Championship and Championship 1.Where now

[EssexRL]

I don’t see a L1 north/south split as viable. Not enough clubs down here and southern clubs won’t improve. We need to build amateur clubs down here and link them with semi pro teams more but we need a expanded L1. 

[BJW]

21 hours ago, OriginalMrC said:

Yep another myth about L1, the figure is around £50-60k, or approx the average Superleague salary. But of course as we all know cutting this funding from L1 clubs will save Rugby League. 

Around being the operative word. Been told plenty of figures for certain clubs, from how much central funding to what the coach was on.

[Derwent]

21 hours ago, OriginalMrC said:

Yep another myth about L1, the figure is around £50-60k, or approx the average Superleague salary. But of course as we all know cutting this funding from L1 clubs will save Rugby League. 

The figure varies from club to club. As I'm sure you are aware but perhaps others aren't, clubs can get extra funding based on things like how many people state them as their supported club when registering for the OurLeague app, their social media presence (number of followers, shared and retweeted content etc). L1 funding isn't an equal share of a set sum its incentive based to a certain extent.

[EssexRL]

I have been watching L1 for nearly a decade and I love it.

I love the range of clubs from all over the country and aboard I get to see. I love how authentic it is. I have seen some great games of rugby league (and sometimes some not so great). I love the passion of the fans, the players and owners - all of whom love the game (why else, currently, would you get involved at this level?) I like that it's affordable and accessible. The beer's pretty good too and I love how the clubs reach out into their communities. I have met some cracking people at matches.

I am sure the same could be said for the Championship.

The issue is not the product. For goodness sake L1 is part of a sport that has national coverage and (maybe not as much as we like) national profile. We have a World Cup this year. Given the costs at this level, L1 does not require much investment but it does need some and surely its not beyond the wit of the game to work out a strategy that supports it and allows it to start to fulfil its potential. 

 

[OriginalMrC]

2 hours ago, EssexRL said:

I have been watching L1 for nearly a decade and I love it.

I love the range of clubs from all over the country and aboard I get to see. I love how authentic it is. I have seen some great games of rugby league (and sometimes some not so great). I love the passion of the fans, the players and owners - all of whom love the game (why else, currently, would you get involved at this level?) I like that it's affordable and accessible. The beer's pretty good too and I love how the clubs reach out into their communities. I have met some cracking people at matches.

I am sure the same could be said for the Championship.

The issue is not the product. For goodness sake L1 is part of a sport that has national coverage and (maybe not as much as we like) national profile. We have a World Cup this year. Given the costs at this level, L1 does not require much investment but it does need some and surely its not beyond the wit of the game to work out a strategy that supports it and allows it to start to fulfil its potential. 

 

Agree with you 100% on this, it's a great league for so many reasons. It's actually the only league which has a national footprint and there has always been so many interesting teams involved. L1 should be more valued by some people in the game. If L1 was cut adrift and a number of teams were lost from the game in years to come I have no doubt it would be seen as a massive mistake. 

As you say for the amount invested it is well worth holding onto. 

[EssexRL]

29 minutes ago, City RL said:

 

League 1 sadly probably cannot continue in its current format unless properly funded (£75K per club currently for a National competition just seems unsustainable). Would like to see the travel time reduced for regular fixtures for these clubs if that means a number of smaller leagues with some inter league fixtures then that might help. 

 

I agree it needs to change but totally disagree that we need to reduce things. Quite the opposite. We need to be bold. We need to plan for growth and development not retreat. 
 

The teams (and fans) cope with travel. The regional issue is access to players which means some teams are disadvantaged. Building the game, including amateur level, is the answer to that. 

[Smudger06]

On 29/04/2021 at 17:34, RugbyLeagueGeek said:

Not at all - you're putting words in my mouth there. For me, it all comes back to the issue of a long term plan. If the RFL are identifying areas for development, then these areas need to be properly resourced, with strategies for player growth and development. If they aren't, then I think it's unfair and unrealistic for the RFL to essentially drop clubs in at the deep end to see if they can sink or swim, just so that they can claim they're developing the sport in new areas.

If the RFL thinks that Coventry/London/Llanelli (delete as appropriate) is strategically the right area to grow the game, then plan and resource it properly. But on the flip side, if the RFL is just going to treat these new areas exactly the same as heartlands teams, then they shouldn't be surprised if those new teams struggle to compete due to the lack of infrastructure (i.e. community clubs, player pool, etc) compared to the heartlands. I want to avoid situations like we saw with All Golds, Oxford and Hemel, where hundreds of thousands of pounds was spent over several seasons with ultimately nothing to show for it.

Also, I don't think that League 1 is the be all and end all in terms of the pyramid (plus I don't really agree with the term 'pyramid', as currently the 'pro' game is only a very shallow pyramid that doesn't include the vast majority of clubs from where the majority of players are actually produced). I think there should be a complete overhaul of the structure of the game from grassroots to elite level, in order to provide suitable playing levels and opportunities for progression. If League 1 had funding cut and Coventry were no longer able to compete at that level, what is to stop them playing at Southern Conference level and focusing their resources on developing juniors? I previously gave the example of Cramlington Rockets - a club in a development area who have obviously been extremely proactive in growing and developing their junior section. Is a club like Cramlington not just as, if not more valuable to the 'pyramid' as a League 1 club?

I would be interested to hear your thoughts.

Coventry surely has potential and ambition to become the focal point and the hub of a small network of Clubs which would be similar to Cramlington rockets, I think that's the difference and the hope really......

[Smudger06]

On 29/04/2021 at 17:38, RugbyLeagueGeek said:

What are the roots? Are they Championship and League 1, or are the roots further down starting with U7s at a community club? Or are they all roots that are part of the same structure? I honestly don't think the RFL knows what the purpose is of the various levels of competition they have, and how they all fit together as part of a bigger picture. I would include schools and universities in this as well. What is the player pathway from junior to international, and how does somebody get there? Is it the same in London as it is in Leeds?

The main pathway would be from the North West Counties Junior RL age grade comps to U16 level and then to Saints, Wigan & Warrington Academies, 1st teams and then England or across the pennines from the Yorkshire Junior RL comps to Leeds, Huddersfield, Hull, HKR, Cas and Wakey academies, 1st teams then England......obviously pennines switching and other routes are available......

[Smudger06]

On 02/05/2021 at 14:39, wiganermike said:

South Wales Scorpions were taken over by West Wales Raiders so I don't think the Scorpions still exist. After their experience of League 1 would Hemel want to step up again or are they happier where they are now?

I know a few people keep suggesting a North/South split to cut travel should League 1 cease to operate as it does presently but I think an East and West split would be better if there were to be a regional set up below the Championship. That way the more southerly clubs would be able to regularly play clubs from the northern heartland and would be able to more readily see how they were developing as clubs rather than creating an instantly much stronger North division that was supposedly on par with a weaker South division. In an East and West split the top teams in each would be of a pretty even standard to those in the other division with the same applying when comparing the weaker teams in one division to those weaker teams in the other division.

That makes sense otherwise you've got the NCL with like 48 / 49 stronger clubs than a South (Southern Conference League) with maybe 12 or so Clubs of which even the top four or five would possibly be not on a par with the lowest NCL Division Clubs......

[bowes]

22 hours ago, Smudger06 said:

That makes sense otherwise you've got the NCL with like 48 / 49 stronger clubs than a South (Southern Conference League) with maybe 12 or so Clubs of which even the top four or five would possibly be not on a par with the lowest NCL Division Clubs......

Possibly some of the London clubs that have a lot of Australian backpackers could compete on the field with NCL clubs but they'd never meet off field criteria. Beyond them I can't see anyone getting close.