fighting irish

'Twas ever thus Archie. I just don't know how long it will take the RL family to accept the reality of the situation. Expecting them to actively support and promote the grassroots and every layer from there up to SL, is like entrusting the development of British Gymnastics to Billy Smarts Circus . Where are the ''leaders'' amongst our amateur ranks? Where are the people who care enough about our sport to actually commit to doing something about growing the game? We have amateur coaches at every club in the country, so why can't we have amateur development officers (ex-coaches perhaps) who are dedicated to local developments right across the country? We could call them ''The Bob Brown Amateur Rugby League Association''. Or BBARLA for short.

I've done it Charlie. I hope your dissertation does some good.

I've been banging on about this for ages Harry. BARLA seems to be in a coma. I'm of the opinion that when the Sports Council decided that the RFL were the rightful governing body of ''the game'' in the UK, BARLA downed tools, with a ''see how you get on without us'' attitude. I've come to this position because I remember working with Maurice Oldroyd and Tom Keaveney to get us going in Wales. They were full of enthusiasm and seemed to welcome the responsibility to try and develop the game, everywhere at the same time. As far as I can see, they (BARLA) are a non-entity these days. I believe, if we are to grow the grassroots, every local league management group needs to accept the responsibility to do some work towards growing the game in their area. Why aren't they? As a private business man, you'll know that no matter how exhausting, maintaining your business becomes, you have to devote some time and effort (each day/each week) to growing the business, to forward movement. You just can't afford to tread water. If you stop growing, you start dieing. Now just imagine, if every local league committee had development front and centre on every agenda, of every meeting, what a transformation would come about. They're doing it in Africa, in Jamaica, in America, in Eastern Europe .......etc etc. So why can't we do it in England (and Wales)?

yes mate, you're right. We'd better get cracking.

Poor Danny, he looked bewildered when interviewed last night. He was struggling to explain (to himself) how a team can go neck and neck with Wigan one week and play like the West Yorkshire branch of the ''Old Pith Poor-ians'' the next. We need to expand the player pool, quick.

Here's a very reluctant confession. After watching (and playing) Rugby League for over 50 years, this game was the first one where I felt the play wasn't of a high enough standard to be deemed ''Super League''. The players skill level (particularly passing accuracy) was very poor, the game error strewn as a result and the decision making, especially amongst the Castleford players was woeful. I hope it's not a sign of worse things to come. But, it left me with an ominous chill, a frightful sense of foreboding, like the first breath of a harsh and bitterly cold winter.

Its a function of those old fashioned lights used in Jimmy Stewart films which, when switched on, make the whole room go darker.

Absolutely hopeless, another bout of me shouting at the screen! The combination of poor resolution play-back and self indulgent/self-aggrandising video ref's is going to kill the game if allowed to go on unchecked. So amateurish, so boring, so annoying. When you add in the 3 ''decision pending'' oscillations of the Hughie Green clap-o-meter, (when the decision has already been made, before the clap-o-meter was even flashed up on the screen) nonsense, it's enough to make my hair fall out. God, bless us and spare us!

You get the prize for the most sensible suggestion so far.

Ha ha yes of course! Did you really think I meant it should be applied in that case?

I've not given a great deal of thought to this issue but wouldn't you agree that it's impossible for the referee to know whether a player is really injured or not? Penalising a player for feigning injury (when he can't know for certain) leaves the referee wide open to scathing criticism. Surely the ''six again'' option can be used to discourage deliberate time wasting and so it should but I think the ''wasted'' time should be added on the clock as well. It's colloquially referred to as ''injury time'' but the principle of adding time is equally valid whether someone is injured or whether someone is wasting time deliberately to run the clock down. I prefer this combination of options rather than suggesting the referee should make a guess and punish a player, when he simply can't confidently claim the player is not in pain.

what do you see as the major stumbling blocks to development there?

One of the things which bedevils development leagues is the almost inevitable gulf in ability amongst small numbers of start up teams. It's in the nature of the game, that In a mis-match the losing team may not only get embarrassed by a large score but will likely get physically battered by the better team. This is a very real disincentive to continuing the struggle. It's a catch 22 because the solution is to have more teams. Then the disparity isn't so obvious, or so frequent. We need to get to 20 odd teams (quickly) but the WRL seems hell bent on not overlapping the local RaRa seasons at either side of the RL conference. That's a hard limit on the number of teams and playing opportunities for would-be teams/clubs. This is a folly. Do you know, who is in charge of ''Development'' for WRL?

This'll never catch on. The action is glacial. Why T. F. are the stoppages so long?

The website shows a picture with 8 teams represented, but only 5 have turned up to play this season. What happened to the other 3?