A FULL review of the Rugby Football League’s latest missive to clubs and leagues, as its National Community Rugby League initiative appears to gather pace, would probably use up more pages than League Express can offer.

Save to say that much work will have to be done – a huge amount in fact – if everything is to be in place and, most importantly, enough people at the grassroots are persuaded, come next spring, by the RFL’s aims to launch a new, more regionalised playing structure at amateur level.

It’s a task, in truth, of labyrinthine complexity and Martin Coyd OBE and his colleagues Marc Lovering and Kelly Barrett have certainly given themselves plenty to do if the 2026 target date is to be met.

And that’s definitely the case, given that not everyone at the ‘coalface’ is in agreement.

In fact a key issue is whether those folk (to my certain knowledge, at leagues and clubs) can be persuaded to change tack over the next few short months.

I hope a timetable of targets is up on the wall at the bunker that is presumably at the hub of the revolution (if that’s the correct word for huge changes that are driven by a governing body – revolutions are usually driven by outside forces, are they not?).

If not, one needs to be, although it could make for daunting viewing.

From my own perspective, I stated last week, as I have done so often in the past, that I’m in favour of more (much more) regionalised fare and that’s how I’d like Rugby League to head, over time.

One or two other issues do trouble me a tad, though.

If I’m hearing it correctly, the RFL may be looking, in some areas, to replace existing, and highly experienced, volunteers with others.

In my experience, as a journalist, it hasn’t worked to date, far from it, in fact.

I really do hanker for the days when such as the North West Counties League and the CMS Yorkshire League, not to mention the Hull League, had their own personnel in place (all, so far as I know, unpaid, other than with derisory honorariums) who spent each and every Saturday night and, often, Sunday morning ensuring that I had results and, often, match reports to collate and pass to respective newsdesks.

Ron and Jean Girvin, together with their sons Ian and Neil, ensured that I got everything I needed from the giant North West Counties (it won’t have hindered that Ron was himself a journalist), while Ken Tinsdale, together with Dave and Doreen Kenny, did very much the same for the old CMS Yorkshire League.

In Hull meanwhile, such as, successively, Ivor Davies, Keith Dixon and Mark Chestney ensured that I had all the information I needed to file useful copy.

Then the RFL took over. Those volunteers were ditched and, instead, a computerised system was foisted (and I’m tempted to use a much stronger word) on everyone, the ultimate aim being, in my considered opinion, to keep costs to a minimum.

After all, it would have cost the RFL a great deal of money to pay people for work that, for many years, enthusiasts had been doing for, basically, nowt.

I know that a ‘duty officer’ is supposed to be in place each Saturday to do, well, I don’t quite know what they’re supposed to do, to be blunt.

What I do know is that results now come my way through the GameDay system and that I’m rarely sure whether, in the absence of a score, a match either hasn’t taken place at all, or that the home club’s designated results officer has fluffed the process (I’m sure that would have happened to me, which is one of the reasons I stepped back from club involvement nearly a decade ago).

I’m also adamant, as I used to tell RFL staff in regular meetings at Red Hall until I got fed up of sounding like a stuck record, that anyone who isn’t obsessively keen (as I am) on getting results published would simply ‘spike’ stuff from GameDay, which requires an immense amount of formatting.

And don’t start me on fixtures. Rarely, if ever, does GameDay flag up that matches are finals which, as I’ve stated once or twice recently, does the players, coaches and clubs a huge disservice.

So, if it’s correct that existing volunteers at league levels are to be brushed aside – as others have been, disgracefully, in the past – then we have the equivalent of the canary in the mine. Steer clear, has to be my advice.

And, selfishly I admit, I don’t want to be on the receiving end of yet more tripe. As the old saying goes, “marry in haste, repent at leisure”.

I have to wonder how much this lack of publicity, for which the RFL is at fault, has contributed to falling participation numbers in the men’s game.

It cannot be the main factor, of course, but it may well have played a part, if only by affecting the feelgood factor that was so prevalent, under BARLA, in my playing days, although times are now admittedly very different.

They seem to do these things so much better in Wales, where Ian Golden really does have his finger on the pulse, one example being only last week, when he highlighted the fact that the two Wheelchair games both involved ‘nils’ which was amazing considering that no one had been left pointless before in the Wales Wheelchair arena. Well done, Ian, for pointing out that incredible fact.

Also, I strongly advise readers to get along to Heritage Quay, Huddersfield, prior to the first week of February ending, to take in the ‘The Pioneers: Women in Rugby League’ exhibition.

This is yet another initiative of which Julia Lee should be immensely proud. Without her like, women’s Rugby League would be nowhere near its current rude health.

Finally, and less happily, it looks as though hopes to relaunch the Hull and District League’s Council Cup, the final of which was traditionally played over Christmas, have come to nothing as not enough clubs are interested.

It’s all so very deflating. Could the root cause be anything to do with matters I’ve raised earlier in this column?