Welcome to the Coventry Bears fans forum on TotalRL.com

[John Drake]

Welcome to the Coventry Bears fans forum on TotalRL.com.

 

You can discuss anything to do with the new Kingstone Press League 1 club here.

[fighting irish]

Hello Coventry!

I'm very eager to hear news of the clubs progress, plans and ideas for sustained development and growth in new areas? 

[Bearman]

19 hours ago, fighting irish said:

Hello Coventry!

I'm very eager to hear news of the clubs progress, plans and ideas for sustained development and growth in new areas? 

www.coventrybears.com, facebook and Twitter are the best places to find out what's happening with the Bears.

 

[fighting irish]

cheers Bearman, what's your take on it? 

[Bearman]

Our goals have always been for steady growth.

We worked our way from being one of the top sides in the RLC to the pro ranks via a spell in the NCL.

We have a budget that cannot be breached. We have a policy of trying to play locally based players. Players from further away have to commit to travel to training. It is heartening to know that such is the atmosphere in the club that players do want to play for us. That has to be down to the the coach and his staff.

We have one of the longest serving coaching teams in the pro ranks. There is a very good reason for that its simply because we have never expected miracles from a small budget. 

I do not know of one ex player that is not still a fan of the club. They all speak highly of us and that in turn has persuaded quite a few players to give us a try.

We work very closely with the local universities and have a scholarship programme that has paid dividends ( it actually hurts us when we have had players on student international duties..9 Last year.) But, we encourage them to go. As I say it hurt us last year and that is why we have had a change of policy and have decided to use DR when we have a shortfall of players. It is heartening to know that our coach is held in high regard by his peers and they are keen to lend us players.

We believe that as long as we are here an opportunity will come to grow the game in Coventry and the Midlands. There will be highs and lows.  In the words of Kipling "We will meet with triumph and disaster and treat those twin imposters just the same".

It will be bumpy. Last season we had one of the lowest points in the club's history with a thumping at Keighley. Less than 100 days later we turned that around by beating them. Then we beat Hunslet another team that had wallopped us. The days like that and like yesterday's win over pre season favourites Newcastle ( a club with a playing budget 7 times higher than ours) show us that its about playing the long game. Rome wasn't built in a day.

Edited February 25, 2019 by Bearman