A curious case of Scottish RL

[2blackrooks]

Over the years since it’s inception in 1997 the Scottish RL conference has seen the highs of a 9 team structure in 2013 to 3 this year with an average norm of 6 over the past 25 years

Meanwhile there Celtic cousins in Wales and Ireland appear to have a more stable league, regular league based player internationals against various concepts of an England team or English based teams, Irelands latest venture playing London Chargers 

Wales juniors battling the English lions, Wales - Ireland women doing battle, Wales 1st team playing France later this year. North vs South style games etc etc 

Yet on the surface Scotland struggle to muster a decent league, there are of course green shoots with regular junior development days, Edinburgh have and are still doing well in NERL and the new concept of the Scottish Barbarians, Forth Valley appear to be moving forward at pace, Glasgow’s player numbers growing and Aberdeen are back, but what is the future for RL north of the border, will it always struggle with teams you can count on 1 hand, will the young guys coming through have teams/games to develop, will the women’s game ever get off the ground, will the national team get regular games in Scotland to shout out ‘we’re here’

Yes I guess finances are scarce will the WC help financially? Now is the ideal time for RL to offer hundreds of dissolutioned players even teams in Scotland to try RL, due to the current RU issues of funding the lower leagues, players are leaving the game, teams shutting there doors but what can be done???

[fighting irish]

On 16/05/2022 at 19:23, 2blackrooks said:

Over the years since it’s inception in 1997 the Scottish RL conference has seen the highs of a 9 team structure in 2013 to 3 this year with an average norm of 6 over the past 25 years

Meanwhile there Celtic cousins in Wales and Ireland appear to have a more stable league, regular league based player internationals against various concepts of an England team or English based teams, Irelands latest venture playing London Chargers 

Wales juniors battling the English lions, Wales - Ireland women doing battle, Wales 1st team playing France later this year. North vs South style games etc etc 

Yet on the surface Scotland struggle to muster a decent league, there are of course green shoots with regular junior development days, Edinburgh have and are still doing well in NERL and the new concept of the Scottish Barbarians, Forth Valley appear to be moving forward at pace, Glasgow’s player numbers growing and Aberdeen are back, but what is the future for RL north of the border, will it always struggle with teams you can count on 1 hand, will the young guys coming through have teams/games to develop, will the women’s game ever get off the ground, will the national team get regular games in Scotland to shout out ‘we’re here’

Yes I guess finances are scarce will the WC help financially? Now is the ideal time for RL to offer hundreds of dissolutioned players even teams in Scotland to try RL, due to the current RU issues of funding the lower leagues, players are leaving the game, teams shutting there doors but what can be done???

My suggestion would be to take your plea to the Newcastle development people.

They might be prepared to offer some assistance to create (or respond to) interested parties over the border to get started. 

It's a bit of a chicken and egg situation but unless someone (or a group) expresses an interest you are literally starting with the un-demarcated masses .

As a former salesman, its a much easier sell, if you are approached by someone who has already identified a need/desire for what you are selling, than simply cold calling the general population.

Once a group/club has been formed, they could be invited to play in the North East of England league, until they have enough to form a Scottish/regional league, or (my own preference, at least in their early seasons) they appoint a fixture secretary who canvasses the entire BARLA list and invites teams to visit them for friendly (touring) games.

Whichever way it goes, it's a long game and expecting or even hoping for rapid growth, is likely to result in disappointment.

I'm afraid its the same old story, make a plan, work the plan, measure your results, review the plan, make a new plan .... repeat.