Quote financialtimes="financialtimes"The community/amateur game is in a mess with a split between winter and summer causing further disruption and players being lost en-block from 16+ ages. The RFL needs to get its head on and work with BARLA and the community game to all become aligned, invest a lot of money to ensure that the game becomes stable and sustainable, play consistent rules throughout the game. Rather than teaching u6-9's a totally different game and then start teaching them the rules we play over that is rediculous, the game at 6 should be more recognisable with the gradual introduction of the wider games rules year on year(much the same way we teach kids in all other subjects) is the best way to develop their understanding and ability to play the game. They need to talk with the NRL and agreee international rules that are played at the top tiers of the game, rather than different rules in each hemisphere and a third set of rules when internationals are played.
I think that the Toronto experiment needs to be seen through to conclusion before adding another ingredient, maybe use it as a way to develop the game in North America and Canada as a whole, with such a large populous surely it wouldn't be too difficult to form say 20 teams in a area where the population is over 300,000,000
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Good post F.T.
I've posted more times than I can remember that, there is a total lack of strategy in our sport.
We like to go for gimmicks and quick fixes, instead of building on proper foundations and this has lead to the total faliure of a number of "expansion" clubs.
Having said that Catalan Dragons are a great part of SL, bringing with it some diversity ant a trip to the sun
Looking at the bigger picture, there is little doubt that RL fails to attract major sponsorship because of its poor profile and IF Toronto are successful and a stepping stone to having RL established in North America, this would be phenomenal for the sport.
There are so many American Football players who dont make the grade and if just a fraction of these were able to convert to RL, there would be a huge number of potential players that could come into the sport.
Also, listening to Eric Perez (the head guy at Toronto) is a breath of fresh air in the game and he makes Nigel Wood sound utterly amateurish.
The major reservation is that the practicalities of including North American clubs in SL is just bonkers.
However, until the RFL get a grip on where the sport is at right now and just what it is that they are looking to achieve, the domestic game will continue to decline.
Long term, it appears that clubs like ours will struggle to compete with much wealthier clubs and with Toulouse and Toronto both coming into the domestic competition and with plenty of money behind them, the pressure will increase.
IF the plan is to achieve some kind of Northern Hemisphere SL, I cant see Wakefield making the grade and we would probably play in the top English league, maybe something similar (but of a higher standard) to the French domestic competition and realistically this may be where we end up playing.
The reality is that we are a long, long way from this happening, so for now, we should enjoy watching Trinity in SL and hope that we can build on the last couple of seasons.
