north east

[superten]

With Newcastle getting extra world cup games and Thunder doing ok in league one is it time to try and add a second pro team to the area ? Could Gateshead start another team from the international stadium ? Gateshead Gladiators . The magic weekend seemed to be popular with super league fans . Be great to have a north east derby . May be a club that's struggling in Championship or league one with poor stadia or no stadia at all could look at relocating there . Maybe the RFL could add incentives like they did with the merges of Sheffield - Huddersfield and Gateshead - Hull .  

[Oliver Clothesoff]

Is it not better to have one strong club representing the Newcastle area as a whole than relocating a club and hoping/expecting fans to appear from nowhere?

[Wellsy4HullFC]

1 minute ago, superten said:

With Newcastle getting extra world cup games and Thunder doing ok in league one is it time to try and add a second pro team to the area ? Could Gateshead start another team from the international stadium ? Gateshead Gladiators . The magic weekend seemed to be popular with super league fans . Be great to have a north east derby . May be a club that's struggling in Championship or league one with poor stadia or no stadia at all could look at relocating there . Maybe the RFL could add incentives like they did with the merges of Sheffield - Huddersfield and Gateshead - Hull .  

Gateshead would kill Newcastle's momentum. They're too close. If they were to start another club, it would need to be a fair distance from Newcastle so it has its own support base. Somewhere like Middlesbrough would be interesting, seeing as they have a WC game. Don't know much about areas of strength in the NE outside of Newcastle/Gateshead area though.

[superten]

3 minutes ago, Oliver Clothesoff said:

Is it not better to have one strong club representing the Newcastle area as a whole than relocating a club and hoping/expecting fans to appear from nowhere?

local rivalry can spur teams on and add interest in the area .

[iffleyox]

10 minutes ago, superten said:

local rivalry can spur teams on and add interest in the area .

can being the operative word - and only if they're of roughly the same standard.

[Oliver Clothesoff]

21 minutes ago, superten said:

local rivalry can spur teams on and add interest in the area .

Can but you need teams to be on a similar level and have good support, forcing a club from Lancashire or Yorkshire to move there isn’t going to offer good support. 

[Davo5]

Thunder are still in league 1 and are still building,let's not get carried away and start diluting resources up there.

[Robthegasman]

As a Swinton Lions fan would say Yes to another club in the North East at some stage but not in my opinion in Newcastle.This is to let Newcastle Thunder carry on with their growth and let them have the freedom of Newcastle and Northumberland.

 I would think that one day in the near future having a club in say Middlesbrough/Teeside most definitely and probably using the name Teeside in the title.

[Hopping Mad]

4 minutes ago, Robthegasman said:

I would think that one day in the near future having a club in say Middlesbrough/Teeside most definitely and probably using the name Teeside in the title.

The locals would be more in favour of using Teesside...

[Robthegasman]

5 minutes ago, Hopping Mad said:

The locals would be more in favour of using Teesside...

Firstly thanks for correcting my spelling of Teesside, I wasn’t sure if one S or not.

Whilst I am not from there I would agree that it would be more popular if the name of any rugby league club was Teesside.

[Leyther_Matt]

Sunderland would seem the obvious answer to me if you're looking to create a local rival, although a suitable ground might be an issue.

[Hopping Mad]

1 hour ago, Robthegasman said:

Firstly thanks for correcting my spelling of Teesside, I wasn’t sure if one S or not.

Whilst I am not from there I would agree that it would be more popular if the name of any rugby league club was Teesside.

Yes, you probably remember the Teesside Steelers amateur club, based at Billingham RUFC. In the mid-70s, Middlesbrough's speedway team went through a phase of being called Teesside Teessiders - probably a bit much!

Though completely dominated by Middlesbrough FC, Teesside's sporting landscape manages to sustain a few rugby union clubs, such as Acklam, Billingham, Middlesbrough and Stockton.

Nearest amateur rugby league activity to Teesside would be Hartlepool and Yarm, I think.

[Wellsy4HullFC]

Whatever happened to the Teesside Steelers?

[HarrogateKnights]

Would a Scotland based team be on the cards, Edinburgh Eagles are developing. Is only around 90 mins from Newcastle, has an international airport and could be turned into a Scotland team similar to West Wales, although not in direct competition area wise with Newcastle still on the East coast mainline. A good weekend destination and a way to grow the Scottish players

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

A Sunderland based team could potentially work, other than the football side they have no other professional sports side. They have a good rivalry with Newcastle which would make a great derby.

[Newcastle Thunder]

Things need to be done organically 

When the owner took over the club he give us a task to grow our local community game and our academy 

Our main focus has been on growing our community game which includes the Teesside area and all the way down to Catterick, all the way up to Alnwick in Northumberland. 

Yarm Wolves was created 2 years ago on the back of our school delivery and it now has 120 players over u9,10,12,14 & 16’s 

We are about to launch a brand new community club in the west end of Newcastle in October 

In 5 years we have grown the community game from 869 players across 31 teams at 10 clubs, to 1346 players across 43 teams at 13 clubs, thats a 35% increase.

By the time the World Cup comes around we want to have added an additional team at each club, and create another new club in Teesside along with developing the woman’s and girls game, with a target of over 1,600 players in the community game.

Everything we do has to fit in with our North East Development plan for growth, if it doesn’t then we don’t do it. 

From an academy point of view we are now getting players selected at international level on a yearly basis, with two of our players in tomorrow’s international youth game, Jake Anderson for England and Oscar Fisher for wales, we now have a full pathway from U14 development programmes, U16 Scholarship, U18 Academy and Reserve grade all to support our first team. And for the first team we are not only focusing on the next generation of players, we are taking a student on our academy to solely be on a match official pathway. 

Keep a look out for a big bit of news that we will releasing in October about our legacy and community plans along with our ambitions as a club and where we want to get it.

But to answer the original posts question, No. Another club in the north east would be pointless, because we are the club for the whole of the region

[Damien]

16 minutes ago, Newcastle Thunder said:

Things need to be done organically 

When the owner took over the club he give us a task to grow our local community game and our academy 

Our main focus has been on growing our community game which includes the Teesside area and all the way down to Catterick, all the way up to Alnwick in Northumberland. 

Yarm Wolves was created 2 years ago on the back of our school delivery and it now has 120 players over u9,10,12,14 & 16’s 

We are about to launch a brand new community club in the west end of Newcastle in October 

In 5 years we have grown the community game from 869 players across 31 teams at 10 clubs, to 1346 players across 43 teams at 13 clubs, thats a 35% increase.

By the time the World Cup comes around we want to have added an additional team at each club, and create another new club in Teesside along with developing the woman’s and girls game, with a target of over 1,600 players in the community game.

Everything we do has to fit in with our North East Development plan for growth, if it doesn’t then we don’t do it. 

From an academy point of view we are now getting players selected at international level on a yearly basis, with two of our players in tomorrow’s international youth game, Jake Anderson for England and Oscar Fisher for wales, we now have a full pathway from U14 development programmes, U16 Scholarship, U18 Academy and Reserve grade all to support our first team. And for the first team we are not only focusing on the next generation of players, we are taking a student on our academy to solely be on a match official pathway. 

Keep a look out for a big bit of news that we will releasing in October about our legacy and community plans along with our ambitions as a club and where we want to get it.

But to answer the original posts question, No. Another club in the north east would be pointless, because we are the club for the whole of the region

Fantastic post and its great to see the growth of the game in the North East. If that could be replicated throughout the country then we would see a tremendous growth in Rugby League.

[fighting irish]

52 minutes ago, Newcastle Thunder said:

Things need to be done organically 

When the owner took over the club he give us a task to grow our local community game and our academy 

Our main focus has been on growing our community game which includes the Teesside area and all the way down to Catterick, all the way up to Alnwick in Northumberland. 

Yarm Wolves was created 2 years ago on the back of our school delivery and it now has 120 players over u9,10,12,14 & 16’s 

We are about to launch a brand new community club in the west end of Newcastle in October 

In 5 years we have grown the community game from 869 players across 31 teams at 10 clubs, to 1346 players across 43 teams at 13 clubs, thats a 35% increase.

By the time the World Cup comes around we want to have added an additional team at each club, and create another new club in Teesside along with developing the woman’s and girls game, with a target of over 1,600 players in the community game.

Everything we do has to fit in with our North East Development plan for growth, if it doesn’t then we don’t do it. 

From an academy point of view we are now getting players selected at international level on a yearly basis, with two of our players in tomorrow’s international youth game, Jake Anderson for England and Oscar Fisher for wales, we now have a full pathway from U14 development programmes, U16 Scholarship, U18 Academy and Reserve grade all to support our first team. And for the first team we are not only focusing on the next generation of players, we are taking a student on our academy to solely be on a match official pathway. 

Keep a look out for a big bit of news that we will releasing in October about our legacy and community plans along with our ambitions as a club and where we want to get it.

But to answer the original posts question, No. Another club in the north east would be pointless, because we are the club for the whole of the region

hallelujah! 

[fighting irish]

I absolutely love this story.

What I can't understand is why your methods/systems are not recorded, modelled and disseminated game wide.

This is the long game, (the only game worth playing in todays UK) the ''real'' development process, where the base of the pyramid is put in place and the pyramid built upwards from there.

In time, the locality will produce everything the (superleague) club at the top of the pyramid needs. Players, officials, teachers, coaches, administrators, fans, sponsors, money, all coming from the North East (just like Sydney).

Three cheers to the new owner for recognising the importance of grass roots growth (to the whole game) and for setting the task from  the off.

I hope that a similar programme is being built in London, Wales, Coventry, everybloodywhere. 

if not, why not?

 

[Newcastle Thunder]

We would be happy to share any of our findings and ideas with anyone that wants to listen, it’s all about sharing best practice.

One of our new initiatives is our SPARC festivals, I believe these could be rolled out game wide an put the focus back on development in enjoyable environments 

please have a watch of the video 

Any feedback is welcome as we are all learning 

 

 

 

 

 

[Manxmanc]

I think all the miserable RL gits should be directed to this thread!

It's certainly put a smile on my face - great initiatives in the NE.

[NERugbyDad]

5 hours ago, Newcastle Thunder said:

We would be happy to share any of our findings and ideas with anyone that wants to listen, it’s all about sharing best practice.

One of our new initiatives is our SPARC festivals, I believe these could be rolled out game wide an put the focus back on development in enjoyable environments 

please have a watch of the video 

Any feedback is welcome as we are all learning 

 

 

My eldest has taken part in this year's SPARC festivals and has thoroughly enjoyed them and they have been great to watch also.  It's great seeing pieces of skill and things like try saving tackles earning teams points that go toward the score. 

Another thing the thunder has done this summer is run their first residential 4 night training camp at Barnard Castle. Obviously this wasn't free but was very reasonably priced and my eldest was lucky enough to go.  From everything that he's told me since this was money well spent and included training sessions with Danny Maguire, Jack Walker and Simon finnigan, and they were given some thunder training kit as well. Needless to say he can't wait to go again the next time they run one. 

Must say I agree with the thunders post as well that for now I think it's best to get rugby league in the north east establish with the thunder leading the way,  then in time once there are really really strong roots it would be good to see a team in Sunderland or Middlesbrough. Also like the idea of a team in Edinburgh after the Edinburgh eagles played in and won the NERL open age division this year. 

[cookey]

Leave them alone and let them get on with it.They talk far more sense than most people on here and at the RFL How on earth is Rimmer still in a job?

[Whippet13]

This is something I struggle to understand about the game in "traditional" areas. People complain that the community game is dying and it's due to a change in culture etc, yet here we have a region where the game is clearly growing and thriving. Kids in the NE are no more or less interested in other activities than in other areas, so what is it that is apparently going so badly wrong in other locations?

[fighting irish]

short term, short cut, get something for nothing, car boot sale entrepreneurialism.