A STRATEGY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF JUNIOR RUGBY LEAGUE
By Paul Farrell and Neil Farrell, West Bank ARLFC

It is commonly agreed that the Great Britain and Ireland Rugby League's attempts to narrow the gap between ourselves and Australia/New Zealand have failed. This statement is backed by the failure of the GB & Ireland team in the recently held Tri-Nations Series.

The sport's Joint Policy Board has launched a strategy for widening the net to catch the elite players, and this initiative is to be applauded, as is the introduction of regional development centres, which have already proved successful with the encouraging results against the recent NSW Academy tourists. However, the measures taken so far only reverse a small part of problems that the sport faces, and sustained success is not guaranteed with the current system of development.

To create players of the required standard, then a huge overhaul of the system, with emphasis on the twin pillars of mass participation and quality, skill-based coaching, is needed.

Undoubtedly there is almost no chance of elite performers coming to the fore from a player base that is restricted. From a recruitment scheme which encourages mass participation, then the 'quality' athletes will emerge. Currently the base of the pyramid is too narrow. Strenuous efforts are being made around the country at widening this player base, and while this continues in the development areas, then there is every chance of more stars being unearthed than would otherwise be the case. While these developments will bear fruit eventually and must be vigorously encouraged and supported, the recruitment and development techniques utilised in the game's heartlands are open to question.

With the junior section of our club West Bank ARLFC shortly to celebrate its tenth anniversary, then we feel we are in a good position to relate our experiences and formulate a possible way forward. Currently the club has teams playing in the North West Counties Leagues and are affiliated to the Widnes and District ARL. Both organisations have no development policy for expanding the game outside of their territories, and allow clubs to be born themselves with no assistance. Other bodies within the game are in a similar position. This has to change with new schools and towns being identified each year for development.

The West Bank club has found that most of the effort and expense that has gone into coaching and running teams at the younger age groups has largely been a waste of resources. Of our oldest age groups, i.e. Under 12's to 15's, there are only three players still playing for the club that were recruited as Under 7's to 10's. Those no longer playing for the club do so because either they do not play any sport, or play football, or rugby union, or have been 'poached' by other junior clubs.

At the young age groups, playing mini and mod versions of the game, teams having travelled for at least an hour to their opponents ground in the depths of winter, are allowed to play very few of the registered players (up to 25 per team). Those selected are limited to play the 20, 30 or 40 minute games, resulting in the skills of the masses not being tested.

It is our club's suggestion that club rugby league for Under 7's to 11's be scrapped in favour of a schools-based system led by the local professional club, whose main purpose in leading this venture would be to present the sport as 'sexy' and attain the mass participation required, and not simply to market their own club and get more 'bums on seats'. The game should be opened up to all the schools within the club's catchment area, the coaching resource would be supplied by the professional clubs in conjunction with the local amateur league, the local amateur clubs will be available to staff the scheme, and the coaching emphasis would be totally skill-based with teamwork only applied in the final year. Several club members have witnessed firsthand, whilst carrying out development work in non-rugby league schools, that there is a huge amount of untapped talent available if they were given the opportunity. All the schools would be encouraged to include the sport on its curriculum, thus allowing all the children attending the school access to the game. The children would not compete with other schools until their final year at junior school level, and the professional club would run the competition in the autumn and spring terms, when the weather encourages skills development, and increased interest and participation.

On reaching senior school the boys and girls would be directed towards their local 'community' club. Each town would have a junior club for each of its senior schools with the pupils identifying with one particular club. Transferring between clubs would only be allowed under the most exceptional circumstances. More teams have gone 'belly-up' due to 'superteam' building than for any other reason. Ten years ago, Widnes used to have five, 'fully-manned' junior clubs, now there are two. Most of this decrease is due to 'player poaching'. If all that's standing between a team competing adequately and being hammered every week is two excellent players, and those two players 'transfer' to the town's 'big club', then it's not long before the remaining players decide enough is enough. One team's greed leads to another team's demise, and as we have witnessed that most of the older age group players come to the game at a relatively late stage in their career, then the opportunities for them to play have been greatly reduced as teams have already 'folded' resulting in even more potential, quality players being lost to the game.

There is a huge difference between the coaching schemes operated in this country and those of Australia, and presumably those of New Zealand. While there are no doubt some excellent coaches operating in the various junior leagues there are many who shouldn't even be coaching tiddlywinks. In Australia, for example, having taken a coaching course, the candidate is subject to three years scrutiny as to his aptitude before he is awarded the qualification. By comparison, awards in this country are doled out like confetti. Our own experience has shown that you have to be practically psychotic to avoid getting some kind of qualification. This aspect needs urgent attention. The introduction of the new coaching courses and review system is welcome. However, more skill refresher updates/courses, newsletters, available literature etc, are required to keep the qualified coach up to date with the latest techniques and developments. Attendance on additional courses to supplement the sport's qualifications should be made compulsory, either by personal appearance on the courses or by a distance learning module method.

There has been a welcome emphasis lately on modified games for younger players but the same old attitude to winning is prevalent as kids as young as six continue to play in quasi league structures. Squads are built up, but generally the same kids play week in, week out. The coaches, parents and players need more education about their role and purpose, and rules about 'sharing' the participation need to be introduced.

Rugby league is not alone in this country in failing to produce the quantity of skilled performers required. Cricket, rugby union and football have all shown lately that the coaching systems are excellent at producing worthy battlers, but when it comes to sublime skill, very few artistes are produced.

We believe that the adoption of the ideas expressed in this article will help to remove rugby league from the list of shame generated by our countries' recent national sporting failures. As we stated earlier, some fine young players are produced but their number is too few, and a radical new approach is needed to tackle this points raised. We hope that members of the Joint Policy Board read this article, digest the points made, and include our recommendations in the plan to take this game's participation and coaching development policies into the next century.

EDITOR: I'd like to thank Paul and Neil very much for sharing their thoughts with 'League Leader' readers and for taking the time 'to put pen to paper', so to speak. As mentioned at the outset, this is such an important area of our game, and the points raised in this article need serious thought and scrutiny. What do you think? Have you any experiences that relate or differ to what has been written? Please write in with your contributions on this and other issues in rugby league.