OriginalMrC Posted January 30, 2022 Share Posted January 30, 2022 Jesus if I hear any more suggestions about a league 1 South (or similar) I might just scream Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
langpark Posted January 30, 2022 Share Posted January 30, 2022 1 hour ago, Sports Prophet said: I wouldnât even have the likes of HHH or the other two clubs full of players on a two year visa. Are you talking about Wests Warriors? On a different note, the new team down in Brighton seems quite proactive. Are they any chance of joining this league in the coming years? And if not, what are their other options if they want to play regular matches some competition? https://www.facebook.com/BrightonHoveRL/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowes Posted January 30, 2022 Share Posted January 30, 2022 10 minutes ago, langpark said: Are you talking about Wests Warriors? On a different note, the new team down in Brighton seems quite proactive. Are they any chance of joining this league in the coming years? And if not, what are their other options if they want to play regular matches some competition? https://www.facebook.com/BrightonHoveRL/Â There's a London Premier League and a London Merit League below the Conference South so they can play in one of those competitions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Kevin Sinfield Posted January 30, 2022 Share Posted January 30, 2022 27 minutes ago, OriginalMrC said: Jesus if I hear any more suggestions about a league 1 South (or similar) I might just scream I think one day it will eventually happen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zylya Posted January 30, 2022 Share Posted January 30, 2022 Love the Southern Conference, glad to see that the West division is growing. As someone who's only ever been involved in the sport at the community (and uni) level outside of the heartlands, it's great to have a competition for community clubs to aspire to. Not suggesting it's going to get to NCL levels any time soon, but both Wests and Chargers got through to the 2nd round of the Challenge Cup and new teams coming into the competition is promising. I know a lot is made as to whether expansion is worthwhile in the South, but a strong competitive pathway for community clubs is absolutely key to driving growth of the game, and having the SCL above the regional leagues is a key part of that. It'd be great if the RFL put more into the branding of it - since it covers essentially the whole South of England and Wales, there definitely should be some promotion behind it. The Grand Final is normally done well, think it was streamed on Twitch this year and live-tweeted etc, but during the regular season, the league tables they post on twitter look like they were done in Microsoft Word as an example. Get a new logo for it, a branded website, perhaps a consistent set of graphics for social. Professionalise the competition look and feel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowes Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 19 hours ago, Saint 1 said: Depends what the purpose is - if it's to be competitive at League 1 level or have paying fans in Coventry/Birmingham watching RL then it's not been disastrous. If it's to develop their own players it's hard to see it as a success - there's twice as many players coming from Northumbria and Hull as the entire Midlands in their team today, and only 2 of their 4 Midlands players were actually developed by them. Aren't the Coventry Bears open age team playing in a Midlands merit league? Is the Midlands League going to be a merit league again or was that just a temporary decision because of Coronavirus? Itâs not great that there are only three Midlands clubs playing in fixtured leagues. Itâs the fewest weâve had since the early to mid 1980s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerjon Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 16 hours ago, OriginalMrC said: Jesus if I hear any more suggestions about a league 1 South (or similar) I might just scream To be honest, if you put just one poster on ignore, you'd never hear of it again. Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. (Terry Pratchett) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jughead Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 17 hours ago, Sports Prophet said: The problem with a promotion and relegation pyramid is that it doesnât allow the RFL to build some solid pathway foundations. I donât think Skolars belong in League 1 and Iâve believed that for a long time. Nor do I think Coventry/Midland really belong there, or WWR. If there was a Premier Southern Conference that the RFL could identify 8-10 clubs reasonably spread geographically like Bedford, Rhinos, Stags, Skolars, Cardiff, Midlands, one south west and one south of the river, ensure there is no promo/relegation, this could be promoted as the elite league for midlands, Wales and the south where all development funding was spent. You would also remove the upstart individuals like Kent Ravens many years ago, frivolously starting a club to feed their own personal ego and wasting everyoneâs energy. I wouldnât even have the likes of HHH or the other two clubs full of players on a two year visa. You may even encourage a few of those visa holders to join one of the other clubs and help improve the talent in those clubs by giving them strong experienced player to play alongside. Tantamount to killing clubs off purely  based on geography and not much else. We may as well just have a Yorkshire League and a Lancashire League in that case, tell Catalans and Toulouse, thanks but no thanks and get back to how it was in the 60âs and 70âs. Iâd argue that Skolars, Midlands, North Wales and a well managed South Walian club are of more value to the game than plenty of the clubs who have been around for 100+ years and that these clubs especially should be receiving a far higher share of central distribution than some of those clubs whoâve been around since day one. Rugby League needs a bigger footprint and these clubs are providing exactly that on less than a shoestring budget now The RFL have cut the monies distributed. The community works at Coventry/Midlands is hugely impressive, itâs far more than what goes on at many clubs who have an established amateur base around them and they do it off their own back with very little help from the sportâs governing bodies, in a non-Rugby League area. The biggest issue is the make-up of leagues. It looked as though there was something resembling a plan ten or so years ago with League One a wonderful list of clubs from across England and Wales (Skolars, Hemel, Oxford, Coventry, All Golds, South Wales, North Wales and Gateshead to name them) with the challenges of facing a smaller amount of established, northern clubs and that it was going to be the first rung of the ladder for these clubs, a space where they could play many clubs in a similar space to them, grow on and off the pitch and still have the possibility, however long term, of promotion to the second tier. Except it wasnât that and those new clubs were thrown in without any aide and that âplanâ lasted all of about three years before that was abandoned and clubs were up against it heavily playing established clubs, some of whom were and continue to float between the Championship and League One, I donât see any real value in that for anyone involved and scorelines of hammerings isnât ideal. League One, for me, should be the base for clubs from outside of Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumbria but in the current climate, I canât see many clubs wanting to join League One and clubs in the game unwilling to have their central funding cut further. Shunting clubs off based on geography would be embarrassing and unwarranted hugely when we have âestablishedâ clubs who would fail to meet the criteria to join the NCL, so I donât know why they need saving but clubs fighting the good fight in non-Rugby League areas are the lepers here. If it wasnât for Rugby Leagueâs presence in Wales, weâd have no Regan Grace, Elliot Kear, Lloyd White or Gil Dudson about to lace up their boots in Super League, a number of the Broncos academy graduates wouldnât have picked a ball up in anger at Skolars or Hemel, Joe Batchelor probably wouldnât be polishing a Grand Final ring and about to wear a starting jumper for Saints, Geordie Sam Luckey wouldnât have been in the media prior to Magic Weekend and Matt Davis wouldnât be a Challenge Cup winner playing alongside George Williams and Gareth Widdop at Warrington. The sport is richer for these players and these stories and itâs vital that we support them in whatever way we can. Shunting them off to the Southern Conference isnât the way to go about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sports Prophet Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 Iâm ok with everything you say there @Jughead. But a southern conference elite to itself and itâs own end doesnât need to be without opportunity for any one of those players in the existing pathway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JM2010 Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 I think the success of the SCL is underpinned by the local leagues underneath. The local leagues in London, Wales, West of England etc need to expand and become stronger as these will feed players into the SCL and give a bigger geographical spread for RL. I'd like to see a growing and strengthening SCL as well as the local leagues underneath adding more clubs each year Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebrewxi Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 Two of the new clubs in the West of England league last season couldn't make it to the end of the season, but are now in the SCL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugby&soccerfan Posted February 6, 2022 Share Posted February 6, 2022 On 29/01/2022 at 09:36, bowes said: That was a completely different competition. You need to add in the different regional leagues that now exist for it to be a fair comparison.  I would say Conference League South is comparable to the Premier Division of the old Rugby League Conference rather than the whole thing. Maybe so but at the time it was a good competition which saw signifcant growth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve oates Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 On 31/01/2022 at 10:33, Jughead said: Tantamount to killing clubs off purely  based on geography and not much else. We may as well just have a Yorkshire League and a Lancashire League in that case, tell Catalans and Toulouse, thanks but no thanks and get back to how it was in the 60âs and 70âs. Iâd argue that Skolars, Midlands, North Wales and a well managed South Walian club are of more value to the game than plenty of the clubs who have been around for 100+ years Some clubs that have "been around for 100 years" may be not doing too great like Oldham and Rochdale, but over the years these clubs have been part of building something more than just a couple of badly struggling semi professional clubs. Both towns have top class amateur clubs like Mayfield and St.Annes clubs playing at the highest level, and both have a relatively large infrastructure of Rugby League being played extensively in schools, and junior level. These structures create talent like Sculthorpe and the Sinfields I don't see how clubs in London and south wales are "more value to the game" than clubs in Oldham and Rochdale?? Whatever monies have been going to League one clubs recently do amount to a serious amount of money, and one has to ask oneself what was the return on all that SKY money? would that money, that comes to a very large sum, have been far better spent on the amateur and junior game in places that maybe could have provided a much greater return than what some of the fledgling midlands, welsh and southern clubs have provided? I think people want Rugby League to be as strong as it can given the financial constraints, and it's clear that a far better return is always going to be found in the heartlands. It's not a matter of anti-expansion, it's a matter of survival. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jughead Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 59 minutes ago, steve oates said: Some clubs that have "been around for 100 years" may be not doing too great like Oldham and Rochdale, but over the years these clubs have been part of building something more than just a couple of badly struggling semi professional clubs. Both towns have top class amateur clubs like Mayfield and St.Annes clubs playing at the highest level, and both have a relatively large infrastructure of Rugby League being played extensively in schools, and junior level. These structures create talent like Sculthorpe and the Sinfields I don't see how clubs in London and south wales are "more value to the game" than clubs in Oldham and Rochdale?? Whatever monies have been going to League one clubs recently do amount to a serious amount of money, and one has to ask oneself what was the return on all that SKY money? would that money, that comes to a very large sum, have been far better spent on the amateur and junior game in places that maybe could have provided a much greater return than what some of the fledgling midlands, welsh and southern clubs have provided? I think people want Rugby League to be as strong as it can given the financial constraints, and it's clear that a far better return is always going to be found in the heartlands. It's not a matter of anti-expansion, it's a matter of survival. Do those amateur clubs exist because of Rochdale and Oldham (you chose these clubs, I didnât, by the way)? Does the school RL exist because of Rochdale and Oldham? Arguably, spreading the game in the Midlands, London, North East and Wales, through the funding thatâs given to the clubs from those regions is of a greater overall benefit to the game than continuing to give money to clubs who offer little. Rochdale Hornets have not had any news on their website regarding their âSporting Foundationâ for three months and Oldham donât appear to have any sort of foundation, according to their website. Is that value for money in relatively Rugby League dense areas? London Skolars, situated in one of the poorest areas of London, completing community work in that area, keeping kids off the streets, exposing kids to rugby league, some of those progressing to Skolarsâ first team (as you can see from their cup game) and others progressing on to London Broncosâ academy is a better return than handing over thousands a year to northern clubs who donât even appear to have a foundation or any sort of community work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Stein Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 Based on the present figures, it will take Skolars, WWR and Hurricanes over 12 years to waste the equivalent sum to the fee paid for an introduction to a private equity company which promptly went bust. Perhaps some people should look closer to home when pointing the finger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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