The 2022 BARLA National Cup Final, which is taking place next Sunday, is perhaps the most interesting decider in the competition for years.
The two teams involved have wildly varying pedigrees in amateur Rugby League’s blue riband knockout tournament with Waterhead Warriors, of the National Conference League, appearing on centre stage for the first time and Sharlston Rovers, after an absence of the best part of a decade, back in a limelight that not so long ago almost seemed to be theirs as of right.
Rovers featured in five finals between 2010 and 2015, three of which went the way of the Wakefield outfit. And they also appeared in, from memory, one or two Champion of Champions deciders (that was a terrific end-of-season competition in which the title-holders of the Cumberland, North West Counties, Pennine and Yorkshire Leagues vied for the role of top dogs of the various regional leagues).
Since those heady days Sharslton have perhaps slipped back a little from the heights. But the indications – given that they are in yet another National Final – are that Rovers could be well and truly on the way back, especially as those two fine coaches from the golden era, Gordy Long and Lee Bettison, are overseeing the development of the club’s youth and junior sides.
That initiative is, among other things, driven by Sharlston’s desire to be admitted, sooner rather than later, to membership of the National Conference League, and there is no doubt at all that Rovers would grace the competition, with secretary Johnny Brewerton – himself a fine coach for many a year – providing efficient off-field administration and a new player/coach, Ady Mulcahy (who is of course very well known as a mercurial halfback with Normanton Knights and Eastmoor Dragons) giving the team renewed zest.
I’m looking forward to seeing Mulcahy in action next week, not to mention Waterhead’s contingent of players who have returned from Oldham, before what I’m sure will be a big crowd at the Millennium Stadium, Post Office Road (what wonderful hosts, incidentally, are Featherstone Rovers for amateur games). That crowd will include eight coach-loads of Warriors supporters while Sharlston, who are only a stone’s throw from Featherstone, will also have plenty of backing.
Finals are inevitably adversarial, which is as it should be, but it’s gratifying how major games, at any level, throw up old friendships. I hadn’t realised, until I chatted to Waterhead’s Jon Perks (who, with Keith Brennan, coaches the Oldham outfit) that he and Gordy Long were team-mates at Bramley. Gordy, in fact, took the opportunity to give Jon a call and catch up on old times. I’m sure that they’ll have a pint together on Sunday, which is one of the things that, for me, Rugby League is ultimately all about. And the pair may well reflect on the importance of having their older youth teams (Under 18s in Waterhead’s case, Under 16s with Sharlston) training alongside the Open Age sides to help ensure seamless progression as players grow older.
Someone else who might well be there, professional duties allowing, is Barrie McDermott, who is rightly always keen to declare that he was a Waterhead junior (and who really does appreciate the importance of all amateur clubs, not only as production lines for the professional scene but for their own sake). Barrie, in fact, coached Waterhead to victory in the Oldham ARL’s Standard Cup – the ultimate District League competition – a few years ago, when he was joined in the dugout by the redoubtable Cumbrian Alan McCurrie. And who was coach of runners-up Shaw? None other than Iestyn Harris. Those three names tell you all you need to know about how important amateur Rugby League is to so many professionals, no matter what heights they may reach in their careers. And, as regards the `here and now’ Waterhead are in fine fettle partly through the return to Peach Road from Oldham of Danny Bridge, Phil Joy and Gareth Owen. The Warriors could well be among the front-runners, come the end of the 2022 campaign, for promotion from the NCL’s Third Division. Way before then, though, there’s the matter of the BARLA National Cup to consider, followed by another appearance in the Standard Cup Final, with Saddleworth Rangers providing the opposition on Good Friday at Oldham RUFC’s Manor Park.
Spring has certainly added to a feel-good factor in amateur Rugby League and, among other good news, is the revelation that a new team – Anglia Vikings – is being formed in Norfolk, and that England Wheelchair will host France in June as the World Cup hovers nearer. And the President’s Cup got underway last Wednesday although (and I did warn potential spectators in last week’s column) the snows fell at Saddleworth as warm weather was replaced by something entirely different. Let’s hope for more clement conditions when UK Armed Forces, who beat GB Police last week, take on GB Teachers, who lost to England Universities, in the next stage of the competition, at Lock Lane on Wednesday 27 April, when the students will meet the coppers in another double-header.
And finally, I’m sure all in the game will wish Saddleworth’s Charlie Mills well. The winger suffered an astonishing injury in the NCL fixture at Ince Rose Bridge when, in the act of scoring a try, the corner flag somehow became speared in his leg. All the best for a speedy recovery, Charlie.
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