Wigan celebrate community clubs

[Damien]

Love this from Wigan after the players spent yesterday training in their amateur jerseys:

 

[Damien]

I would love to see this from other clubs and it would be pretty great if we could have a round dedicated to amateur clubs. It could be used to foster closer co-operation and allow professional clubs to give something back to the amateur clubs. Done right it could be a real celebration of all levels of the game.

Edited September 6, 2023 by Damien

[Damien]

A couple more:

 

[HullWire]

Would be great for them to wear them for a warm up for a match.

[unapologetic pedant]

2 hours ago, Damien said:

A couple more:

Just help me out. I don't follow SL that closely.

That's an Arncliffe Scots jersey far left. Patrick Mago? I thought he played his junior football in QLD.

Abbas Miski in a quasi Swinton jersey. He did play for Arncliffe Scots.

[marklaspalmas]

Great initiative. 

The use of the word amateur grates on me. I know the history but it feels archaic and wrong.

[Spidey]

10 minutes ago, marklaspalmas said:

Great initiative. 

The use of the word amateur grates on me. I know the history but it feels archaic and wrong.

Plenty of community clubs still have that in their name so they’ll be okay with it

[marklaspalmas]

28 minutes ago, Spidey said:

Plenty of community clubs still have that in their name so they’ll be okay with it

Yes. It's very old fashioned 

[Spidey]

Just now, marklaspalmas said:

Yes. It's very old fashioned 

It may be, but do you want hundreds of clubs to change their name?

[marklaspalmas]

3 minutes ago, Spidey said:

It may be, but do you want hundreds of clubs to change their name?

That's a tad extreme. The term should've fallen in disuse by now, that's all.

[Damien]

52 minutes ago, Spidey said:

Plenty of community clubs still have that in their name so they’ll be okay with it

Indeed, I don't see the issue with it at all. Maybe it is what you are used to but my former club still uses the term amateur and even on its website proudly boasts:

Welcome to Wigan St Patricks Amateur Rugby League Club, based at Clarington Park, Wigan the club was formed in 1910 and we have been producing players ever since! We are extremely proud of our history and even more excited about our future.

I'm happy with people using whatever they prefer and certainly don't see the need to get precious about it.

[Just Browny]

Very nice initiative from Wigan. 

[JonM]

Yes, my old team, Halton Farnworth Hornets, often shares pictures on social media of ex-players turning out for Saints, Leeds, GB etc. but people were really happy to see the club jerseys in a photo like this.  

[Gerrumonside ref]

This is great 

[marklaspalmas]

9 hours ago, Damien said:

Indeed, I don't see the issue with it at all. Maybe it is what you are used to but my former club still uses the term amateur and even on its website proudly boasts:

Welcome to Wigan St Patricks Amateur Rugby League Club, based at Clarington Park, Wigan the club was formed in 1910 and we have been producing players ever since! We are extremely proud of our history and even more excited about our future.

I'm happy with people using whatever they prefer and certainly don't see the need to get precious about it.

Hardly worth derailing a thread about a laudable initiative but to me they're all simply rugby league clubs. What's precious about that?

No biggie, it just reminds me of the old days when the sport had two governing bodies and the RFL and BARLA were at each other's throats.

I can't think of any other sport(soccer, cricket, union etc) that feels the need for a pro/am demarcation 

[Futtocks]

The amateur clubs were always a good example to show Rugby Union fans (during the shamateur era) that the code war wasn't just greedy professionals versus saintly Corinthians.

Seriously, I used to work with a woman who refused to believe that there was such a thing as a Rugby League player who hadn't originally been a Union player. In her eyes, they were all converts, corrupted by filthy Northern lucre. I wouldn't remotely characterise her as stupid either, but she had bought into an assumption that was not uncommon at the time.

[EggFace]

I know the Community clubs are not big enough but maybe warm up SL/Championship round.

[Wiltshire Warrior Dragon]

1 hour ago, Futtocks said:

The amateur clubs were always a good example to show Rugby Union fans (during the shamateur era) that the code war wasn't just greedy professionals versus saintly Corinthians.

Seriously, I used to work with a woman who refused to believe that there was such a thing as a Rugby League player who hadn't originally been a Union player. In her eyes, they were all converts, corrupted by filthy Northern lucre. I wouldn't remotely characterise her as stupid either, but she had bought into an assumption that was not uncommon at the time.

Extremely well put, Futtocks, for which many thanks.  I have come across union devotees who assume that the breakaway of 1895 (of which they are vaguely aware but almost certainly couldn't state the actual year of it) was about all players becoming not only paid, but also full-time rugby professionals.  When I point out that in the first few seasons of Northern Union, its players had to fill in a form indicating their main source of income (which couldn't be the NU rugby club), they are amazed.  Clearly, for such union devotees, the concept of broken time payments (and what that actually means) has totally passed them by.

[gingerjon]

10 hours ago, Wiltshire Warrior Dragon said:

Extremely well put, Futtocks, for which many thanks.  I have come across union devotees who assume that the breakaway of 1895 (of which they are vaguely aware but almost certainly couldn't state the actual year of it) was about all players becoming not only paid, but also full-time rugby professionals.  When I point out that in the first few seasons of Northern Union, its players had to fill in a form indicating their main source of income (which couldn't be the NU rugby club), they are amazed.  Clearly, for such union devotees, the concept of broken time payments (and what that actually means) has totally passed them by.

To be fair, rugby league is about the only sport I can think of where a knowledge of its foundation, the reasons for it, and the dates and locations involved are deemed essential contemporary knowledge.

 

[Just Browny]

5 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

To be fair, rugby league is about the only sport I can think of where a knowledge of its foundation, the reasons for it, and the dates and locations involved are deemed essential contemporary knowledge.

 

Does the race for the William Webb Ellis trophy start today?

[gingerjon]

2 minutes ago, Just Browny said:

Does the race for the William Webb Ellis trophy start today?

... would be a case in point. Many rugby union fans know that their historic clubs were founding members of the Football Association? Many football fans know? Any of them care?

Any of them spend their time lecturing people in pubs about the attitudes of 1880s muscular Christianity Empire-building public school teachers and their sports clubs?

[Just Browny]

3 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

... would be a case in point. Many rugby union fans know that their historic clubs were founding members of the Football Association? Many football fans know? Any of them care?

Any of them spend their time lecturing people in pubs about the attitudes of 1880s muscular Christianity Empire-building public school teachers and their sports clubs?

The fact many of us do find these things interesting is a fun quirk; there's no harm in it.

[gingerjon]

4 minutes ago, Just Browny said:

The fact many of us do find these things interesting is a fun quirk; there's no harm in it.

Mostly, yup.

[ELBOWSEYE]

14 hours ago, marklaspalmas said:

Hardly worth derailing a thread about a laudable initiative but to me they're all simply rugby league clubs. What's precious about that?

No biggie, it just reminds me of the old days when the sport had two governing bodies and the RFL and BARLA were at each other's throats.

I can't think of any other sport(soccer, cricket, union etc) that feels the need for a pro/am demarcation 

It's probably still carries on after the Union pre professional days were the RL clubs emphasize the Amateur to show league was more than just a handful of pro/semi pro clubs. You could ask why we still use Football in the correct titles of league/Union/Gaelic/American. But they all do.

[Wiltshire Warrior Dragon]

6 hours ago, gingerjon said:

To be fair, rugby league is about the only sport I can think of where a knowledge of its foundation, the reasons for it, and the dates and locations involved are deemed essential contemporary knowledge.

 

Point taken, GJ, though GAA is arguably another case in point.  I suppose what I was trying to demonstrate was that there are people who think they know about something, but actually harbour sketchy or even inaccurate knowledge.