Almost all of our top rugby league players want a change in leadership at the RFL, fewer Super League games, more internationals, a reserve competition, better marketing – and half of them think there is a problem with recreational drugs. But most of all they want their voice to be heard.
In a revelatory Player’s Poll in the current issue of Rugby League World magazine, 248 current Super League players responded to a survey of the state of the game. Taking a lead from Australia’s Rugby League Week, which has held an anonymous survey of NRL players for years, Rugby League World has given players the voice they crave: albeit anonymously.
The results were conclusive if not surprising. Almost all current players think the game is not marketed well enough (95%) or does enough to promote individual players (93%). Eight of every 10 say they would take an inevitable pay rise offered by the NRL or rugby union given the chance.
Only one in 10 players have faith in the RFL and Super League to take the game forward, a withering verdict in the leadership of Ralph Rimmer, Brian Barwick and co. The players – the public face of the sport – are still shamefully shunned at the decision-makers’ tables. Although the Players’ Association has expanded following fine work by Garreth Carvell over the last year or so, it still has no say in major decisions, let alone a vote. No wonder players think they do not have a voice in the future of a sport (83%) that doesn’t listen to them (91%).
“We should be classed as primary stakeholders within the sport,” said one anonymous player. “Issues such as league structure changes and rule changes directly affect us but we have no say in them. Everyone else thinks they know best. Give the players a voice.”
The compulsory appointment of player welfare managers at every Super League club has resulted in an increase in care from several hugely experienced personnel, such as Steve McCormack at Wigan. And yet less than half of players believe clubs do enough for player welfare or treat mental health of players in a satisfactory manner.
While almost half the players believe there is a problem with recreational drugs in the sport, a third don’t. With Sporting Chance founder Tony Adams appointed RFL President for 2019, there should be an increase in awareness of the problems of drug use in the game and support for those needing it.
Working with the Professional Footballers’ Association, I find it staggering that rugby league equivalents do not create strength from unity. If the players’ union does grow, and the governing bodies act on their desires, the following would happen: relegation and promotion set in stone (almost all players want that); players banned for feigning injury (three-quarters support retrospective action); every Super League club has a reserve team (95% want one); dual-registration scrapped (more than half); the season cut in length (two-thirds); and the media stop criticising referees (only a quarter think refereeing is poor).
Not every vote made sense. Nine out of every 10 players want more internationals – and these are the same players who turned down the opportunity to represent nations such as Wales and Scotland this autumn and even at the 2017 World Cup.
But the players have spoken and it is about time the authorities listened.
Foreign quota
While the English action kickstarted with Boxing Day friendlies, France’s Elite 1 is settling down. Last season’s surprise champions, Avignon, have reverted to mediocrity, losing two of their first three games. Predictably, perennial challengers Lezignan and Limoux Grizzlies are already clear at the top and looking probable Championship finalists.
Last week, Lezignan scraped past an impressive young Catalans side, thanks to four conversions from former France and Dragons winger Damien Cardace, with the evocatively-named Valentin Ferret among their try-scorers. Another familiar scorer last week was former Samoa and Wakefield Trinity pivot Pita Godinet, now starring for Villeneuve. Godinet and his Leopards head to leaders Lezignan next weekend, while Limoux face a tough test at Olivier Elima’s dogged Palau Broncos.
Clubcall: Barrow Raiders
I confess to not being an avid reader of the Salvation Army’s newspaper, but there was a fascinating story in the current edition featuring the extraordinary sporting life of recently appointed Barrow Raiders chaplain, the Reverend Tony Ford. Having overcome severe childhood disability caused by thalidomide, Ford was a schoolboy footballer at Manchester United before a spell in Canada at Vancouver Whitecaps and at Wollongong in New South Wales rugby league land.
Back in Lancashire, he was encouraged to give league a go and was an immediate hit. He was a good enough hooker to sign for Salford, eventually playing for the first team, and Oldham, who his parents supported.
Ford was converted again, this time to Christianity and trained at Oak Hill Theological College, opposite Saracens’ old ground where my Southgate College rugby league team played. After eight years as chaplain at Oldham Roughyeds, Ford is now delivering pastoral care and welfare support to players, staff and fans at Barrow. Good luck Rev.
Goal-line drop-out
It is almost eight years now since the RFL invited Gloucestershire, Hemel Stags and Coventry Bears (and Nottingham Outlaws and Warrington Wizards) into an expanded third division. As predicted, most of these expansion projects failed, but do not despair. Coventry are thriving, and Hemel and the All Golds have joined in the new Southern Conference League, the latest fourth-tier competition for the strong amateur teams outside “the heartlands”.
Spoiled fans in the south east can spend Saturday afternoons at Bedford Tigers, Colchester (Easter Rhinos, who host Cutsyke in the BARLA National Cup on 2 February), or Hitchin (North Herts Crusaders); or in London at Acton (Wests Warriors), Clapham (London Chargers), Beckenham (South London Silverbacks), Chiswick (Hammersmith Hills Hoists) or Streatham Vale (Brixton Bulls). Let’s hope avoid clashing with Broncos home games.
Fifth and last
On Boxing Day, as Leeds proudly opened Headingley’s new South Stand, I visited friends in Barnet, passing Underhill, London Broncos’ headquarters for their last year in Super League. On the ground that was Barnet FC’s home for a century, a new secondary school is emerging from the rubble.
In the bleak mid-winter of 2013-14, I wandered into Underhill and found Broncos’ head coach Tony Rea, the chief executive and finance director huddled in a freezing cold, dark and spartan office, working out how they could drag the club off life support and put them into the recovery position. They turned the cricket pavilion into a gym, moved into Barnet’s offices and spent a season training – and playing Under-19 games – on a pitch about as level as Snake Pass. Honest, it made Batley look like Wembley. They won one game all year. Underhill was sold but lay empty for three years with the Broncos decamping for Bushey, and now Ealing.
With only a month to go before their return to Super League, some Broncos fans are getting twitchy over their low-key recruitment and mutterings of “please no, not 2014 again” can be heard throughout the home counties. Surely not.
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