Re: London youth, and the future of RL : Tue Apr 03, 2018 7:56 am  

Plummy not meant to get a bite it was just an observation.
In one pass down through the route to the toilets under the stand, one family, that was mother father and two youngish kids, a group of 4 teenage girls, one bloke in his 80,s (only know that coz he chatted) and 4 blokes prob all middle age in the loo.
Point is there was a reasonable mix, and not all older folk.
Generally though look around the game of Rugby League, it does get a decent mix of all ages. South stand at Leeds is full of bloody kids, look at Saints and wigan loads of kids and both sexes.
As for % not got a clue I don’t go round asking

Re: London youth, and the future of RL : Tue Apr 03, 2018 7:58 am  

The start of this thread was about kids playing the game! Around 200 girls playing rugby league over two days can’t be a bad thing for the sport.

Re: London youth, and the future of RL : Mon Apr 09, 2018 10:14 am  

For those that are interested, click the link to see the extent of the junior game in London (50-0 = game didn't take place), so 3 age groups, u13, u14 and u16 (no Primary stuff going on just now) http://www.rugby-league.com/leagues__competitions/london_and_south_east/results

For those that are interested, click the link to see the extent of the junior game in London (50-0 = game didn't take place), so 3 age groups, u13, u14 and u16 (no Primary stuff going on just now) http://www.rugby-league.com/leagues__competitions/london_and_south_east/results

Re: London youth, and the future of RL : Mon Apr 09, 2018 7:38 pm  

Not unusual first few weeks of the season, lots of kids play both codes which sadly means if there Union club has done well then choice is RU play offs and finals or league. Usually picks up end of April. Next problem kids face is they then get into exam season.
As Usual two ways of looking at it 6 out of 10 games played so 150 kids playing in the london area last weekend. Or you can look at the negative and say 4 planned games cancelled.

Re: London youth, and the future of RL : Mon Apr 09, 2018 7:58 pm  

northernbloke wrote:

As Usual two ways of looking at it 6 out of 10 games played so 150 kids playing in the london area last weekend. Or you can look at the negative and say 4 planned games cancelled.

You can look at it in whatever way you wish. I have no axe to grind as I coach one of the sides and know from the inside whats going on. 150 kids ? You assume minimum 13 a side ? A game can register a score as long as its 9 a side. Like you, I hope things pick up towards the end of April, and I am sure they will but ..... the one fact I seem not to be able to get through (and I wish I could lay my hands on info to substantiate my point), how many teams were involved in the London Junior League 5 years ago ? 3 years ago ? How many qualified coaches in the same period ? How many referees ? The latter point, which is something you will be aware of, what percentage of London Junior League games at the weekend had no appointed official take charge ? And the same question for London Junior League 2017, on an average weekend ?

Re: London youth, and the future of RL : Mon Apr 09, 2018 10:12 pm  

Simple answer to the lack of referees, come and do a course! Good to hear you coach though plummy, did yr team play on Sat? Actually it would be good to see how it compares over the last 5 or 10 years, overall I would say the numbers have probably gone up certainly has from when I started reffing.
So let’s assume, every game was worse case 9 a side, still 100 kids playing. FWIW I have never reffed a 9 a side game in LJL, 10 a side yes.
As a coach you will be as aware as anyone the difficulty of getting kids out on a Sat morn to play but I doubt that’s isolated to Rugby League.

Re: London youth, and the future of RL : Tue Apr 10, 2018 11:27 am  

northernbloke wrote:

Simple answer to the lack of referees, come and do a course! Good to hear you coach though plummy, did yr team play on Sat? Actually it would be good to see how it compares over the last 5 or 10 years, overall I would say the numbers have probably gone up certainly has from when I started reffing.
So let’s assume, every game was worse case 9 a side, still 100 kids playing. FWIW I have never reffed a 9 a side game in LJL, 10 a side yes.
As a coach you will be as aware as anyone the difficulty of getting kids out on a Sat morn to play but I doubt that’s isolated to Rugby League.

You are preaching to the converted. I am a qualified coach and a qualified referee. There are not enough of either. Last season my team played 11 games and I had to referee all but 4, including a semi-final. Do you know how difficult it is to referee AND coach a side AND manage a bench. Its effin impossible. It’s not only me and its putting folk off. I had to do the same at the weekend, in a game of 10 a side, my team having 12 players.

I don’t underestimate the challenge of getting referees, as I have the same problem getting volunteers, players, never mind coaches, but it is a big issue.

My belief is that the demands on volunteers at each club, have increased for many reasons, and it’s easy for even the most committed to say no more. I am firmly of the belief there are less than 50% of the total sides (not clubs) playing now than 5+ years ago. The days when LMS and Clubb started playing our great game. The junior player pool is shrinking, full stop. You hit the nail on the head. Most junior players priority is completion of their union season and then play league. Is that developing rugby league players or just working around the challenges of the local junior sporting scene ? Is this building a proper player pathway ?

From a Broncos perspective, what does that mean. They can leave well alone, accept that the number of juniors playing is shrinking and hope that through Origin (only up to u16 I believe and in itself is a flawed representative set up) they can cherry pick players capable of moving to Scholarship; or they could just advertise for open training sessions for Scholarship (bear in mind that’s why they are doing that for Academy, as there is no u17/18 junior rugby league); or they could grab things by the scruff of the neck (in conjunction with Skolars in necessary) and engage fully in junior rugby league clubs and the junior game in the region.

Re: London youth, and the future of RL : Tue Apr 10, 2018 11:48 am  

Plummy, from a Refs perspective I will personally apologise for you not having a society ref, I know in the summer 17 we really struggled some weeks Just to put it in perspective I did very little last year mainly down to working lots of weekends now, so that was one regular down.
I will agree with you from a broncos and skolars perspective to get the new Clubbs LMS Dixon’s of the future the junior game needs to thrive. In the south it is always going to be second to Union, until the main game gets the shake up it needs. (Barry Hearn?)
Neither of the london clubs I feel actually support junior Rugby the way it should, london finals last year Junior was there for the mini, but no one stayed around for the actual finals.
But my point is we should celebrate the wins, we should be thanking the coaches at clubs who do it for nothing, we should be celebrating every time we get kids out be it 20 50 r 100. When I go out I get a match fee so I don’t lose money, but I make sure I encourage every player good or bad, I try to keep em interested, even if they don’t like my decisions as a ref.
So maybe in this case looking at the positives rather than negatives is the way ahead.