HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF AGAIN
Talking Grass Roots
with PHIL HODGSON
IT must be about 25 years ago now that I was present at a regular meeting of the Leeds & District League, as a club delegate, at which Frank Robinson set out his case for the launch of an organisation to take over the running of the amateur game from BARLA.
Frank was unhappy about the way that the British Amateur Rugby League Association was going about its business at that time. I forget what his exact gripe was (in truth there’s almost always something going on in any organisation, in any walk of life, that’s upsetting somebody or other) but he certainly felt strongly about it.
In the end his bid to form what I think he dubbed the British Amateur Rugby League Federation floundered for want of support. My own view, which I put forward at that meeting, was that there was already a body in place (BARLA) to represent our interests, and that the most sensible thing to do for those who were less than satisfied was to put themselves forward for election for office and subsequently seek to change or improve the Association from within. Otherwise we would have been doing little more than reinventing the wheel.