Life as a semi pro

[goldcoaster]

I’m curious as to how things work in semi-pro Rugby League (I.e. Championship/ League One). 
 

for example, how often would teams train? Do they train at night or day?

Do players hold down a FT job outside of Rugby? Does the coach?
 

how much roughly would an average semi-pro player earn a year?

 

sorry if these questions seem silly, I’m just genuinely curious what it’s like to play amd coach in the semi-pro divisions

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

I think traditionally they have full time jobs, train 2 evenings in the week, then play at the weekend.

[Moscow01]

Pre-covid teams in the Championship and League 1 would be training two or three nights a week. Usually two hour sessions, a mix of gym and on-field training. 
 

Wages wise, it depends enormously. Top end championship clubs can afford to pay good money, bottom end League 1 lads might only be on £100 a game or so. There’s a few players at the top end of the Championship who will be earning enough through rugby league to not need a second job, but the vast majority of players in the Championship and League 1 will need a job to get by. 

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

I’d be interested in how the Championship and League One compares to the Queensland Cup and New South Wales Cup in terms of number of fully professional players and number of part time semi professional players and wages they can earn.

[The Frying Scotsman]

29 minutes ago, Sir Kevin Sinfield said:

I think traditionally they have full time jobs, train 2 evenings in the week, then play at the weekend.

2 trainings a week on Tier2  really is nothing isn't it? A half decent amateur club will have that. It kind of shows how 'fragile' the game is below SuperLeague. 

I am sure there are ambitious Championship teams who do more than that, but if 2 trainings a week is the norm, you do have to question the ability of lower league clubs to feed the professional game.

[Cumbrian Fanatic]

4 minutes ago, The Frying Scotsman said:

2 trainings a week on Tier2  really is nothing isn't it? A half decent amateur club will have that. It kind of shows how 'fragile' the game is below SuperLeague. 

I am sure there are ambitious Championship teams who do more than that, but if 2 trainings a week is the norm, you do have to question the ability of lower league clubs to feed the professional game.

You'll most likely find that the 2/3 evenings/week are squad training sessions and are in addition to personal fitness training programmes either in the gym or general fitness training. Its not uncommon for decent amateur players to be training 4/5 times when you include the gym - I know of several who will got to the gym after work then go squad training with their club after finishing in the gym, most semi-pro players I know will train even harder.

[Eddie]

13 minutes ago, The Frying Scotsman said:

2 trainings a week on Tier2  really is nothing isn't it? A half decent amateur club will have that. It kind of shows how 'fragile' the game is below SuperLeague. 

I am sure there are ambitious Championship teams who do more than that, but if 2 trainings a week is the norm, you do have to question the ability of lower league clubs to feed the professional game.

You do realise they’re part time don’t you?

[Tommygilf]

There's another level between Semi-Pro and Fully professional, the so called "hybrid" teams with a core of Full Timers and the rest part timers - these tend to be bigger clubs using the part time players to suppliment the squad in a similar way to how academy players suppliment the Super League squads. Notably Bradford have ran this model and it is likely the way championship clubs who have former Super League players in their squads will be running.

Anecdotally a few players will be on part time playing contracts with the club but will be employed by the club, or a club owner/sponsor, in another capacity. I'd assume that is more prevalent for overseas players too.

[Robin Evans]

24 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

There's another level between Semi-Pro and Fully professional, the so called "hybrid" teams with a core of Full Timers and the rest part timers - these tend to be bigger clubs using the part time players to suppliment the squad in a similar way to how academy players suppliment the Super League squads. Notably Bradford have ran this model and it is likely the way championship clubs who have former Super League players in their squads will be running.

Anecdotally a few players will be on part time playing contracts with the club but will be employed by the club, or a club owner/sponsor, in another capacity. I'd assume that is more prevalent for overseas players too.

As is the case with Fev.

I remember when Daryl was gaffer he had training three times a week. Additional players would be expected to attend their gym and conditioning session additionally to that.

[The Frying Scotsman]

31 minutes ago, Cumbrian Fanatic said:

You'll most likely find that the 2/3 evenings/week are squad training sessions and are in addition to personal fitness training programmes either in the gym or general fitness training. Its not uncommon for decent amateur players to be training 4/5 times when you include the gym - I know of several who will got to the gym after work then go squad training with their club after finishing in the gym, most semi-pro players I know will train even harder.

Thanks. That's certainly a lot closer to what I would have expected.

It was just interesting that Sir Kev obviously knows of instances where the old classic 'Tue/Thur/game Sat' model is alive and well!

[The Frying Scotsman]

30 minutes ago, Eddie said:

You do realise they’re part time don’t you?

Of course.

But I know of amateur teams in other sports who do more than that.

[Eddie]

6 minutes ago, The Frying Scotsman said:

Of course.

But I know of amateur teams in other sports who do more than that.

The players must have a lot of spare time on their hands then.

[Tommygilf]

There's a huge range in what semi-pro means.

For some players its £30-60 a week, plus £x bonus win pay. No play, no pay - essentially a bonus payment for continuing a hobby at a higher level as opposed to doing the same in the NCL for nothing. By no means a serious second job.

For some its 4 or even the lower end of 5 figures p.a., with obviously more seriousness attached to that which should be reflected in the closeness to full time training alongside that wage.

Both the above are "semi pro".

[Eddie]

1 minute ago, Tommygilf said:

There's a huge range in what semi-pro means.

For some players its £30-60 a week, plus £x bonus win pay. No play, no pay - essentially a bonus payment for continuing a hobby at a higher level as opposed to doing the same in the NCL for nothing. By no means a serious second job.

For some its 4 or even the lower end of 5 figures p.a., with obviously more seriousness attached to that which should be reflected in the closeness to full time training alongside that wage.

Both the above are "semi pro".

I assumed the top NCL clubs would pay their players a few quid, in the same way that sides in say tier 9 of football do. For example in the Eastern Counties League, which is no bigger than the NCL, players frequently earn a ton or more a game. Are they completely amateur in the NCL then? 

[Tommygilf]

Just now, Eddie said:

I assumed the top NCL clubs would pay their players a few quid, in the same way that sides in say tier 9 of football do. For example in the Eastern Counties League, which is no bigger than the NCL, players frequently earn a ton or more a game. Are they completely amateur in the NCL then? 

NCL is strictly amateur iirc. One of the peculiarities of RL is that it was more strict on amateurs being amateur than RU ever was

[Hela Wigmen]

I know amateur lads that have played NCL Premier that would go to the gym 4/5 times a week, do a days work and then go back to the gym, train etc in the evening and play at weekends. The levels of professionalism in the top end of the NCL from what I’ve seen both at games and away from the game is/was very high. 

[Tommygilf]

2 minutes ago, Hela Wigmen said:

I know amateur lads that have played NCL Premier that would go to the gym 4/5 times a week, do a days work and then go back to the gym, train etc in the evening and play at weekends. The levels of professionalism in the top end of the NCL from what I’ve seen both at games and away from the game is/was very high. 

The growth of gyms and gym culture in the past 20 or so years can't be underestimated in that too. It is entirely possible for an NCL player to be physically not very far off a super league player through gym training.

[Tommygilf]

45 minutes ago, Robin Evans said:

As is the case with Fev.

I remember when Daryl was gaffer he had training three times a week. Additional players would be expected to attend their gym and conditioning session additionally to that.

I knew there was another good example but my mind went blank!

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

47 minutes ago, The Frying Scotsman said:

Thanks. That's certainly a lot closer to what I would have expected.

It was just interesting that Sir Kev obviously knows of instances where the old classic 'Tue/Thur/game Sat' model is alive and well!

As you say it’s the old classic, that’s why I said traditionally that’s what happened. I don’t know the details of any Championship or League One clubs current training patterns.

[Hela Wigmen]

1 minute ago, Tommygilf said:

The growth of gyms and gym culture in the past 20 or so years can't be underestimated in that too. It is entirely possible for an NCL player to be physically not very far off a super league player through gym training.

Education has grown as a result too and I’ve known NCL players to be very well educated in this area despite it not being their profession. 

[plug]

3 hours ago, Robin Evans said:

As is the case with Fev.

I remember when Daryl was gaffer he had training three times a week. Additional players would be expected to attend their gym and conditioning session additionally to that.

Also when Daryl was in charge i was told he had the players in early doors sometimes before they did there day job 

[GUBRATS]

15 years ago Leigh were training 4 nights a week and Saturday morning as a part time club , at that time with a turnover of close to a million pound per year without any central funding 

[paulwalker71]

7 hours ago, Moscow01 said:

There’s a few players at the top end of the Championship who will be earning enough through rugby league to not need a second job, but the vast majority of players in the Championship and League 1 will need a job to get by. 

There are also quite a few Championship players who are good enough to earn a full-time contract , but choose not to do so. Either because they have a good career that they don 't want to risk for what might be a short career, or because they would actually have to take a pay cut to play full-time

There are some very talented players who are part-time. I realised this with the Bulls when we first went into the Championship. We had a full-time squad, but a lot of those players were actually inferior to many of the other (part time) Championship. In some cases it seemed like we signed up anyone who would play full-time! That's how the 'hybrid' model came about (as well as the obvious financial savings)

[Gerrumonside ref]

1 hour ago, GUBRATS said:

15 years ago Leigh were training 4 nights a week and Saturday morning as a part time club , at that time with a turnover of close to a million pound per year without any central funding 

What profits were made though?

[Mr Plow]

Always wondered what it’s like for part time players moving to full time and vis versa. Must be hard going from FT to PT