VOLUNTEERS TOO VALUABLE TO LOSE

Talking Grassroots

with PHIL HODGSON

ANY NEWS ON AMATEUR RUGBY LEAGUE? Contact Phil Hodgson on 07786 980909 or email: philhodgson2@aol.co.uk

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.