RL in Stockport

[Pie tries]

6 hours ago, Hillgate Hatter said:

Well in that case there’s no ‘real’ Cheshire club playing in the top 3 tiers of English RL, but Warrington are the closest thing considering their former home was south of the river Mersey, within the historic boundaries of Cheshire.

I was dragged up in Newton le willows - Lancashire where's I was born. It’s now Merseyside- my mum insisted family use Lancs and absolutely chuffing nothing else for addresses…

Both Widnes and Warrington are now in Cheshire county - since 70s….

Edited November 20, 2022 by Pie tries

[Hillgate Hatter]

1 hour ago, ShropshireBull said:

Wish this success, decline of RL in Manchester has badly hurt game and all the more galling as rfl have offices there. 

Thanks pal, League is a great game, it doesn’t get the backing it deserves and we all know why, I will try contact someone to make this happen, I think it would make sense for the RFL to help set up a team in the 3rd or 4th tier.

Edited November 20, 2022 by Hillgate Hatter

[Mumby Magic]

7 hours ago, GeordieSaint said:

Where do they play?

Can't remember. I started a thread like this some time back about places where RL is not present despite being near a hotbed. Will try and find it in a bit.

[sweaty craiq]

On 19/11/2022 at 17:09, Rowan said:

Stockport did have an amateur club in the 1980s. (started by Grahame Tonge who was instrumental in launching Tameside Borough. I'm not sure how long they lasted - a couple of years I think - but nothing since as far as I know.

I actually played against them at U17 level

[glossop saint]

My brother used to play junior union at Stockport a few years back. I'm surprised they are dual coding based on some of the comments from people at the club back then.

Though best of luck with setting something up, especially if it is at SRUFC, I don't live far away so would definitely be down to watch some games. 

[Hillgate Hatter]

23 minutes ago, glossop saint said:

I'm surprised they are dual coding based on some of the comments from people at the club back then. 

What sort of comments? Were the club against dual coding? I think most Union clubs dislike RL and want the code to die off tbh, thats why it’d be better to just get a new club started up solely playing RL imo.

[Madrileño]

8 hours ago, ShropshireBull said:

 

Oldham Rochdale both effectively homeless, blocking a central Manchester team to protect nothing

 

Interesting.  In what way are they blocking a central Manchester team?

Is this something to do with Manchester Rangers and their application a couple of years back?

Or something else? 

[glossop saint]

9 hours ago, Hillgate Hatter said:

What sort of comments? Were the club against dual coding? I think most Union clubs dislike RL and want the code to die off tbh, thats why it’d be better to just get a new club started up solely playing RL imo.

To be fair it was probably just parents as opposed to anyone official. And they have probably moved on.

There's quite a few union clubs in the surrounding towns and so you'd probably only need a few players who want to give it a go from each of them to come up with a team. And it is close enough to the heartlands to have plenty of teams within travelling distance for matches.

[DoubleD]

19 hours ago, Hillgate Hatter said:

Thanks pal, League is a great game, it doesn’t get the backing it deserves and we all know why, I will try contact someone to make this happen, I think it would make sense for the RFL to help set up a team in the 3rd or 4th tier.

I would suggest speak with the RFL and Salford Red Devils Foundation who do some good work in the area. You should then be put in touch with some like minded people who can assist (and may have done some legwork already). Then, as you suggest, social media is a great connector these days, so you should be able to generate further interest from this. 

Starting a club is hard work, and requires a lot of time, patience and endeavour. It also requires multiple volunteers - you can't do it on your own. If you would like some advice, I would suggest reaching out to @Northern Eel who has done some sterling work setting up amateur teams from scratch and is well versed on the pitfalls.

Good luck, I'd love to see RL thrive in Stockport

Edited November 21, 2022 by DoubleD

[Eddie]

16 hours ago, ShropshireBull said:

Just more examples of RFL having zero vision or plan for the sport. 

Oldham Rochdale both effectively homeless, blocking a central Manchester team to protect nothing. Swinton effectively Sale RL and Salford stayed up but no rev from ground nor a central Manchester academy. 

 

What can the RFL do about any of that, other than the central academy? 

[Eddie]

On 19/11/2022 at 09:28, Hillgate Hatter said:

Is anyone interested in starting a club in Stockport  even at amateur level?

After the disappointing WC Semi final result, I was having a read on the internet and found some history about Stockport RFC, who were one of the 22 founding members of what is now the Superleague, they averaged crowds of 3,000 and sometimes got up to 10,000 for some games, heavily in debt they became defunct in 1903 leaving Edgeley Park solely to Stockport County F.C , who became the main sporting attraction in the town after the rugby club folded,  it seems after this Rugby League faded away in Stockport which is a massive shame considering the history, I think the sport has a lot of potential to grow in the town and I know of a fair few fans who mostly root for warrington, it would be great if  we had a team of our own again.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockport_RFC

 

Hope it works out for you mate, as others have said setting up a club is extremely hard work, and not a one man job, but it is possible with enough dedicated people to make it happen. 

[Eddie]

Just now, ShropshireBull said:

Not block Manchester Rangers and you say other than a central academy, but a central academy for one of the biggest cities in England would be a massive improvement. 

Yes i said the central academy was possible. What about the other stuff that you mentioned though, such as Oldham and Rochdale’s ground situations, and lack of matchday income for Salford and Swinton? 

[fighting irish]

3 hours ago, DoubleD said:

I would suggest speak with the RFL and Salford Red Devils Foundation who do some good work in the area. You should then be put in touch with some like minded people who can assist (and may have done some legwork already). Then, as you suggest, social media is a great connector these days, so you should be able to generate further interest from this. 

Starting a club is hard work, and requires a lot of time, patience and endeavour. It also requires multiple volunteers - you can't do it on your own. If you would like some advice, I would suggest reaching out to @Northern Eel who has done some sterling work setting up amateur teams from scratch and is well versed on the pitfalls

Some really (authentic) useful advice here.

If what you say is true, then people like Northern Eel are like gold dust in our game.

I've advocated for Bob Brown of Hemel Hempstead, or someone (similar) in the NE to create a ''how to guide'' for would be RL club start up ''entrepreneurs''.

Here is the classic case of a self starter who could do with all the help (and advice) he can get, to improve his chances of success. With a little guidance he would be more assured of a successful outcome (than so many others) and in half the time. 

Let's not stand by and let this man, make all the same mistakes others have made (which could easily sap his strength and kill off this initiative). Instead let's respond to his need for information (and support) as best we can. 

[Griff]

On 19/11/2022 at 23:52, Pie tries said:

Technically they play Greater Manchester - not Cheshire

Greater Manchester isn't a place.   It's the name of the folk who empty the bins.

[Griff]

On 20/11/2022 at 14:51, Pie tries said:

I was dragged up in Newton le willows - Lancashire where's I was born. It’s now Merseyside- my mum insisted family use Lancs and absolutely chuffing nothing else for addresses…

Both Widnes and Warrington are now in Cheshire county - since 70s….

Ironically, Wilderspool was south of the river but now they play on the Lancashire side.

[Northern Eel]

6 hours ago, DoubleD said:

I would suggest speak with the RFL and Salford Red Devils Foundation who do some good work in the area. You should then be put in touch with some like minded people who can assist (and may have done some legwork already). Then, as you suggest, social media is a great connector these days, so you should be able to generate further interest from this. 

Starting a club is hard work, and requires a lot of time, patience and endeavour. It also requires multiple volunteers - you can't do it on your own. If you would like some advice, I would suggest reaching out to @Northern Eel who has done some sterling work setting up amateur teams from scratch and is well versed on the pitfalls.

Good luck, I'd love to see RL thrive in Stockport

It's certainly generous of you to mention me in your post @DoubleD Thank you.

Setting up a club from scratch is certainly a long game. There's usually a really good reason why a new club can't simply 'appear' and thrive. Unfortunately, you will find that RFL resources are spread so thinly on the ground, that unless you are prepared to accept that it is YOU who will do all the spade-work, then it is barely worth considering starting. It's clearly a shame that this is the case, but it is the reality. (And, if you are doing it for thanks and recognition, you are going to be disappointed. I have no sense that this is the case in these discussions, though)

For my money, I have always been an advocate of building from the bottom. That means recognizing from the off that if your first age group of players is U9s, you will need 10 years to get to a time where your youngsters are feeding into an open age side.  But to me, it is so important to start with the kids, rather than the adults. Many areas where new clubs might pop up have little or no RL playing base, or no loyalty to the game over another sport. You have to build that. (There are clubs who are doing things a different way, and there's nothing wrong with that if it pays off).

There are a number of benefits from starting off with kids; 

1. Volunteers; they are often willing to get stuck in if they are parents and they can see their kids benefiting

2. You get the chance to build rugby league players who happen to play other sports, and not the other way round

3. Schools. If you can get in there, are a huge help when it comes to reaching a prime audience

4. Funding. There are a number of funding streams exclusive to youth sport that can be tapped into. 

I was talking to the current Chair at Brentwood Eels last week, a club that I co-founded 18 years ago. That club has gone from strength to strength, and I have been away from there for 11 years, since relocating to the Midlands. In an area where RL is not a prevalent sport, their open age teams have a huge number of former junior players playing in the team. They are the spine of the club. They are hugely successful in their region as a result.

I am now 4 years into a similar project at Bassetlaw Bulldogs, in the East Midlands.

Any advice I can give, I am always happy to share, but what I will leave you with is this; If you are trying to establish a team in an area where there are few other clubs, you need to drop the idea of the most important things being that you win loads of games, and focus on working with other emerging teams to build a competition between you. You can't do it without them either. That means that the score line is often immaterial. and it also means you sometimes need to share trade secrets that you know will disadvantage your own club. That's a tough mindset to get over, especially when you are the one doing all the work. Indeed, sometimes (happily quite rarely), those who you support and help soon forget that too. It all comes with the package. That's probably why clubs don't appear so frequently. 

Any advice I can give, I am always happy to share.

Edited November 21, 2022 by Northern Eel

[Northern Eel]

What I would say, to be fair, is that it is so, so rewarding when you get it right.

Edited November 21, 2022 by Northern Eel

[Monkeymagic22]

As a Featherstone Rovers supported exiled in Stockport (Gatley) it would be great to have a local rugby league club. However, I am not sure how much interest in the sport there is here. For instance on Saturday, not one pub in Cheadle had the World Cup Final on, with Rugby Union and womens football taking preference.

[Eddie]

14 minutes ago, Monkeymagic22 said:

As a Featherstone Rovers supported exiled in Stockport (Gatley) it would be great to have a local rugby league club. However, I am not sure how much interest in the sport there is here. For instance on Saturday, not one pub in Cheadle had the World Cup Final on, with Rugby Union and womens football taking preference.

Did you ask if they’d show it? 

[Monkeymagic22]

1 minute ago, Eddie said:

Did you ask if they’d show it? 

I was recording it, to watch later, so didn't bother.

[fighting irish]

Here's some advice from ''left field''.

My wife and I watched a film last night called ''The 100 Foot Journey''.

It's the story of an Indian family, who set up an Indian restaurant in a small village in France (where no-one eats Indian food) across the road from a Michelin star restaurant.

With opposition from the Michelin star restaurant owner who conspires with the local food market (sellers) to deny him the ingredients he needed, the local politicians indifference to his plight and outright racism from some of the villagers, the old man sinks his entire life savings into the project confident he could sell his (sons) cooking (anywhere) in this alien culture, simply because it was good.

His belief in the inherent quality of his sons cooking was unshakeable, you can guess how it turned out.

To anyone considering setting up a RL club in a ''new'' part of the world, I say this, ''If you think you can, or if you think you can't, you are right''.

Rugby League has universal appeal simply because it's great.

Don't doubt it. If you are having difficulty making it work, change your methods, the game's not the problem. 

[Madrileño]

8 hours ago, fighting irish said:

the old man sinks his entire life savings into the project confident he could sell his (sons) cooking (anywhere) in this alien culture, simply because it was good.His belief in the inherent quality of his sons cooking was unshakeable, you can guess how it turned out.

 

Shut down?

Probably bankrupt as well?

Edited November 22, 2022 by Madrileño

[The Art of Hand and Foot]

I find these threads a bit of a nonsense TBH. Why isn't there an RL club in Bolton or Macclesfield or stoke on Trent? It would take a PhD style research and thesis that Tony Collins would be proud of and still not come up with the answer. And the same goes for Manchester?

[fighting irish]

3 hours ago, Madrileño said:

Shut down?

Probably bankrupt as well?

Well I have to say that I'm not surprised by your assumptions.

It's interesting also, that you could only imagine two possible outcomes.

You shouldn't assume that everyone else is hamstrung by the same limitations.

Anyway, you should read on a little further, ''....... if you believe you can't you're right.'' 

Edited November 22, 2022 by fighting irish

[DoubleD]

2 hours ago, The Art of Hand and Foot said:

I find these threads a bit of a nonsense TBH. Why isn't there an RL club in Bolton or Macclesfield or stoke on Trent? It would take a PhD style research and thesis that Tony Collins would be proud of and still not come up with the answer. And the same goes for Manchester?

There is a team in Bolton