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langpark

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Everything posted by langpark

  1. I hope I am wrong, but I think they will be lucky to get a dozen viewers. It is hard to get neutrals excited about games like this. I think they would have been much better off using the old "covid tactic" than many sporting clubs are doing right now. It goes something like this: Hi fans, please help us! Since fans are still not allowed to attend matches, we are struggling and lost our main revenue stream. Please support us by buying a virtual ticket and enjoy our live stream... etc. I believe that would have gotten a much better response. Charge a fiver or less and I believe many more would suddenly feel different about handing over their money, whether they even end up watching the match or not.
  2. Indeed, was never an option. Would be great if they play a World Cup warm up match in Scotland!
  3. This all seems a bit strange to me. They mention a $60 million deal, yet their website still looks pretty low-budget. Also, no mention anywhere on their site of the Champions League. Doesn't add up. But for SMH to report it, you would have to assume it is legit.
  4. This is very encouraging and indicates that they are indeed slowly moving down into lower age groups. First-ever U14 match, full 13-a-side. Even more encouraging that Red Star was not one of the teams involved. Also two female refs got some experience with the whistle too! https://twitter.com/SerbianRL/status/1366081815442837504?s=20
  5. Slow and steady. If all the current clubs / proposed clubs are able to play a full season, that will be huge progress and the best position Scotland has been in for years (or possibly ever?)
  6. Well I think their season starts again in a couple of weeks, so once again they will be one of the few leagues in Europe running.
  7. Yes, given the upcoming World Cup, I think it's a great appointment. Phil Economidis was living in Serbia until the pandemic forced him home. A real shame, he was coaching Red Star and I think helping out with some other teams as well, including the national team. I am not sure if he will ever go back now, he is getting on in age too.
  8. They did have the Red Kangaroos as their reserve team for a while, which was a nice idea, I am not sure if they still have them. I think outside the main 4-5 teams, no other team can really commit to joining the league. The standard of matches, plus frequency is probably too much for them. That's why if you have 9 teams, it might look good on paper to have a 9-team league, but in practical terms, might actually be best to have 3 tiers of 3 teams in each. To avoid the thumpings and getting teams of similar standard playing against each other more often. They already took steps along these lines. Red Star has a patreon page, with currently 44 members. They have stated their goal is to reach 200 members and if/when they do, they will employ two part-time junior coaches in Belgrade, which would be a great boost for them: https://www.patreon.com/RedStarRL Red Star a few years ago, had a goal of reaching League One, so they started recruiting a few semi-pro players and were flogging any team they played. This probably harmed RL in Serbia slightly. They have since ditched the League One idea and are more concentrating on building the local league. They also stated recently that money that they make from these initiatives will be spread across all clubs in Serbia, which is also a great way to go.
  9. Come on, don't state "facts" that are flat out wrong, it seriously takes 30 seconds of research (wikipedia gives a fair summary) to see how wrong this is. Yes, there was a brief existence in the 50s, then everything stopped in the early 60s. The blokes who got things going again in 2003 did not benefit one iota from that brief existence in the 50s. What do you think? They got all the blokes that were playing back then (in their 70s by that stage) and picked up right where they left off? Of course not, so they had to start again from ZERO. That is NOT 70 years of history at all, don't try and twist things. Italy, even more so. The Kangaroo played two one-off exhibition games there, a few days apart in 1960 on their way home from England. Then nothing happened there again until early 2000s. Hardly a 50-year history. The open age scene in Serbia doesn't seem to have grown a lot in the past decade, it's true. But it seems youth level has, which is great. There are four U18 teams and three U16s, none of which existed a decade ago. So perhaps their strategy is do keep adding younger and younger age levels to each club, who knows? Also, quantity may not have boomed in recent years, but you could argue that quality has. Red Star played in a Challenge Cup, they have two players (Nikolic and Calic) recently playing Elite 1 and another 4-5 that play/played at Elite 2 level. These are great successes in my opinion. But of course, 2 players in Elite 1, is not going to put a dent on the international scene. Once there are 17 or more playing at that level, yes things will start changing. Again, takes time, but they seem to be slowly going in that direction. Another thing about Serbia, it's quite a small country, 7 million and also one of the poorer ones in Europe. Also despite being small, they are a very sporty nation and arguably punching above their weight when it comes to population. Soccer, Basketball, water polo and tennis are all very popular there. And when parents are looking to enroll their kid in a sport and give him the best chance of a bright future, where do you think they are going to look? They are looking at the millions that Djokovic and the NBA players are earning. Rugby League is not in the equation let me tell you. I am not saying that is the right way for a parent to think, but it happens. Asking a parent to enroll their kid in an unknown sport, that offers no future prospects and for them to get battered, is not the most enticing thing they will hear. It is a very hard sell.
  10. I don't understand why so many RL fans have to be so dramatic all the time. "Make or break" "do or die" "grow or go bust"... I don't see it that way at all. RL has existed 126 and a lot of clubs in England pre-date the game and over 150 years old. Rugby League in Serbia is not even 20 years old yet. It has grown at times, and has also been stagnant at times. Everyone has setbacks and hurdles to overcome, but I don't think it is fair to say that they have ever gone backwards, or been in decline and any point during those (approx. 18) years of existence. They, like many minnow nations, face an incredible, if not impossible task of catching up to nations that had a 100+ year head start. You used Russia, Italy, Lebanon and Ukraine as an example of countries that started off promising, then died off (or had minimal teams left). I think that example can only really apply to Russia, who indeed were getting big at one stage and in the last couple of years literally did die off. Italy and Lebanon never got big (don't confuse seeing Farah and Tedesco wearing their jerseys at World Cups, with how the game is going on the ground). While Ukraine, I think is only about 13-14 years old, has been on a similar path to Serbia. Slow and steady, but I have never seen them go backwards like you have implied. One final example to close: Rugby Union was first played in Argentina in 1873 and their federation was established in 1899. Argentina today has 110,000 registered players (according to wiki). Now, despite this, Argentina has NO CHANCE of winning a RUWC any time soon and will probably forever be a "tier 2" nation. What should they do? Pack up and call it a day? Cease to exist? This "make or break" mentality needs to stop. It achieves nothing and I genuinely wonder what expectations people have of some of these countries. To achieve in 10 years what other countries achieved in 100 with almost zero resource to work with?
  11. If I were them, I'd be tempted to separate the big three into their own group, then put every other team in its own group, call it a "development league, if you will. Maybe even the big 3 could enter their U20s in it too or something. I know the same teams playing each other over and over again is boring as hell, but clearly, they are just too far in front of the others. I wonder if part of the reason other teams never formed/grew because the thought of coming up against a flogging from Red Star was too daunting, so teams dodged them altogether. Just to highlight the point. Partizan, one of the big three, played against Radnicki Nis today (4th strongest team) and beat them 98-4. https://www.facebook.com/bslrugbyleague A change of format is definitely needed.
  12. Wow, super off-topic indeed! I say this with 90% certainty: 5 teams: Red Star, Partizan, Dorcol Tigers, Radnicki Nis, Novi (New) Belgrade. The latter two are well off the pace of the other three. Radnicki Nis seem to be in a rebuilding phase, where as New Belgrade, despite being around for nearly a decade, seem to always be a weak team, I don't know why that is. Perhaps the big 3 attract all the good players and they get the left-overs. Then there seem to be a few 'half-teams' lingering, that tend to play matches here and there. Car Dusan, Krusevac, Novi Pazova, Leskovac, are some names that come to mind. Not sure what the story is there or what their future plans are. Then I believe the "big 3" have U16 and U18 teams as well. Nis have only U18 if I am not mistaken.
  13. Ok, we've gone waaaay off topic, but I just want to say, regarding Lebanon vs France, I clearly remember watching this match. I was disappointed they did not have an English referee for this match. Gerard Sutton, was very comfortable and on a nickname basis with most of the "Lebanese" (Aussie) players and was very much talking to them as though they were mates. Whereas with the French, he was very "short" with them, who were already struggling with him a bit given the language barrier. It was a close game and I feel an English ref would have definitely been a more neutral option in this case. France are going slow and steady and they will get better over time. I know they are in a tough group with England and Samoa at the World Cup, but I do expect them to put up a hell of a fight.
  14. Yes I think the rift happened in 2017, I think a lot of their players may have moved on since then, unfortunately. Either to union or stopped entirely, which is a real shame. I hope they can get things back on track over there.
  15. Worryingly, the domestic scene in Lebanon has gone very quiet in the last few years (long before the pandemic or the bomb blast). The last time the national team played a match in Lebanon was 2017 and their clubs' social media have also gone quiet too. They had a decent university competition going at one point, I don't know if that is still running.
  16. Sherwood Wolf Hunt? They play in the Challenge Cup too.
  17. Looks like it's a lot closer to Sheffield than it is to Nottingham.
  18. He is born in Sydney according to wikipedia. Regarding an earlier comment about Lebanon's economy, beggars can't be choosers. Any country that embraces Rugby League, is a country that we want on board. Look at PNG, one of the poorest nations on earth yet one of the best at Rugby League!
  19. Absolutely. The reason I mentioned population in the first place was to highlight what a great achievement this will soon be. "As grassroots as it gets" - you nailed it right there. As hard as it will be though, I do believe you guys can succeed and I think the timing is right, as there seems to be a bit of a revival happening now in Scotland. All the best!
  20. Seems strange to compare a place with 120 years of RL history, with one just starting out. Would be better to find an example from outside the heartlands.
  21. Not just eligible (affiliate) but they are still full members, which supposedly requires minimum 8 open age and minimum 4 youth teams. Don't get me started!
  22. No, to enter the qualifiers (and therefore be eligible to play in a WC) you need to be an affiliate member, which requires 4 teams. But it seems to be very loosely enforced. Scotland only just dropped down from full membership recently too, so they are completely safe and no chance if ever being dropped down another level, to observers.
  23. Please do! I know how hard it is to start a club from scratch and literally anyone and everyone that can help out, even in the slightest way, is valuable! Even if you don't end up playing often, or at all, I am sure you can help out in some positive way. Sure, but if 5900 is a total population, then the 'actual' available population (males, 18-35 or thereabouts) then it becomes a lot narrower, only in the hundreds. As mentioned above though, if it is close to some other decent-sized towns then hopefully they can attract players from beyond their own town. I am sure whoever is behind this must have thought of these things, so I'm sure they have some sort of a plan. Best of luck to them, I will keenly follow their progress!
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