Newcastle Thunder Community Department set for expansion

[GUBRATS]

7 hours ago, Futtocks said:

Same owners (and home ground) as Newcastle Falcons RUFC.

Good to see , unusual that a union club and owners are willing to invest in developing a rival code 

[Newcastle Thunder]

31 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

Good to see , unusual that a union club and owners are willing to invest in developing a rival code 

That’s because it’s not the rival code 

 

our foundations goals are to grow rugby of both codes, there’s no rivalry up here, both working together to help each other grow.

All being well we hope to launch 3 new community clubs in the next 3 years to take our total of community clubs up to 18 and bring another 200 new players into the game with more then 1,500 registered players 

we are seeing huge interest and demand for new clubs and players wanting to join for this summers community game and as we invest and grow the game we will keep expanding our community department 

[dkw]

As ever I`m jealous of how this club is ran, it does so many things well off the pitch. Good luck to them, they have more of a presence in our area than our 2 semi pro teams have had in years and have some great amateur lads in their set up.

[cookey]

Newcastle Thunder,

as I previously mentioned,congratulations.

However,trying to be constructive,my question is this. Clearly you are doing something correct around Newcastle and obviously the RFL are aware. Why then is your blue print not used elsewhere. Who is responsible for community development at the RFL and why is he apparently failing in his brief elsewhere in the UK? Do you have more resources available in the NE,are clubs in other areas not willing to put in the necessary time and effort?

There must be a reason why you are being successful in the NE but others parts of the country are not following your example. Why is this? Do you bypass the RFL,do you have additional resources,is the individual responsible at the RFL useless,are other clubs not interested?

I'd be interested in your views.

 

[fighting irish]

7 hours ago, Oldbear said:

One thing I have wondered for a while, when clubs bring in veteran Antipodeans is it ever written into contracts that they are required to do a certain number of hours development work in the community? The reason I ask is that a couple of my eldest sons former team mates (yes I know it’s gridiron but there are parallels) landed contracts to play gridiron in Europe, the pay is pretty paltry, the attractiveness is the chance to see a bit of Europe for a couple of years before joining the rest of us in work drudgery, however their contracts require them to spend a set number of hours coaching young players. Now if that is the case with imports to SL then fine, as long as those commitments are honoured, however if all they do is fulfill their role as an on field player then I think we are missing something here. These guys should be getting wheeled out to local amateur clubs, speaking at fundraisers and building links with the community.

Traditionally, the clubs have used this ''tactic'' to pay players extra money while not showing the cash on the salary cap calculation.

Then, because the clubs are not really committed to development work, nothing is done to define the job description and set a timetable for his working week and very very quickly the players efforts, decay to nothing.

The player gets more money, the salary cap is cheated (finagled) and the development of the game (suffers) pays the price.

[Oldbear]

8 hours ago, fighting irish said:

Traditionally, the clubs have used this ''tactic'' to pay players extra money while not showing the cash on the salary cap calculation.

Then, because the clubs are not really committed to development work, nothing is done to define the job description and set a timetable for his working week and very very quickly the players efforts, decay to nothing.

The player gets more money, the salary cap is cheated (finagled) and the development of the game (suffers) pays the price.

So in other words, never audited. Sad to hear, if these guys are being brought over with a wealth of experience then why not get everything we can out of them, guess a lot falls down to the willingness of the clubs to do development work, rather than sit back and wait for someone else to do it for them.

[fighting irish]

1 hour ago, Oldbear said:

So in other words, never audited. Sad to hear, if these guys are being brought over with a wealth of experience then why not get everything we can out of them, guess a lot falls down to the willingness of the clubs to do development work, rather than sit back and wait for someone else to do it for them.

It's the same story across the board. Development is what's known as an SEP.

Someone Else's Problem.

''Don't look at me, it's not my problem, why should I do it? Blah, blah, blah......'' I could cry.

I just watched a TED talk (on You tube) called ''The Dirty Indian''. The talk was given by an Indian national in a mask and the theme was the general state of the streets in major Indian cities which are routinely strewn with rubbish (piled high) and he was looking for explanations as to why it happened and what could be done about it.

Turns out everyone saw it as someone else's job to pick it up. Lot's of people spent their time writing to the local authorities to complain but they (the local authorities) never seemed able to get to it, so on it went.

He started a campaign where he just asked local people, to pick it up themselves. What? Yes I urge you to go and watch it?

They cleaned up huge swathes of the city (I think it was Bangalore) with this kind of voluntary effort. Once people who cared, realised it was easier to do it themselves than to nag the (hopeless) local authority to do it. They got stuck in. 

A truly inspirational story and a great lesson to all lovers of Rugby League. 

[GUBRATS]

13 hours ago, Newcastle Thunder said:

That’s because it’s not the rival code 

 

our foundations goals are to grow rugby of both codes, there’s no rivalry up here, both working together to help each other grow.

All being well we hope to launch 3 new community clubs in the next 3 years to take our total of community clubs up to 18 and bring another 200 new players into the game with more then 1,500 registered players 

we are seeing huge interest and demand for new clubs and players wanting to join for this summers community game and as we invest and grow the game we will keep expanding our community department 

Good to hear it isn't seen as that , but in many other area's it is 

Also great to see the expansion in the community game , most if not all clubs do do local work , but as in many cases finances as well as the commitment to ' do it right ' aren't as good as they should be 

[steve oates]

Just for info given the questions above, the owner of both Newcastle rugby clubs is a Jordanian property developer who is very wealthy. He probably likes Rugby full stop. He is called Semore Kurdi.

Newcastle RU struggled and he rescued them, but they still seem to struggle and they are of course very many miles away from pro-RU land. I don't know exactly Mr. Kurdi's ambitions but maybe running two clubs in the one stadia has a financial advantage?

Maybe switching from Union to League only at some point may suit Mr. Kurdi hence he's doing all the junior development etc. I do hope this is the case!!

 

 

 

[fighting irish]

On 24/02/2021 at 20:49, GUBRATS said:

Good to hear it isn't seen as that , but in many other area's it is 

Also great to see the expansion in the community game , most if not all clubs do do local work , but as in many cases finances as well as the commitment to ' do it right ' aren't as good as they should be 

Do you think, if they had some guidance on how to 'do it right' and as a result, get it right first time, they might be more enthusiastic?

[The Future is League]

On 24/02/2021 at 17:50, GUBRATS said:

Good to see , unusual that a union club and owners are willing to invest in developing a rival code 

Perhaps a case of that some being playing union would be better at playing Rugby League and perhaps some people playing Rugby League would be better playing union. Just saying

[GUBRATS]

2 hours ago, fighting irish said:

Do you think, if they had some guidance on how to 'do it right' and as a result, get it right first time, they might be more enthusiastic?

Do you think if they had more money they might do it right all the time ?

[GUBRATS]

59 minutes ago, The Future is League said:

Perhaps a case of that some being playing union would be better at playing Rugby League and perhaps some people playing Rugby League would be better playing union. Just saying

Quite possibly 

[Damien]

Newcastle seem to have their priorities right and spend the money in the right places. I'm not sure if the same can be said for a lot of other clubs.

[Davo5]

3 hours ago, steve oates said:

Just for info given the questions above, the owner of both Newcastle rugby clubs is a Jordanian property developer who is very wealthy. He probably likes Rugby full stop. He is called Semore Kurdi.

Newcastle RU struggled and he rescued them, but they still seem to struggle and they are of course very many miles away from pro-RU land. I don't know exactly Mr. Kurdi's ambitions but maybe running two clubs in the one stadia has a financial advantage?

Maybe switching from Union to League only at some point may suit Mr. Kurdi hence he's doing all the junior development etc. I do hope this is the case!!

 

 

 

Kurdi won’t be walking away from Union,he bought back the ground,invested in players and his money totally revamped the Falcons academy setup,its great he’s also invested in the RL side but it will be relatively small change compared to the money he’s put into the Falcons.

[GUBRATS]

5 minutes ago, Damien said:

Newcastle seem to have their priorities right and spend the money in the right places. I'm not sure if the same can be said for a lot of other clubs.

You mean they are looking long term which is good , and they aren't doing a ' Toronto ' , I suppose lots of existing clubs already have the community around them ( although all could and should do more ) but they also have competition for players and fans who want to watch RL or try to play the sport at the highest level 

So it isn't as simple as you make out , let's all just congratulate what Newcastle are doing , and thank their owner for his enthusiasm and money without always judging and criticising other clubs in different situations 

So

 

[Cumbrian Mackem]

If only the fantastic work done by the Newcastle thunder in the north east region could be replicated for in areas like the East Midlands with the Nottingham outlaws and West Midlands with the Coventry bears.

[GUBRATS]

7 minutes ago, Cumbrian Mackem said:

If only the fantastic work done by the Newcastle thunder in the north east region could be replicated for in areas like the East Midlands with the Nottingham outlaws and West Midlands with the Coventry bears.

If ? 

Find them a billionaire to buy a stadium and poor money into them , and all the other good stuff they are doing , simples

[Damien]

12 minutes ago, Cumbrian Mackem said:

If only the fantastic work done by the Newcastle thunder in the north east region could be replicated for in areas like the East Midlands with the Nottingham outlaws and West Midlands with the Coventry bears.

Indeed. The usual people find it hard to congratulate other clubs and would rather look for excuses as to why other clubs cant do the same.

[Damien]

49 minutes ago, Davo5 said:

Kurdi won’t be walking away from Union,he bought back the ground,invested in players and his money totally revamped the Falcons academy setup,its great he’s also invested in the RL side but it will be relatively small change compared to the money he’s put into the Falcons.

Yes, it was Union that he first bought into. The thing is it is much easier to make it to the top in RL for far less outlay so who knows if his priorities change down the line.

[Futtocks]

The club's chairman is Mick Hogan, who has RL background. Here's a brief bio: https://www.sportsmanagementworldwide.com/users/mick-hogan

[Wanderer]

1 hour ago, Davo5 said:

Kurdi won’t be walking away from Union,he bought back the ground,invested in players and his money totally revamped the Falcons academy setup,its great he’s also invested in the RL side but it will be relatively small change compared to the money he’s put into the Falcons.

sounds like someone who isn't hung up on the league / union dichotomoy, someone who enjoys his rugby and can see a benefit from both codes utilising the facility. This is the future, good to see, hope they keep it up!

[fighting irish]

2 hours ago, GUBRATS said:

Do you think if they had more money they might do it right all the time ?

money money money. My point is, its not about the money. You could give them loads of money and they'd waste it all by trying and failing to ''reinvent the wheel'' instead of modelling what's been done in areas (like Newcastle) where they invented the wheel 30 years ago and have spent the last 30 years making it rounder. 

 

[GUBRATS]

2 hours ago, Damien said:

Indeed. The usual people find it hard to congratulate other clubs and would rather look for excuses as to why other clubs cant do the same.

I assume you mean me Damien ? 

But I have congratulated them 

And indeed , the usual suspects also find it hard to congratulate without comparing to other clubs as well , which I've just suggested above isn't really fair 

[GUBRATS]

33 minutes ago, fighting irish said:

money money money. My point is, its not about the money. You could give them loads of money and they'd waste it all by trying and failing to ''reinvent the wheel'' instead of modelling what's been done in areas (like Newcastle) where they invented the wheel 30 years ago and have spent the last 30 years making it rounder. 

 

So if Newcastle didn't have any money, would they be employing CO's setting up clubs and school tournaments ? 

Who would be doing it ?