West Wales

[sgorpioncaerdyddrob]

Disappointing news, but realistically it was never going to work in Llanelli without massive investment.

Time for an actual semi-pro SOUTH (not West) Wales team based in Cardiff. Expansion can and will work given the right people and resources here. 

[Midlands hobo]

5 hours ago, Man of Kent said:

Struggled to see the benefit of West Wales Raiders TBH. Wouldn’t money be better spent on Welsh men/women/youth leagues?

A Welsh academy side paid for by SL WRL and RFL would be infinitely better value to the game than another SW club until one can be founded on solid foundations. Speaking as an ex scorpion season ticket holder.

[Oxford]

5 hours ago, Midlands hobo said:

A Welsh academy side paid for by SL WRL and RFL would be infinitely better value to the game than another SW club until one can be founded on solid foundations. Speaking as an ex scorpion season ticket holder.

It certainly would to Wigan, Saints, Warrington, Hull & Leeds.

Edited December 23, 2022 by Oxford

[Eddie]

9 hours ago, Omott91 said:

Perez should buy this licence too.

He could start a team in somewhere like Ottawa. 

[crusadin_photoman]

16 hours ago, DEANO said:

We need to accept it’s by and large a northern sport for northern people. We’ve had a 100 plus years and lots of experiments with different areas. It simply doesn’t work or we would be nationwide like yawnion. Massive shame because for my money it’s the best sport in the world and would love it to be global

By your reckoning everyone will assume that grass roots RU is awash with money. It isn't. The WRU have massively cut back the amount of money the give  clubs. Every semi pro or amateur club has to work very hard to keep the club house open. Costs of transport, kit, insurances. lighting and heating the clubhouse have all gone up big time. We have to work hard to balance the books. 

 

[groundhopper]

I think this can be turned into a positive, the grassroots in Wales has some good clubs and excellent people and there are so many good things at youth level, increased numbers being just one.

I doubt people played at West Wales for the money so there is a pool of players with the opportunity to play in a Welsh League which has never been strong in the West. If the lease on the clubhouse continues, they have the basis to establish things. Rhondda have their own ground and others are playing out of venues where they seem welcome. It could be a good season for the league.

In case those who think that we should pull up the drawbridge on anywhere outside the heartlands and save pennies, I think apart from WWR, nothing is funded by the RFL although I may get corrected. 
 

We should also note in the ladies game, Cardiff have aspirations for Super League, this being done from slow gradual growth.

The RFL pot is small but very little would be needed to reassure those involved in Wales they are welcome and encouraged. 
 

 

[sgorpioncaerdyddrob]

You can't do anything without money. When the RFL and 'blinkered English Northerners' realise this we will have a much stronger international and domestic game. 

Edited December 23, 2022 by sgorpioncaerdyddrob

[sgorpioncaerdyddrob]

2 hours ago, Oxford said:

It certainly would to Wigan, Saints, Warrington, Hull & Leeds.

It's actually already benefitting Salford through Coleg y Cymoedd's link up. Already two Welsh players made their Super League debuts. 

[GUBRATS]

9 minutes ago, sgorpioncaerdyddrob said:

You can't do anything without money. When the RFL and 'blinkered English Northerners' realise this we will have a much stronger international and domestic game. 

This ' money ' ? Where is it ?

[dealwithit]

Did they even market the club when trying to sell it? I don’t recall seeing any mention of it being on the market 

[Kirmonds pouch]

2 hours ago, sgorpioncaerdyddrob said:

You can't do anything without money. When the RFL and 'blinkered English Northerners' realise this we will have a much stronger international and domestic game. 

So what money is this then! Honest to god it's a fantasy world on here. The 12 SL clubs have to produce a pro comp comparable to RU and of course football. To do this they receive around 1.5 million in central funding, pin money to most other sport. You call it blinkered, I call it a game without a pot to pee in. You even say it yourself, 'You can't do anything without money'. 

[Midlands hobo]

5 hours ago, Oxford said:

It certainly would to Wigan, Saints, Warrington, Hull & Leeds.

And the Wales national side come the 2030s

[Midlands hobo]

3 hours ago, sgorpioncaerdyddrob said:

 'blinkered English Northerners' 

I believe the approved language is "heartlands and true fans"

[sgorpioncaerdyddrob]

Exactly, that's the problem Your own worst enemy. WWR were on a smaller budget than everyone else in League 1

[Oxford]

7 hours ago, sgorpioncaerdyddrob said:

It's actually already benefitting Salford through Coleg y Cymoedd's link up. Already two Welsh players made their Super League debuts. 

That's to do with SRD's connection.

[OriginalMrC]

5 hours ago, sgorpioncaerdyddrob said:

Exactly, that's the problem Your own worst enemy. WWR were on a smaller budget than everyone else in League 1

Were they? They wasted a load of money on the likes of Rangi Chase as well as Australian coaches, and paying for accommodation. Not only that they paid big big match fees to players who only played a handful of games each season. I'd be very surprised if their budget was less than Coventry, Skolars, North Wales or even Hunslet. 

Money wasn't really the issue, it was to do with how poorly run they were. 

[sgorpioncaerdyddrob]

1 hour ago, OriginalMrC said:

Were they? They wasted a load of money on the likes of Rangi Chase as well as Australian coaches, and paying for accommodation. Not only that they paid big big match fees to players who only played a handful of games each season. I'd be very surprised if their budget was less than Coventry, Skolars, North Wales or even Hunslet. 

Money wasn't really the issue, it was to do with how poorly run they were. 

That's just nonsense regards the fees. As for poorly run, well, again pay peanuts.. 

[Jughead]

13 hours ago, Oxford said:

It certainly would to Wigan, Saints, Warrington, Hull & Leeds.

Yes, it would be terrible if the top five clubs in the country had a Welsh player or players. 

[Oxford]

18 hours ago, Jughead said:

Yes, it would be terrible if the top five clubs in the country had a Welsh player or players. 

Er Jughead these points you like to score are a bit naff to be honest.

If you wish to discuss this that's fine but don't make out I'm trying to do Wales down in any way.

 

[Midlands hobo]

19 hours ago, sgorpioncaerdyddrob said:

That's just nonsense regards the fees. As for poorly run, well, again pay peanuts.. 

What was Henson paid?

[Jughead]

1 hour ago, Oxford said:

Er Jughead these points you like to score are a bit naff to be honest.

If you wish to discuss this that's fine but don't make out I'm trying to do Wales down in any way.

 

You’re doing exactly that. The presence of Welsh players (or players of almost any nation) within the top five clubs in the northern hemisphere being used as a stick to do something down is a particularly strange hill to choose to die on.

Wales, as a result of Saints picking up Regan Grace as a kid and Wigan picking up Flower and Dudson after a couple of years at Crusaders, probably has Wales in the top four nations of Super League winners in the last ten years. More of that can only be a good thing.

[Pie tries]

On 22/12/2022 at 18:54, Midlands hobo said:

The reasons it isn't nationwide are too long to type on here but how about being put down by the establishment. Such as being banned in the UK military until the 90s on the basis there was no appetite for RL among all those northerners joining up.

Erm yes - agree 100%. Please no one forget RU banned RL even at amateur level, army, schools and unis. This is the reason for our narrow geographical spread - along side many bad mistakes.

Grow the game bottom up in wales - every Welshman I know love league, just keeping plugging away

[Pigeon Lofter]

19 minutes ago, Pie tries said:

 Please no one forget RU banned RL even at amateur level, army, schools and unis.

RU clubs up and down the country got enormous Government funding from the then Sports Council, whose motto was "Sport For All". All, of course unless you played any kind of League, then you were banned for life from playing RU or even being on their facilities or in their clubhouses.  The Sports Council financing help build Union clubhouses the length and breadth of the nation under the fake presumption that it was Sport for All when it in fact was sport for everyone except Rugby League players. American gridiron players were welcomed, as were professional boxers, wrestlers, bodybuilders, or any other sportsmen or athletes but not anyone who had played RL above a schoolboy level as it would taint their sport. They got away with that perverse apartheid for years and in many cases that attitude still exists, you only have to peruse the BBC HYS comments on RU to see the bigotry that prevails to this day among the RahRah fraternity.

[crusadin_photoman]

12 minutes ago, Pigeon Lofter said:

RU clubs up and down the country got enormous Government funding from the then Sports Council, whose motto was "Sport For All". All, of course unless you played any kind of League, then you were banned for life from playing RU or even being on their facilities or in their clubhouses.  The Sports Council financing help build Union clubhouses the length and breadth of the nation under the fake presumption that it was Sport for All when it in fact was sport for everyone except Rugby League players. American gridiron players were welcomed, as were professional boxers, wrestlers, bodybuilders, or any other sportsmen or athletes but not anyone who had played RL above a schoolboy level as it would taint their sport. They got away with that perverse apartheid for years and in many cases that attitude still exists, you only have to peruse the BBC HYS comments on RU to see the bigotry that prevails to this day among the RahRah fraternity.

Whilst that is historically correct it is no longer the case at club level. Many RU clubs are the village social hub and all are welcomed. 

[crusadin_photoman]

2 hours ago, Midlands hobo said:

What was Henson paid?

No idea, that's between him and the club. In his one game against Widnes he didnt play well but didnt play badly either it's more that he wasnt fully fit and of course had never played a game of RL. I believe he decided to concentrate on his pub business.