Best name one or two them we can get the wind up out of the way.

Highly publicised head injuries, schools which won't play RL but insist on union, more non team sports activities for kids to choose instead, less SKY money etc will all contribute to decreasing numbers of youngsters wanting to play RL and RU.

But club x are just feckless, lazy and can't be bothered?

I played a bit of 3rd 4th team Union at 16-17 1989-1991 open age. would not dare have played open age Rl at that time. even under 18's was very very tough std as there where not really enough under 18s team round my way at the time, so just getting a game was not easy. Hardly any junior football in my far flung outpost of west yorkshire. now there are loads of junior Football teams and hardly any Rl teams not like they used to be.
Participation is very very low.

The physicality in Union and League makes it a tough ask for 17,18,19 year old's to "step up", something that isnt the same in Football and certainly not the same in cricket.
RL is more than ever a power based game and although some can cope, plenty need more time to develop.

We still come back to numbers and it's more important than ever to find ways to attract more juniors into the game.

When I was 14 I was a star FB and I have the trophies to prove it.

At 16 I was struggling with the physicality of the game and I was not a small lad. I still enjoyed it but I was no longer the star.

By 18 I had a go at open age. I played the full 80, scored twice and I’ve never played since.

I was black and blue by the end, I’d been threatened and punched by huge men who were more my dads age.

I’ll admit it, l was scared and played on instinct. That was 1983, perhaps it’s different now, I hope so.

I tried Union, I got bored and I didn’t really get it, so golf and a bit of tennis it was. Think I made the right choice

My lad went through Junior Football, which was renowned for being used as a creche for parents and interest built from the under 7's peaked around the 11's and 12's and fell after that with most kids not returning for U15's and U16's.....by that time scouts had taken who they wanted.......Kids had other choices and didn't need mum and dad to follow them.

I refereed games through this period, when adult sunday football was also declining fast, so much so there is no adult sunday league (which I ran a works team in) anymore round here, so please don't give me the made up nonsense that they are all playing adult football.

Once again the problem we have is participation numbers have declined massively via a social trend we cannot hope to reverse, and the head injuries alarm bells have only made it worse. SL clubs through their foundations give kids the chance to play and through their academies give the best a chance to make a career of it.

No point people constantly moaning SL clubs don't do enough to develop players, they actually do all they possibly can through foundations an academies.

If you want a row about it contact Jamie Jones Buchanan and out him straight.....

Well, I'm totally confused.
I must have mis read your earlier post on here, which I thought was suggesting that it was SL clubs and their academies that were killing the community game ??
My point was that it's nothing to do with SL clubs, which give better training and development of young lads and that it is lack of numbers which is THE problem for the community game.
"We" have to make RL more appealing and find ways of keeping youngsters in the game.

Reducing the numbers of elite academies wont achieve this.
Thankfully, one or two decisions have been reversed now and I re state the fact that SL clubs that are deficient, should be helped to get their academies up to scratch and not just binned off.

Yes I agree a lack of numbers.......

However the more academies you have the worse the general standard becomes.

Surely we want a competitive academy at a high level

A 10 club academy league will raise the standard a 14 club league will reduce it and will carry 100 players who are never going to make it.

Correct!

It’s getting the schools playing the game again IMO. Not reducing the number of academies.

I dont have the stats to back this up but I would hazard a guess that most grass root sports are diminishing in not just the UK but most developed nations. Its not the 80s anymore where there was nothing to do other than play sports or sniff glue. Kids these days would rather see how many likes on tik tok they can get or play fifa online with their mates, rather than partake in team sports.

The schools can't be made to start playing Rugby league, and where the schools use Union orientated heads of games you have no chance.

The kids who make it are the kids who go down to Milford, Dudley Hill, Oulton, Lock Lane etc....

As for the academies you don't explain your point. 10 academies will pretty much mop up the small numbers of talented kids who will make the grade.

20 academies would be ridiculous as the general standard would be poor and not stretch the talented kids.

If a couple of kids were tearing it up at school and on the local junior circuit then come 16 they need to be playing in a higher more intensive league.

Danny McGuire runs rings round kids at East Leeds, then goes to Leeds academy and is suddenly facing much better opposition and has to up and develop his game.

Players only develop if they move on to higher standards of Rugby,



.

Fundamentally, EVERY SL club should and need to be running their own academy.
It's quite ridiculous to preclude certain clubs because their academies aren't up to scratch.
They should be helped/forced to get them up to the required level - no excuses and it should be a pre requisite of being in SL.
A grace period for newly promoted clubs would be ok.

The previous licence period WAS the grace period.

Clubs knew this was coming and it should not a single club should have been caught out by the process.

In fact, it was scheduled to happen in 2020 and was delayed for 12 months because of Covid - there are no excuses for shoddy academy set-ups..

By the way, what the Wakefield poster forgot to mention was that another pre req of getting a SL licence was a stadium that was up to standard.

Bet you can’t get guess one of the 2 clubs that “promised” a SL standard stadium 10 years ago that still hasn’t delivered one?