BARLA Southern Cup

[Marauder]

Welcome to the launch of the BARLA MJM Sport Kappa Cup, we hope this will be the prestige knockout Rugby League Tournament for the South.

THE IDEA:

We want this to be the biggest knockout cup competition, Southern Rugby League has seen. Too often, we see, leagues having League /Cup double headers, taking away the magic of Cup competition. We want teams to have the buzz of a good cup run each year, leading to a Cup Final at a neutral ground, fighting for the glorious cup itsel...f that is proudly presented by MJM Sports and Kappa

This tournament is to work alongside your season RFL fixtures and is not there to take its place. The league fixtures will take priority.

This also gives a great advert for potential sponsors to your club, and advertising and promotion of Rugby League in your area.

The first tournament will begin in late April 2019.

THE WORKINGS OF THE TOURNAMENT:

The draw will take place with teams seeing who they will play up to the Semi Finals, it will be down to the teams to arrange the dates of these games avoiding any league fixture clashes. The draw will be made Early February each year, with the Semi Finals being held at the end of August and the Final, the first weekend of September, games can be played mid week if both clubs agree.

The Semi Final draw will be made mid August each year.

THE COST:

The cost will be £25 for each team that enters that year, this will cover costs for the Final. Travel and referee fees are to be covered by the clubs as per league fixtures.

Payment will be due with the application entry.

THE APPLICATION:

Each team will apply to enter the competition, and applications can be requested by private messaging on here and sign the rules and regulations of the tournament.

INSURANCE:

All clubs will have their own yearly insurance and players must be registered with the Southern BARLA Cup Competition, before their first fixture.

Thank you for supporting the growth and expansion of Rugby League in the South and remember, to make this work, it needs you, your club and the right positive attitude.

The Southern BARLA Cup is to bring the excitement and fun back in amateur knockout Rugby League.

[Marauder]

The request to be made on the BARLA Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/MJM-Sport-Kappa-Cup-733626617025069/

 

[bowes]

That’s a good idea

[DoubleD]

great initiative

[kev p]

Sounds a bit like a relaunch of the harry jepson trophy, but still a good idea

[bowes]

42 minutes ago, kev p said:

Sounds a bit like a relaunch of the harry jepson trophy, but still a good idea

Sort of, though it’s more like the BARLA Southern Counties Cup that predated the HJ Trophy

[bbfaz]

I think I discussed my issues with this cup on Facebook.

[bowes]

Devon Sharks are the driving force behind this. They’re short of fixtures because the South West League threw a tantrum and banned them

[bbfaz]

6 hours ago, Saint 1 said:

Would be interested to see those issues.

I think it seems like a great idea, though unfortunately I doubt the dates will work with Outlaws being in Yorkshire Premier. 

I like the concept, I can't see how it'll fit into the season.  Some clubs in the West of England have barely begun pre-season training by the end of April, even the places that have begun training can barely field a team.  There's a reason why some regions have dumped the cup altogether or play league/cup double headers, it's because you can't practically fit all the games in between the first week of May and the middle of August.

Looking at this season, most regions have 16 weekends, two of which are bank holiday weekends, to generally play a 10 game season plus two rounds of playoffs.  That's basically 12 games in 14 weekends because people can't play bank holidays.  London added a gameweek before the Mayday bank holiday for this reason.  School holidays, music festivals and just sitting in the park reading a book or going out into the countryside for a drive; these things hold appeal too.

This proposal is to play the preliminary rounds during that 12 games-in-14-weekends season (or perhaps the weekend before that) and then play the semi-finals and finals the week after the season ends, when probably 60-90% (depending on the club) of your bog-standard suburban/provincial players are suddenly devoted to Rugby Union. Probably by that point, you'll be down to the handful of non-heartland clubs whose players are League-first so it won't matter I guess.

I hate being the "it'll never work" guy, I really do.  If we were to get into my ideal March-to-October minus the school holidays season, I'd lay out the welcome mat and make plans for trips to Cwmbran or Redruth or Boston.  This works if you're in a merit league or you don't have 10 league fixtures but, perhaps because or maybe even despite playing midweek, I can't see there being space for it.

If you regionalise it, maybe you create space for it midweek on off-weeks and so forth.   Perhaps one ground becomes the "cup ground" because they have lights, I don't know.  However, as I see it, there are a number of obstacles.

[kev p]

Perhaps the southern cup should have dates set for rounds, it’s a year in advance so regional leagues could work round it. Teams could use alternative dates if mutually agreed, otherwise round dates would be the default. Cup unlikely to have more than 32 teams, so only a few rounds to fit in. Good idea though

[Janner]

What happened to this?

[bbfaz]

Not enough interest.