del capo
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Posts posted by del capo
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2 hours ago, SUPERSTUD said:
At a time when there appears to be bad things going on this has just made my day. Epitomises what rugby league is all about. Brilliant gesture from the Orrell St James club.
Dublin City I don’t profess to know anything about the make up of the Orrell St James club. However I can already tell that you are going to have a great weekend amongst great hosts. Good luck to both clubs.
With the other two surviving Wigan Community clubs now both away Orrell St James will attract a massive crowd to this game. Certain to be in 4 figures so get there early as parking can be tricky once their ( large ) car park is full.
St James are one of Wigan's larger progressive community clubs , aiming for 22 teams at all ages this upcoming season.
4 fields ( 2 floodlit ) and a purpose built clubhouse complex, all on site.
Should be a great day out and one I'm hoping to get to.
Superb gesture by the Club to help out with the Irish travel. , but astute as well as they will probably get that back 10 times over in gate receipts and bar takings !!
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15 hours ago, Dunbar said:
Some very interesting results yesterday.
Surely one of the performances of the round was Wests Warriors going up to Skirlaugh and winning 26-16.
17 NCL sides will feature in Round 2 , with ,because of the luck of the draw, at least 10 Community clubs guaranteed to proceed to Round 3 when the Championship sides enter...
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31 minutes ago, Jughead said:
Great for Dublin but two trips in three weekends cannot come cheap. Do they get any financial assistance?
Yes.
Every away club gets travel subsidy for each round.Depends on how far they have to go. It's either £300., £500 or £750..
So Dublin will get at least £750 towards that London trip.I believe that in the past the RFL may have in exceptional cases found a little extra.
All losing sides from Round 2 and onwards receive prize monies.
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On 19/01/2023 at 19:06, Northern Eel said:
It has been a busy close season for Bassetlaw Bulldogs as we plan for our 5th year. We are growing at quite a rate, having begun from a standing start in 2018. This year, we will be rolling out 8.
- Mixed U7, U9, U11
- Boys U13, U15
- Girls U11, U13
- X-League social touch
This means that our volunteers continue to be extremely busy. We've just launched our 2023 fundraising campaign to provide a mini-tractor to attend to our pitch and to help volunteers set up and clear up after games. You can have a peek here at our campaign.
It is fronted by Bazza the Bulldog, our new mascot. He will be heading into both primary and secondary school settings in February to drum up some more trade. Two of our coaches are offering some after-school sessions in local schools this term too, to get more pupils involved in the game locally.
This growth is organic, and self-funded, but it looks like the ground is pretty fertile at the moment.
On 02/02/2023 at 18:01, Northern Eel said:We've begun our schools work for the year today. We've developed a good relationship with the local secondary school and over the next two weeks are delivering information sessions to pupils in Y7, 8 and 9 in their year group assemblies. We will be running a 6-week after-school club for those kids to try out the game. The hope is that, as the sessions are run by our coaches, we can then coax a few of them down to the club for the 2023 season in March.
We've also got them to provide a 4g pitch for the day to help us run a Primary School festival at the start of March. There is a hope that we can then run a fledgling Primary School Tag League in the summer term. All of these initiatives are aimed at player recruitment, but it is always great to see kids play rugby league, whether through school, or a community club.
All of this work is self-funded and supported by our gang of volunteers. It's hard work, but it can be done.
Have you contacted your local Community Payback scheme ?
They are always short of work projects.
Here in Wigan a few clubs use them . St Judes in particular have them every sunday and they do a great job clearing the field areas of rubbish tidying up etc. Frees up their volunteers to do other work.....as well as ticking boxes with the authorities......
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There would be too many walk overs as clubs weigh up their chances against cost.
That's one of the factors that undermined Barla and even local cups. No incentive for a lower Tier 5 side to travel half the country to face a pasting from an NCL giant. And no meaningful sanctions
Walk overs in the Challenge Cup itself would look simply terrible ( and I believe it may have happened once before ). Can you imagine the damage to our credibility if such an occurrence were allowed to happen ?
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34 minutes ago, topcentre21 said:
I think all ncl clubs should be entered into the challenge cup. Bit unfair just the top 20 in my opinion.
Maybe div 2 and 3 teams go into preliminary rounds with community clubs, then 1st round the prem and div 1 teams enter.
Could maybe tie this in with the national cup so any team that doesn't make the 2nd round of Challenge Cup goes automatically into national cup?
Play the games on consecutive weekends or until end of feb or start of the summer season. That way teams are playing before the season, teams will have prepared for CC and it won't be just for a 1 off game if knocked out of CC untill mid march when season starts.
Betfred CC provides a budget for these early rounds which is not elastic. Hence the selection process involving only the ranked better by performance clubs.
A travel grant of £300, £500, or £750 depending on return mileage is paid from the outset , together with a participation payment for those eliminated at round 2 onwards.( when League 1 enters ). Even then some clubs decline their invite.
Travel alone by coach for instance from Halifax to Workington has recently been quoted at £1650.......
I am not aware of any Barla subsidies for their Cups.
I fear that in the real world of Community clubs finances your idea would not get much traction.
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4 hours ago, usain bolt said:
Would it have been a success moving it to a summer cup, there are no summer cups now as the ncl got rid of theirs, so there's no saying the barla cup would be any better off being played in summer as there seems to be no appetite for any summer cups now. The ncl don't have any leeway in the season it seems, a few blank weekend's for catch up fixtures if needed looking at the fixture list
The Barla National cup is probably fixtured in the right slot but has never been aligned to the rest of the community game { Pennine apart } and over the years has sometimes suffered from seemingly poor off the cuff organisation , last minute walk overs et al - nightmare for club secretaries organising facility usage transport food etc.
NCL delivers week in week out fixtures with severe consequences for miscreants. League fixtures take priority over all but the CC. a stand welcomed by it's members. But it provides back up dates and rarely trespasses into Bank Holiday weekends.
IF Barla could get down to say it's last 8 by early March each year and then use those NCL spare dates to complete the event. with much better publicised format and liaison with NCL then more clubs might well show an interest....
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RLWC 2021 was run by a totally different entity to the RFL , a seperate limited company.
Why was that ?
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On 25/01/2023 at 14:01, del capo said:
I do not understand the ? against Hammersmith. Anyone know if there is a problem ?
The 5pm k o suggests it might be televised.....
Game now confirmed on website
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9 minutes ago, del capo said:
they are on the website now.
I expect the delay has been because they have been awaiting confirmation pf day and k o times as these are not universal
I do not understand the ? against Hammersmith. Anyone know if there is a problem ?
The 5pm k o suggests it might be televised.....
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On 22/01/2023 at 09:49, wiggler said:
Hard to believe that the fixtures aren't even showing on the our rugby-league.com website. Very poor for the rfl's premier competition only 3 weeks away. Will there be a game on the BBC iPlayer like last year?
they are on the website now.
I expect the delay has been because they have been awaiting confirmation pf day and k o times as these are not universal
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1 minute ago, Wiltshire Warrior Dragon said:
Presumably nowadays you could ask Michael Gove's department for a grant. He's the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, isn't he?
Levelling Down gets the same result doesn't it?
But not he grant aid.....
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1 hour ago, Anita Bath said:
So league 1 teams enter at the same stage as NCL…..a further blurring of the the difference between the lowest tier of the semi-pro game and the amateur game.
The arrangements in the link will need to be tweaked as a result of the demise of WWR.
They enter in Round 2 in an Open draw with probably 15 or so NCL sides and some very strong regional ones.
They will all be tested especially if they are drawn away......
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2 hours ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:
I know Batley and Fev have it so why is it kept that way?
Is it so expensive to be completely prohibitive to do the ground works to level?
I vaguely remember someone telling me it was a ludicrous sum of money to level Lords cricket ground (recently ??)
Is it £10,000s sort of prohibitive or £100,000s prohibitive ?? (Can't be more can it??)
Anyone in the game who could provide an estimate ?
Other considerations at Batley and Fev other than cost?
Are any other grounds on a slope?
Waterhead ARLFC had their field levelled a few years ago. It still has a slope but much more playable.
You will not see any change out of £100k. If you seriously need a figure just contact them. Substantial grants were made available - not sure if non community clubs could access them though.
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1 minute ago, Davo5 said:
Didn’t they play at another ground for a season after gaining NCL entry ?
The Police Rec ground down in Holmfirth. ?
The RFL unsuccessfully tried to buy it and settle them there. YML clubs now still have the delight ( and it is a delight ) of visiting them at their century old fortress on the top of the hill ( once they get past that farmer..).
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That field is truly the most challenging in the game.
Forget the incline for a moment.
On one side you are at the top of a cliff face. On the other you have a Peak district style stone wall at times within 2 foot of the touch line.
NCL at the request of the RFL allowed entry of Underbank from the RLC years ago and became very fond of them . but there was a requirement that they place mattresses for protection in the bottom corner try line - Last of the summer wine land at its finest........
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13 minutes ago, Davo5 said:
You’ve never seen a sloping pitch unless you’ve visited Underbank.
Too true and that's before you mention the farmers wall.
I remember Joe Lydon at full pace going down the brow and putting his foot on what he thought was the ground but was in fact 2 ft in the air - landed flat on his face . Not just a brow but massively uneven as well ...
RL owned field for donkey's years.......
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5 hours ago, Spidey said:
The teams are earlier in the thread or on a link. Criteria seems to be top two divisions of NCL plus regional league winners. It's all by invite only so criteria is a bit loose year on year
As far as NCL are concerned the invitations go out on the basis of final league positions with the next club stepping in if anyone declines.
Other positions at regional level taken up by winners or Management decision. Usually the Champions.....
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The struggle of semi pro clubs at the bottom of the pile is nothing new. The reasons for failures ( ie WWR ) and successes ( ie Coventry ) are I feel well understood by the powers that be.
Largely down to overheads - players wages and travel costs- without suitable income generation together with a lack of proper clubhouse and junior infrastructure . It's not rocket science.....
We have been here before.
RFL once did a deal with the NCL to accommodate some semi pro clubs- new President Lindsay Hoyle's Chorley then being one of them - that had financial benefits for the Community clubs in Tier 4 ( they have nearly none at present ).
It may now be time to have a renewed in depth look at the RL ladder .or rather lack of it , between Tier 3 and 4 .
Meanwhile who is to take the place of WWR in the CC? Another Community club ?
My preference would be a select side from the otherwise non involved South Wales clubs . Travel costs are unlikely to be an issue......
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21 hours ago, Whippet13 said:
1st round draw is 12th January
Wembley to stage double draw to launch 2023 Betfred Challenge Cups – Wales Rugby League (WRL)
Strong entry from Community clubs looking at that link from Wales RL
The way the first two rounds are structured I expect scalps will be on offer from both within the Community game and also League 1.....Can't wait.
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The early round arrangements for the CC should be with the clubs concerned by monday. I can only presume that the Trade Press will have been copied in ....
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There will be promotion and relegation for season 2023 so yes a Championship club is bound to be replacing a Super League club.
The gradings will be worked out formally during 2024. If there are any A's stuck in the Championship at that stage and B's in SL then 2025 will be a different picture....
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2 hours ago, Big Picture said:
A quick search about Simon Moran suggests that his net worth is in the range of 7-9 million US$, so not huge by any means and nowhere close to how rich the owners big time major pro outfits like Man U, Man City and the rest are. Another thing about Moran is that although he made his money in the entertainment business, his ownership of Warrington doesn't seem to have helped them expand their reach beyond their existing fanbase.
Another quick search about Paul Caddick suggests that his net worth is something like 300 million US$. He's not one of the RL followers who typically own RL clubs though, he's an RU man who made his money in construction. His involvement in RL only came about because the RU and RL clubs in Leeds are under the same ownership. And Leeds is the one possible exception identified by McGuire to the smallish, economically disadvantaged towns which are the basis of British RL, so it's likely the only traditional RL club would ever interest someone like Caddick.
FYI Manchester City recently reported a record profit of 41 million £, they're not chronic money losers like RL clubs. Note that @Roughyed Ratsposted above that St Helens (McGuire's former club) have lost money in each the past 16 years and in relation to turnover their losses have indeed been huge. The losses for their five worst years total 8.73 million £ which is almost 2 million £ more than their record turnover of 6.94 million £, whereas their last profit was less than 45,000 £. Grim figures indeed.
So laugh all you want, that won't change the fact that McGuire was right about the reason why there's so little money in the game. I'm still waiting for you or any of the other doubters here to offer even a shred of evidence that he's not.
According to last years Sunday Times Rich list Simon Moran was worth £142 million.
Mike Danson major stockholder in Leneghans companies that own Wigan RL in the same list is worth £1.16 billion......
The Saints Board is packed with multi millionaires - Mcmanus once being described as one of the top financiers in the Asian Pacific.
Our clubs are far more than just toys to these guys. The game is as much in their DNA's as it is in most on these forums..
The very top clubs are in good hands and I fear not. But as for those further down the chain, including those maybe showing a modest loss/even profit - could well be a different story.
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23 minutes ago, unapologetic pedant said:
We are taking a break. It`s the off season.
On topic, why is it that multiple GB Tag RL teams can travel to Ireland for tournaments but a NCL team cannot manage one fixture?
Find that NCL side £8k and I'm sure they would be happy to go.
Clubhouse takings dive from January till the season opens and most of them need to be sourcing funds well in excess of £50k to finance their on average 15 teams for 2023.
Cost is a definite factor when they decide whether or not to accept the invitation into the CC.
GB Tag by the way is a totally different beast. It's more like Masters and usually funded individually. Check out it's Governance structure -it has a very loose arrangement with the RFL and certainly not owned by them - almost a case of mutual ' friends with benefits '......
Oh and by the way the NCL Premier Champions used to travel to France yearly to play their Elite counterparts till the French pulled the plug.
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Challenge Cup third round draw
in The General Rugby League Forum
Posted
Gate receipts shared from Round 2 onwards less specific prior deductions ( see Operational Rules for Challenge Cup finances ) make it potentially much more attractive to travel to a Pro venue for Community clubs , especially non heartland ones.