Conference League South 2022

[kev p]

has anyone got the play off results of last seasons conference league south? RFL site only shows a few & dosent make sense!

[Archie Gordon]

32 minutes ago, kev p said:

has anyone got the play off results of last seasons conference league south? RFL site only shows a few & dosent make sense!

They may not make sense because they were a bit messy. I think some (most?) of the West division teams pulled out leaving AGs as the only team from that side. So some East teams got byes. Then there were postponements and ground reversals such that Brentwood played Chargers at home when they were lower ranked.

EDIT: Just looked the results up, only result missing is the grand final, won by Wests.

Edited March 28, 2023 by Archie Gordon

[kev p]

ok many thanks

[Sammo]

4 hours ago, Archie Gordon said:

They may not make sense because they were a bit messy. I think some (most?) of the West division teams pulled out leaving AGs as the only team from that side. So some East teams got byes. Then there were postponements and ground reversals such that Brentwood played Chargers at home when they were lower ranked.

EDIT: Just looked the results up, only result missing is the grand final, won by Wests.

Why did most of the West teams pull out?

[Archie Gordon]

8 hours ago, Sammo said:

Why did most of the West teams pull out?

I think they struggled with union players who can't/don't always commit to league, particularly in September. I know much less about the West than the East comp, however, and so there's a bit of speculation in that. Anyway, just the AGs in the SCL this year.

[Ivarr the Boneless]

Think it's a mixture of things. Union players unable to commit is certainly a factor.

Players finding playing twelve months year on year is too much for their body and taking a season or more off is an issue. (They invariably cease playing League as we don't provide a full season down south, union does).

The decline in junior set ups is meaning few players coming through into senior ranks.

I also get the impression some long standing league volunteers down south are deciding they've done their bit. Given the paucity of volunteers that may be seriously impacting some clubs.

The cost of living crisis can't be helping either given the matches often aren't that local.

It's a bit of a mess. I'm afraid 

[Archie Gordon]

The league/union player balance needs thinking about across the South and across all age groups, including OA. Get it right and league can grow, get it wrong and league struggles badly. It needs talking about. It ought to be part of the (still missing) London (& South) 10-year plan.

[Sports Prophet]

43 minutes ago, Archie Gordon said:

The league/union player balance needs thinking about across the South and across all age groups, including OA. Get it right and league can grow, get it wrong and league struggles badly. It needs talking about. It ought to be part of the (still missing) London (& South) 10-year plan.

Gone down hill since the scaling back of the nation’s best team of NGB development staff circa 06-12. London and the South East would be huge if that investment continued to 2023. I dare say the Broncos would be a more successful, SL mainstay as well.

[Damien]

5 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

Gone down hill since the scaling back of the nation’s best team of NGB development staff circa 06-12. London and the South East would be huge if that investment continued to 2023. I dare say the Broncos would be a more successful, SL mainstay as well.

Absolutely. So much great work to expand the game was going on at that time and most of it was allowed to be lost.

[RP London]

My absolute bugbear when I look back on the hard work that was being put in by the DOs in the early and mid 2000s... what the RFL has let go down in London is shameful. Not everything was rosy, not everything would have succeeded and maybe we would still be back where we are but at least if we had kept it going we could say we gave it a proper go!

[GeordieSaint]

9 hours ago, Damien said:

Absolutely. So much great work to expand the game was going on at that time and most of it was allowed to be lost.

Wood et al prioritised the northern heartlands…