, there's a HUGE knowledge gap in the sport in terms of knowing about and going after available funding. There are various charities and grants that are available that could really help every RL club. Guiseley Rangers for example recently got £75k funding for a new clubhouse and what not from Sport England, but it was down to them painstakingly learning about the process, making sure the legal side of things were done, writing business cases and bids etc.

We've recently started out on that same process, with the ultimate aim of building our own clubhouse in 2018/19. If anyone here reading is involved in the amateur game, make sure your club are clued up about the funding available out there.

Re: New pro comps : Wed Nov 30, 2016 4:20 pm  

DGM wrote:

I'm involved in the grassroots game in Leeds, and the amateur club I'm involved in get's a great deal of help from the Rhinos Foundation as one of it's ambassador clubs. They help us to train coaches in terms of courses and Brian Mac masterclasses ( ), funding ideas & help, launching new sides, and events (raffle prises, Ronnie appearances, player appearances etc). They uses to bring the trophies with them quite a lot, but not sure where they got to .

We get very little help from either Leeds & District (who, rumour has it, are sat on a huge 6-figure bank balance), or the RFL.

I recently spoke to a friend who is on a committee at an amateur club in Hull, and he said they get no help whatsoever from Hull & District RL, Rovers Foundation are nowhere to be seen, and Hull FC Foundation do as much as they can, but tend to charge for certain things.

These are Rugby League's two biggest cities, and we're not doing great in either to be honest. The numbers aren't so bad up to U12's, but they then fall off a cliff by U15/U16.


On another note, there's a HUGE knowledge gap in the sport in terms of knowing about and going after available funding. There are various charities and grants that are available that could really help every RL club. Guiseley Rangers for example recently got £75k funding for a new clubhouse and what not from Sport England, but it was down to them painstakingly learning about the process, making sure the legal side of things were done, writing business cases and bids etc.

We've recently started out on that same process, with the ultimate aim of building our own clubhouse in 2018/19. If anyone here reading is involved in the amateur game, make sure your club are clued up about the funding available out there.

Spot on, I heard a similar story from Millom. They managed to secure quite a bit of funding for a new pitch in a similar fashion IIRC.