Was glancing at a book today analysing Ferguson's success at ManU.

One thing it said was that he did not allow his players to do 'community' events as he wanted a complete focus on training and tactics.
Now we are full time, will there be a temptation to use too much extra time for community events such as the visit to Leigh Market?

Not saying I agree with Ferguson but it did make me think a bit...........

That's one of many reason Football is now carp. LRLFC have a clear accessibility strategy that is taking the team into the hearts of the community, and guess what - the community love it

Another example of Fergie talking complete tripe.

Many (if not most) of Man Utd's fans live overseas - little to no value to being seen locally at events. Complete contrast to Leigh - community engagement is very, very important.

As usual I agree my dear friend.

Simple solution is to use players who are injured for said events.

Ironic from the man in Canada but I do take your point

Indeed, most of them live in Chad (horrible place)

I hope the club see it as a Community Opportunity.

I think I agree that community involvement is very important. My question is can it become too distracting?

Full time players will have more time for this kind of activity but is it time needed to bring them to a higher stardard.

For me mixing with the Fans and the Community is very important , ive been told the Club have agreed to send a group of Players to the Boxing Night on Saturday evening , they will be made most welcome.

If you are doing to build a fan base it's important that the players are out there and it also promotes the club in the community

No-one is disagreeing that community involvement is very important. However, no-one has answered the question -can it be too much?

If some players are not based locally for example could they be over used in this respect?

It's very good to have the players involved in the community and is something Rugby League seems to do exceptionally well; gets potential fans involved and makes existing fans feel much more a part of the club. If it starts distracting from training then obviously it is too much, although I doubt Rowley would let that happen, but being full time, with the size of our squad and how many of the players live in Leigh I'm sure 9 times out of 10 we'll be able to find some players available. Plus some of them seem to enjoy it.

There have been numerous examples of full-time training itself, proving a distraction to players. 'Full-time' is perhaps something of a misnomer, in that the players are obviously not training ALL day - just a few hours in fact. Once training is finished, players have time on their hands, which could lead to involvement in activities not conducive to their health or development!

I would argue that an involvement in the community could be an excellent 'distraction' for the players.