The single biggest issue is the level of high quality pe in primary schools (key stage 1 & 2). The fundamentals (physical literacy skills not sport specific) at this age are criminally over looked with children not reaching their maximum physical potential in the early long term athlete development phase. After this point, you can coach all you like and they'll still never reach that potential.

Sport in this country is always funded through justifying health agendas etc and not for it's own sake. You can't fully address the adult provision and elite provision til this is improved.

The other big one is the number of uneducated parents coaching at junior clubs, of course their time is appreciated unfortunately the quality is very rarely what's needed- like trying to run hook, line and sinkers before the can simply run on to a ball with a good catch.

Agree 100% with you, geting juniors from the age of five upwards to regard sport as natural as breathing is the way we should be pushing, The RFL should be pushing cash into providing propper training for coaches & using government schemes to get thier parents educated to the benafits of sport for thier kids as well as for them selfs. It will be a long slog untill we see any results but it should be persued.

IMO it requires a fundamental shift in thinking from everyone involved in the game from the grass roots up, to regard the elite international level (and producing players for it) as being the most important thing in the sport.

There are always going to be levels below that for those who want to enjoy the game on a social or recreational level, but the thought process in any strategic decisions should be "how will this make the international side better?"

At the moment, the international game is very much an afterthought - see the number of players who put off minor surgery until the end of the club season, thereby ruling themselves out of international consideration every year.

Until the "my club first" mindset is broken at both amateur and professional level, the game in this country will remain stagnant.

Stop playing loose forwards at stand off.

The one that played all season at stand-off for the team that reached both major finals and won one of them?

Unfortunately that wont happen until the international game brings in more revenue than the club game. Bit of a chicken and egg situation.

If we're going back to primary school kids - and I agree about its importance, we'll see the benefit in about 20 years.
In the mean-time lets find an additional focus for representative RL, that we can enjoy for itself. Sport thrives on competition. Queensland and NSW have mostly been closely matched, so Origin thrives. England and Australia aren't, frankly, so the International game is seen as a bit of a joke. The Exiles or County games, whatever best capture the imagination - we can't replicate the International dimension of Football, or even RU and Cricket, so let's innovate.

what this thread will show is that there are a million and one 'priorities' that need dealing with depending on one persons view compared with another

the RFL have a pretty difficult job balancing all those priorities but what fans need to remember is that there are very limited resources available and actually, the RFL do a pretty good job of a) trying to increase it's revenues and b) balancing all the priorities...

Heresy!!!!

I agree with the people who say that we need to start right at the bottom.

I coach under 8's myself, and I'd like to think that I do a good job, really drilling the basics and encouraging throwing the ball about during games, but you do come across people with the "Give it to the big lad" mentality all too often. The thing is, I don't blame the coaches really. I don't feel the RFL offer enough support or resources once you're qualified.

I work in sport development and rugby league and have done for 10 years, I work with schools every day and the primary schools issue is the main one, but I'm not just talking about rugby. The majority of Key stage 1 & 2 pupils are not taught to run properly, develop agility, balance and coordination, work as a team or develop confidence in a sporting context.

regards the 'give it to the big lad' rugby, i always thought clubs should have been a little proactive and stepped those lads up an age group, it's no benefit to either them or their actual age groups side to play that way.