What is the future ?

[Death to the Rah Rah's]

Cumbrian Leagues voted to remain in summer last night, which is surprising given the amount of games forfeited this season

[Mr Smeaton]

Spidey I think you're relating to my club regarding the midweek fixture, we were all set to travel but on the previous Saturday our game was called off due to a water!ogged pitch. The management awarded the postponed has a 12-12 draw I have never known this to happen before and at the same time awarded you the points. Am I right in saying you don't have flood!ights if not why was the game arranged for such a time

[Mr Partridge]

6 hours ago, Wilber said:

Does this mean that 3 still go down or is it 2 plus the removal of Blackbrook?

 

[Mr Partridge]

Probably the latter and if so Leigh East could escape the drop to Division Three.Doubt they will promote 4 from Div 3.

[Spidey]

1 hour ago, Mr Smeaton said:

Spidey I think you're relating to my club regarding the midweek fixture, we were all set to travel but on the previous Saturday our game was called off due to a water!ogged pitch. The management awarded the postponed has a 12-12 draw I have never known this to happen before and at the same time awarded you the points. Am I right in saying you don't have flood!ights if not why was the game arranged for such a time

No the league gave you a 12-12 draw for Cobras game and us the points for this game. That was very much the leagues decision.  

The game was originally postponed from June when your players were off to Parklife and we were happy to move to accommodate. Then you ended up in a final and we ran out of weekends before the playoffs. We had previously offered to play the game in August before Wembley but you were unavailable

[Defender1]

9 hours ago, Death to the Rah Rah's said:

Cumbrian Leagues voted to remain in summer last night, which is surprising given the amount of games forfeited this season

Shame that cannot see much change but hope it works for them

[Wilber]

21 hours ago, Spidey said:

Warrington for instance have never stopped having a town Cup, both for first teams and alliance teams, however the interest wasn't really there this year for the first teams

For those who aren't interested or get knocked out straight away it will leave a big gap with games

If that happened for us we'd end up trying to play a load of Friendlies during that time. We'd much rather play league fixtures. I think we played three friendlies on Saturdays this year, plus still had plenty of free weeks.

I know there are issues elsewhere, We lost 4 home games due to walkovers (out of 9) we're just aiming to get into the highest division we can to hopefully avoid this. We lost 3 in September (although one was midweek and delayed from June at Opposition request)

Will any changes be put to a vote of the clubs?

Hi Spidey,

We would create small pools of teams 3/4 per pool and ensure you get a number of round robin games, then a final. these would be played over 7 weeks and can be played any day or night of the week to suit. It doesn't have to be a district cup but they can if they want and I'm happy to have an open discussion with all districts. We are trying to make it more relaxed over the difficult months but with a purpose.

The start to this however would be 15 weeks of continuous rugby with no breaks except Easter? but we play the other bank holidays. We then resume in September to finish the league season and get our play off finals in around now (October first two weeks)

Ultimately the clubs will decide and if its not for them but they cant have their cake and eat it. We need to find a solution for all and not continue to let the holiday period dictate what rugby does take place.

And for the record I'm not fussed when we play but we would suffer the same lack of commitment in December (works parties etc)  and bad weather January if we ever considered going back to the traditional season

[Defender1]

42 minutes ago, Wilber said:

And for the record I'm not fussed when we play but we would suffer the same lack of commitment in December (works parties etc)  and bad weather January if we ever considered going back to the traditional season

As I said before when you consider pre season which will be December Jan Feb with a summer break its more or less Traditional season but starting beginning of the year (YML have 20/20 in March) 

[Marauder]

On ‎03‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 4:29 PM, Death to the Rah Rah's said:

Cumbrian Leagues voted to remain in summer last night, which is surprising given the amount of games forfeited this season

Did they have anyone who put a good case forward for playing in the traditional season or was it a rep from the RFL talking about the advantages of playing in the summer, more players,  bigger crowds, clubhouses full, BBQ in shirt sleeve order ?

[Death to the Rah Rah's]

17 hours ago, Marauder said:

Did they have anyone who put a good case forward for playing in the traditional season or was it a rep from the RFL talking about the advantages of playing in the summer, more players,  bigger crowds, clubhouses full, BBQ in shirt sleeve order ?

Don't know, but I'll ask someone who I know attended the meeting

[Marauder]

4 hours ago, Death to the Rah Rah's said:

Don't know, but I'll ask someone who I know attended the meeting

I know that we (Club) after 8 years or so of playing both seasons realised we had to make a decision to which season we really wanted to play in because our squad wasn't big enough to play all year round, we had two guys do a presentation for both seasons and after a question and answer the players voted in a private ballot on the night (piece of paper with winter/summer on)

 

 

[Historical value]

As much as I protested about the summer experiment! I don't think we can go back now, would the ones who left come back no, don't think so, then the others would probably walk away. The game needs a radical overhaul, as a life long supporter of r/l , and I mean from 5 year old , I would rather watch union. 

It's a much better game now,  as anyone got any ideas, how to change the thinking in the coaches heads. 

[Death to the Rah Rah's]

On 10/22/2017 at 10:21 PM, Marauder said:

Did they have anyone who put a good case forward for playing in the traditional season or was it a rep from the RFL talking about the advantages of playing in the summer, more players,  bigger crowds, clubhouses full, BBQ in shirt sleeve order ?

I was told the arguments came from the clubs for winter and summer, but in the end only 4 clubs voted for winter with the rest opting to remain in summer, so that seems to be the end of that argument. It will be interesting to see if the Cumbria Men's League keeps going now there are no Barrow teams in it, would make more sense to go back to the CARL league with promotion and relegation instead of keeping the Cumbria League for just 6 clubs

[bowes]

On 24/10/2017 at 12:47 PM, Death to the Rah Rah's said:

I was told the arguments came from the clubs for winter and summer, but in the end only 4 clubs voted for winter with the rest opting to remain in summer, so that seems to be the end of that argument. It will be interesting to see if the Cumbria Men's League keeps going now there are no Barrow teams in it, would make more sense to go back to the CARL league with promotion and relegation instead of keeping the Cumbria League for just 6 clubs

Have Walney Central and Ulverston  switched to the NWML?

[Edd Lewis]

The only way to understand why the league's are s diminishing is to talk to the players themselves instead of armchair players who played the game twenty years ago in the 'good old days'.

The idea that moving to winter rugby will bring players back is without merit and somewhat archaic.

I myself currently play for an NCL team and from a personal perspective can attest that the reasons why some teams struggle are;

1. Some teams pay players, some don't. Lads have livelihoods that are affected if they are injured and depending on your job, may not get paid whilst off sick.

2. The quality of refereeing is somewhat questionable which leads to increased frustrations for players and clubs.

3. To play for a national league side is a big commitment for players considering the current playing season (including friendlies) has ran from February to October. Depending on where the NCL club is based, players are out of the house all day on a Saturday leaving their wives, girlfriends, children at home every weekend.

4. The NCL has created a more professional atmosphere throughout the leagues however this has taken the enjoyment away from the game and increased the pressure on players and clubs to perform.

Although summer rugby is not appealing for the armchair brigade, it is for the players as there are less games called off for waterlogged or frozen pitches, less injuries through poor quality pitches and it has created a faster game as you are not traipsing through mud just to attempt a tackle.

it is evident that a number of good amateur players are being 'picked up' either by professional or semi-professional clubs without any financial recourse to the amateur club. What is the point of players signing contracts to be entitled to play for the NCL and then it means nothing if a bigger club poaches that player? Players should be contracted to the NCL for a minimum of 2 years and if during that period a pro / semi pro club requires their service then a fee is paid to the club.

I am not intending to be offensive with the post, I am merely providing you with an insight from a players perspective currently in the latter end of his amateur playing career.

Thanks

[Marauder]

On ‎23‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 11:08 PM, Historical value said:

As much as I protested about the summer experiment! I don't think we can go back now, would the ones who left come back no, don't think so, then the others would probably walk away. The game needs a radical overhaul, as a life long supporter of r/l , and I mean from 5 year old , I would rather watch union. 

It's a much better game now,  as anyone got any ideas, how to change the thinking in the coaches heads. 

It's the same game in the winter as it is in the summer and how do we know the ones who have been disillusioned will not come back, they have at my club and if you want to WATCH union instead of League it tells me a story, you mention a radical overhaul, what are your suggestions ?

[Marauder]

2 hours ago, Edd Lewis said:

The only way to understand why the league's are s diminishing is to talk to the players themselves instead of armchair players who played the game twenty years ago in the 'good old days'.

The idea that moving to winter rugby will bring players back is without merit and somewhat archaic.

I myself currently play for an NCL team and from a personal perspective can attest that the reasons why some teams struggle are;

1. Some teams pay players, some don't. Lads have livelihoods that are affected if they are injured and depending on your job, may not get paid whilst off sick.

2. The quality of refereeing is somewhat questionable which leads to increased frustrations for players and clubs.

3. To play for a national league side is a big commitment for players considering the current playing season (including friendlies) has ran from February to October. Depending on where the NCL club is based, players are out of the house all day on a Saturday leaving their wives, girlfriends, children at home every weekend.

4. The NCL has created a more professional atmosphere throughout the leagues however this has taken the enjoyment away from the game and increased the pressure on players and clubs to perform.

Although summer rugby is not appealing for the armchair brigade, it is for the players as there are less games called off for waterlogged or frozen pitches, less injuries through poor quality pitches and it has created a faster game as you are not traipsing through mud just to attempt a tackle.

it is evident that a number of good amateur players are being 'picked up' either by professional or semi-professional clubs without any financial recourse to the amateur club. What is the point of players signing contracts to be entitled to play for the NCL and then it means nothing if a bigger club poaches that player? Players should be contracted to the NCL for a minimum of 2 years and if during that period a pro / semi pro club requires their service then a fee is paid to the club.

I am not intending to be offensive with the post, I am merely providing you with an insight from a players perspective currently in the latter end of his amateur playing career.

Thanks

1, 2, 3, and 4 where all present 5 years ago so that can't really be the reason why there is a player drain, wasn't games called of at the beginning of the season and I do believe the same happen in the last two weeks for a waterlogged pitch (the difference is you have them in the summer at either end of the season instead of around Christmas/new year period) the players being picked up by the semi-pro teams have always been picked up, but I reckon it didn't matter when the amateur game was in the winter (We've just got back a player from Hunslet) and to be truthful the last two winters have been very mild with the worse weather being at the same time as the NCL has been kicking off again.

[Wilber]

On ‎26‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 12:13 PM, bowes said:

Have Walney Central and Ulverston  switched to the NWML?

Yes they have Bowes

[Death to the Rah Rah's]

I recall one the the major arguments when the CARL league trialed the switch to summer was that youngsters coming into the game had only ever played junior rugby in summer, so playing open age in winter would be alien to them with the result being a huge drop off with these youngsters turning their backs on the game as they are likely seen as being too soft to handle a bit of wind and rain!

What I have observed is that as the traditional winter players have gradually retired from playing, it is these youngsters who have only ever played in summer, who are turning their backs on team sports, which is why we are seeing a gradual drop in participation numbers throughout the game.

So if it is a generation/social problem rather than a seasonal one, then how do you even begin to tackle it to try and rebuild the game from the bottom up? 

[bowes]

44 minutes ago, Wilber said:

Yes they have Bowes

Guessing there'll just be one big Cumberland League next season then 

[Spidey]

5 hours ago, Wilber said:

Yes they have Bowes

Where will they enter the league? ie What division?

[Marauder]

4 hours ago, Death to the Rah Rah's said:

I recall one the the major arguments when the CARL league trialed the switch to summer was that youngsters coming into the game had only ever played junior rugby in summer, so playing open age in winter would be alien to them with the result being a huge drop off with these youngsters turning their backs on the game as they are likely seen as being too soft to handle a bit of wind and rain!

What I have observed is that as the traditional winter players have gradually retired from playing, it is these youngsters who have only ever played in summer, who are turning their backs on team sports, which is why we are seeing a gradual drop in participation numbers throughout the game.

So if it is a generation/social problem rather than a seasonal one, then how do you even begin to tackle it to try and rebuild the game from the bottom up? 

The problem since the RFL have hand their hands on the amateur game is they only try to build the game from top to bottom, I believe they're hoping that the winter drum bangers will die and then the only people who are left have only played in the summer

[Spidey]

Just now, Marauder said:

The problem since the RFL have hand their hands on the amateur game is they only try to build the game from top to bottom, I believe they're hoping that the winter drum bangers will die and then the only people who are left have only played in the summer

There’s few junior players left that have actually played Winter Rugby

[Wilber]

1 hour ago, Spidey said:

Where will they enter the league? ie What division?

Not sat down with the management yet but we will try to even it out so every division has a traveller. There is a lot of debate to happen as yet but from the two I think Ulverston are the strongest and Walney are just behind on ability.

Our meeting Monday was very positive with some great insight to the players demands. We Will, as suggested, play league games constantly up to July with very few breaks with bank holidays having as many local derby's as possible! then a modified cup comp in July and a Nines comp in August when teams struggle for Numbers come back September and finish the league in October. we are working on structures now and hope to get them out in the next few week's

 

 

[Celtic Rooster]

On ‎10‎/‎27‎/‎2017 at 3:51 PM, bowes said:

Guessing there'll just be one big Cumberland League next season then 

The reason that there has always been a Cumberland league and a Cumbria league is because the Cumberland league don't recognise Barrow teams as being Cumbrian. Barrow was originally in Lancashire.