I know that one of the main reasons that Carlisle struggled to raise a competitive side away from home was the number of our squad that worked Saturday morning.

Other issues were returning from the Southern games well after midnight following an 18 hour day and the 'once bitten twice shy' issue of players going on one long trip to find the side missing several key players or with only 1 substitute and having to do the tackling for 3 or 4 colleagues.

The main issue though was young lads being told by their bosses that they had to work 1 Saturday in 2; thus if the league has a strict H A H A H A ... schedule they can play every week, as soon as it deviates from this (whatever the reason) it becomes an issue. Local amateur (not semi-pro like Workington Reds) football sides travel 2 hours max and union regionalises below semi-pro level although thqir squad size is often sufficient to better accomodate drop-outs.

conferences?
tbh I played am football in a national comp it is no fun to set off at 6am play a game then sit on the bus for a few hours battered and bruised getting home.

Not a lot of those in Carlisle.

The players have indicated they want to play in the summer and the Centurions are the only club playing at that level (not semi-pro) for 50 miles.

So the bottom line is amateur sport doesn't work at national level , so regional comps should be the aim with a national finals system

Exactly