|
|
Post by jeffmcrib on Feb 21, 2017 11:47:00 GMT
Just read this interesting article, albeit on Union but it gives food for thought. www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/feb/21/england-dean-ryan-rfu-youth-development
What are the RFL doing in our game that would make youngsters want to play? It looks like this guy is leaving no area of England untouched in an attempt to pique youth interest in the game at a grass roots level, to enable the coaches to seek out the potential of those kids to play for England one day. I say again, I wonder what our RFL are doing?
|
|
|
|
Post by hillbillyred on Feb 21, 2017 12:58:01 GMT
Thanks for this ... very interesting.
One quote leapt out: "In terms of utilising all its feeder areas English rugby remains a basket case; only two of the 107 red rose players capped at senior level in the past decade hail from the north-east. Almost a fifth of those 107 individuals also either spent their teenage years being schooled abroad or playing rugby league."
There was an interesting thread on Virtual Terrace of why RL is not as popular as RU: one factor was that children are not playing in the numbers we need. Mix that to the increased attraction of RU to established RL players and it is no wonder we are seeing a decline.
|
|
|
|
Post by jeffmcrib on Feb 21, 2017 13:27:57 GMT
What Nigel Wood should have been doing while wearing his two-tone scarf, was talking to and learning from people like this in order to help progress RL. I'm guessing that he was just nattering to some high RFU boffs though unfortunately.
As I mentioned I'm relatively new as a ST holder and to RL. But if this jolly come lately person can see that the game seems entrenched in the same old - same old, then I really feel sorry for the veteran supporters who have seen this for many years.
Does anyone know if there are initiatives in the RFL such as this - where grass roots 'British' players are hand picked from an early age and groomed for Internationals? I understand there would be a need for Central contracts possibly before this would happen.
But what if there was a 'British Academy' pool of young players and they were brought through by International coaches, played as a team or teams in the lower leagues and then when they reached a certain age could be bought by Super League clubs - I guess this is the American Football format (where franchises purchase the best players in draft picks).
Could this work?
Wouldn't this enhance the International (GB) teams?
Would this encourage more young people to pull on an RL jersey if it was suggested that they would be playing for their Country?
We've just had our academy pulled due to lack of funds, the RFL need to act quickly, concentrate on youth and build from the ground up IMO.
|
|
|
|
Post by bandgeekmafia78 on Feb 21, 2017 14:10:38 GMT
There are a handful of community-based projects going on at the moment in Cumbria, Coventry, Hull, London, Newcastle, and through partnerships in Leeds, Bradford, Kirklees and their surrounding areas. They are mainly targeting wider participation i.e. women/girls, students and ethnic minority communities.
According to the rugby-league.com website "The aim of the programme is to take a bottom-up approach to participation involving a range of partners, engaging and sustaining people from around the UK where historically we haven't seen widespread levels of participation".
Don't get me wrong I think it's great that wider participation is being encouraged, but for me the grass-roots support and nurturing of the sport's talent pool of raw, skilled youngsters hasn't fulfilled it's potential yet so we shouldn't be looking further afield until that's been sorted.
|
|
|
|
Post by jeffmcrib on Feb 21, 2017 14:27:58 GMT
There are a handful of community-based projects going on at the moment in Cumbria, Coventry, Hull, London, Newcastle, and through partnerships in Leeds, Bradford, Kirklees and their surrounding areas. They are mainly targeting wider participation i.e. women/girls, students and ethnic minority communities. According to the rugby-league.com website "The aim of the programme is to take a bottom-up approach to participation involving a range of partners, engaging and sustaining people from around the UK where historically we haven't seen widespread levels of participation".That clearly sounds like a positive step. Hopefully there's more meat on the bones inside the RFL with view to targets so they can measure it's success (or failure) - how many are they looking to engage, what do they want their levels of take up to be (do they know what they are now?) once they have them engaged, how are they going to sustain this? etc. etc. Should we as financers of the game, be privy to this information and the results of the intiative?
On another tac - What are the chances that when we host Wire, we can get Tasi at the South Stand Bar at half time, quaffing a pint and then chomping down a dry pie on the sidelines in the second half?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2017 16:11:28 GMT
There are a handful of community-based projects going on at the moment in Cumbria, Coventry, Hull, London, Newcastle, and through partnerships in Leeds, Bradford, Kirklees and their surrounding areas. They are mainly targeting wider participation i.e. women/girls, students and ethnic minority communities. According to the rugby-league.com website "The aim of the programme is to take a bottom-up approach to participation involving a range of partners, engaging and sustaining people from around the UK where historically we haven't seen widespread levels of participation".
On another tac - What are the chances that when we host Wire, we can get Tasi at the South Stand Bar at half time, quaffing a pint and then chomping down a dry pie on the sidelines in the second half?
I have said for a long time that any first team players not involved with the match day squad should be mingling with the fans, remember when I was a kid being taken into the Willows and often you'd get players chatting with the kids and signing all manner of things for them. |
|
