Death to the Rah Rah's

Very interesting concept and well worth discussing, but a bit radical and forward thinking for the RFL to consider I was thinking our local amateur leagues needed to do something similar to ignite some interest back into the game

I wasn't aware that new clubs had to meet any criteria to play in the regional leagues? Do the club's not take a vote to decide if a new team enters the competition down your neck of the woods Marauder?

well if the pro clubs in west cumbria are running this scheme in schools its obviously not working if only 4-5 teams have enterered this year's U12 league, and only one club from Allerdale !!

all comes back to one thing, and that is the lack of a realistic and sustainable plan to develop the game fit for 21st century needs. This needs to include input from all partners within the game from small junior clubs through to the international game. Its little wonder that Sport England have little confidence in the sport the way its being ran at present, and this has been reflected in the downgrading of funding at each review and I can see this continuing until the game demonstrates it can start to increase participation levels again. The game badly needs new leadership and to appoint someone who is prepared to invest in the time to listen to local league administrators and clubs to find out what the problems are. It will take a huge amount of time and effort to collate this information, but you have to start somewhere. You can't get to a destination if you don't know where it is and as I see it, we don't even have a starting point a present, nevermind a destination

If it is something the local pro clubs are running then that would explain why nobody knows anything about it, as the pro clubs have nothing at all to do with the local amateur sides

i don't have a clue what Sky Try is, and I've never seen anything mentioned about it up here

I think it's a bit unfair to say the RFL have treated Cumbria as the poor relations, but the area definitely needs additional investment if the game is to try and halt what looks to be a terminal decline in fortunes. The decision by Roose and notably Maryport who have superb off-field facilities not to be able to field teams in this seasons Cumbria Men's League should be ringing alarms bells with the community team at Red Hall. Clifton were also forced to pull out of the Cumberland League due to lack of numbers, and it seems this could just be the start of the games troubles in Cumbria. i was told last week that there are only four teams in this seasons under 12s league, so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that this will have an effect on all other ages to open age in the next few seasons. The lack of a super league side in the area doesn't help the profile of the sport, but there is a lack of interest in playing the game, which seems worse in Allerdale than Copeland, but there appears to be little to no help in trying to identify what has gone wrong with the sport. does-the RFL have a development plan for the community game? Or where will the game be in the next five years if numbers continue to decline? Someone somewhere needs to take the lead and try to tackle this problem head on or it's going to be too late to save what until very recently was a traditional stronghold of the game

I can remember going to Old Trafford to watch Great Britain v the Aussies in the early 90s. The atmosphere was electric - mainly due to the compère who really got the crowd involved - I can't remember all the details, but I do recall virtually the entire crowd stamping their feet and clapping their hands to Queens 'we will rock you'. The Aussies must have wondered what the hell was going on

Scattergun is a great way of describing the RFL development strategy - I'm disappointed that I didn't think of that one myself. When will the 'powers that be' at Red Hall, actually get off their backsides and engage with the people who are running the game at grassroots level. I'm talking about the people involved with clubs, not the Community Board or other local league management structures. The people running these clubs will tell you what support they need. Everytime the RFL rolls out a new scheme, be it Sky Try, Scholarships, Embed the Pathway etc. the local officlals just roll their eyes and think 'here we go again'. I know a lot of these schemes are adopted from the Aussie game, but what works down under, won't necessarily work over here, as we have more obstacles to overcome that our Aussie cousins

I'm not aware of the RFL rewarding clubs other than offering them cheap deals on group purchases

we need to wipe the board clean and start again and go to Sport England with a new development plan that fits the needs of RL in the U.K., not what ticks Sport Englands aims at this particular time. It will be very difficult to sell to the national body, but if proper foundations and structures are put into place, then the game can flourish again. While I am all for expanding the game away from the traditional areas, at present we need to stop the rot in the traditional areas as we will have huge problems if the game is allowed to wither and die in these areas. Everything needs looked at, from the way we bring coaches into the game, to putting in proper support networks and classes that allow coaches to develop their skills, as opposed to the current system which just sees coaches given their ticket after a four day course and left to get on with it. Little wonder there are so few coaches moving into open age rugby, and even fewer good coaches!! In my opinion, EVERY PLAYER who signs on as a professional should have to undertake a coaching qualification at their club and there should be a coaching link ups with the local amateur clubs within their catchment area. We need to adopt a long term view to try and improve the standards of rugby league players which will benefit the professional clubs in due course as well as strengthen the amateur game. There should be a team of development officers who can saturate an area over a 4-6 month programme, linking in with schools, local clubs and colleges using a pre-designed template. The RFL to identify key local individuals to train up during this development programme to deliver courses, support coaches etc, and offer a full support network after the development team have moved on. These local individuals should also receive expenses payments as well as being invited guests to the big RL games. We need to start rewarding the people who do all the work. The game does have a future, but it needs to have a plan of action

Great idea in principle - but I agree with others on here that it would need to be a 7-10 year plan as you wouldn't be able to touch the surface in 3-5 years. Sport England would be the obvious choice to fund something like this, but it would be a very hard sell as they don't seem to like funding things for more than 5 years, and a bigger problem would be tackling their particular aims at that time. A small percentage of tv money could also be used to show commitment from the RFL. There are lots of ways the RFL could look to rebuild grassroots RL but somebody at some point needs to engage with the existing player base, and club committees to see what they want. We see some fantastic suggestions on the forum alone, so why doesn't anyone act on these suggestions to formulate a plan and submit it to the RFL? I've a gut feeling the local open age amateur leagues in west Cumbria will return to winter shortly, it's not that they don't enjoy playing in summer, but there are so many other distractions it is killing the game. It's also causing divided loyalties with those lads who also play rugby union in the off season choosing to stay with the ru club til the end of their season

I would be very surprised if the juniors moved back to a traditional winter season as it works reasonably well. Open age is a different kettle of fish. People tend to forget that the reason the game switched to summer was because the game was struggling for numbers in winter and the switch came off the back of a horrible and very wet couple of winters. Clubs voted for the switch as well and I'm sure it was initially on a trial basis to see how it went. The game has huge problems throughout the country, so don't kid yourselves that its just in Cumbria. the league needs to start dialogue with players to see what the problems are, and when THEY want to play. that has to be the starting point before any other plans can be put into place

The RFL need to appoint a new body to re-evaluate the game to see where it is at present and where it sees itself in 5, 10 and 15,years. There is no quick fix to solve the problems within the sport as there are too many areas which need fixing! The community game is on its backside and the professional game is just as bad. Out of interest, how many of our professional clubs would have a viable business plan without the RFLs central funding programme, or perhaps more importantly, how many clubs would be insolvent without it! As part of this central funding, what are the professional clubs supposed to deliver for the money within their local communities? How (if at all) is this monitored and is it independently verified? As a sport, are we getting value for money from clubs in exchange for this funding, or are we ignoring the grassroots of the game to subsidise players wages for insolvent clubs?

All great suggestions, but one thing needs to change more than anything mentioned on here so far and the is PLAYER ATTITUDES!! Cumbria MENS this weekend, Maryport, Seaton and Wath Brow insufficient numbers to get teams. All the above have youth sections as well although Maryports only up to 14s at present. That's the biggest hurdle to overcome, makes little odds what time of year you play if the dedication is lacking.