A RECURRING feature of the ongoing tussles between the Rugby Football League and various leagues throughout England, whose managements have felt that their competitions have been under threat through the launch of the National Community Rugby League drive, is how widely (sometimes bizarrely) their views on the results of talks and negotiations have all too often differed.
Take the latest hot potato to come my way. As readers will see here, the winter-based Pennine League board insist (and I quote secretary Sue Taylor): “It is with a heavy heart that the management have to announce the recent NCRL restructure under the helm of Martin Coyd has decided there is no longer room for the Pennine ARL.”
But on checking with the RFL (and not solely on the Pennine League but also on rumours regarding the future under NCRL of the similarly winter-based Women’s Amateur Rugby League Association) I was told by Marc Lovering, the governing body’s director of participation and development: “Incorrect, although all parties will keep under review the demand for a specific winter offer.”
What are we to make of statements that can, you might say, appear to be polar opposites?
I wrote a few weeks ago about how perceptions of discussions can differ and we’re now possibly approaching the stage where someone, somewhere, is seriously misunderstanding (I fervently hope not misrepresenting) the facts.
Also unhappily, I recently received a pithy email from a bloke who is upset that the RFL are now running what has been, for more than half a century, the BARLA National Cup.
On the face of it, this is the latest in a growing number of instances where people at the grassroots are being presented with a ‘done and dusted’ scenario.
The RFL are, “due to alignment of fixture dates”, giving teams in Lancashire and Yorkshire the option of entering either the National Cup or (according to geographical location) the North West League or Yorkshire League Cups – but not both.
My correspondent said: “What a load of **** – making clubs choose again about a long standing National Cup. When did BARLA pull out?”
He told me later, regarding my request to reveal his identity: “I don’t want repercussions. I just wanted some coverage and support for the game in general.
“The RFL have brutally demolished the NCL, with no remorse, so where does that leave the lower clubs?”
After making allegations regarding what he sees as the financial background to the NCRL saga, which I’ll leave on the back burner for now, he said: “The professional game is in a poor state, the community game is worse.
“(Whoever) is pulling the strings doesn’t care for clubs (or) the game, because they’re killing it. And now they’re making us choose between which cups to enter – theirs or the BARLA Cup, which has been going for more than 50 years!”
That’s yet another missive that’s dropped my way from someone who doesn’t want naming because of, he says, potential repercussions for his club. That’s not good, is it?
Meanwhile, Marc Lovering told me: “Basically, there aren’t enough weekends available in the calendar this season to accommodate everything.
“We’ve managed to incorporate the National Cup into the regular season without clashing, which hasn’t happened in previous years, and the numbers of entrants has doubled.
“The regional leagues play a slightly shorter season which means less available weekends.
“I certainly would like to see every regional league team have the opportunity to take part in both, and that is certainly something we will be looking at for next season.
“The easiest way to achieve it would be to reduce the size of divisions to accommodate cups, but that means less guaranteed games and potential for more blank weekends if teams go out of cups early.
“The NCRL framework will continue to evolve and we’ll be taking learnings and feedback at the end of the season.”
Hopefully, then, the National Cup will, under the RFL, be restored to its former rude health in 2027.
And let’s hope that, sooner rather than later, something similar can be said of the game in the north-east.
I touched on the region in a recent column but there may well be green shoots re-emerging, in fact it was announced only last week that a new side (Newcastle Lightning) have been formed through an agreement between Newcastle Thunder and the crack Student outfit Northumbria.
Lightning will play, this year, in the Yorkshire Men’s League, but let’s hope that a North East League will quickly emerge, or perhaps a competition closely linked with the fairly adjacent Scotland League.