I think those are things clubs as part of the community should aim for but as a Pro RL club I'd hope getting fans through the door was priority number 1 and then building your sports business (as thats what it is)

I'm a bit perplexed at where all this borough stuff has come from recently(even more so as to why Wigan with its millions over the years hasn't felt like doing the honourable thing to help all these kids in the borough) or why Leigh haven't mentioned much about it in the recent weeks with such vigour.

Whilst not living in Leigh (so you could say its easy for me not to be too fussed about how many kids play sport etc) I think the things you mention should be a aspiration after we have got the other things right - namely a semi successful club.
Alternatively if everyone is saying we want a successful club to show how well the borough is doing then you could say its already in place - its callled Wigan Warriors.
I'm sure you'd agree though that Wigan Warriors probably doesn't represent your part of the borough.

If we don't get it right, it will strangle our player pipeline and we'll pay a heavy price in 5-6 years time. It would be folly for us to allow our youngsters to be neglected, even if it shouldn't be our responsibility. Our governing body and sporting bodies have let us down, but the torch falls to us.

Have you had your body ' snatched ' ?

This borough provides something like 20% of the players in SL , that post is complete bollox

This borough HAS produced 20% of the talent in SL.

The foundation that provided that pathway has been or is being dissolved and we need to help fill that gap for our local players.

What ' Foundation ' ?

Apologies mate (and i'm not being sarcastic) but do you think this is our club saying we are struggling to get players or maybe in 10 years time we will struggle to get players because the RFL have stopped the funding so this is the main reason we should pool resources with Wigan ?

It confuses me because I'd say regardless of Leigh and Wigan either flooding the borough with coaches or doing nothing the 'borough' will still produce enough players for at least two Pro / Semi Pro teams coaching set up to work on and progress (not to mention the local schools and amateur clubs in the borough).

I suppose it still leaves unanswered that if its about replacing the work the RFL did then why put some Wigan U23's in Leighs squad now (or have the potential to do so this season) - they never did it when the RFL was looking after junior development and I'd say the borough has produced more top flight RL players than most areas of the UK.

As far as I understand it, the RFL payed for 1 community development officer in the Wigan and Leigh Borough, just 1 , please anybody correct me if I'm wrong

So how much actual junior player production were they responsible for ? , compared to over a dozen amateur clubs?

The loss of the Sport England funding will hardly be noticed in this borough

As I said, if anybody knows different for certain, please correct me

What about the loss of community coaches at pro and semi-pro club level? That's one thing that comes to mind without doing any research.

As for responsibility, we need to take responsible for ensuring that players can take a smooth development path at 16+ and that they're not left to develop solely with the amateur game and the inherent limitations that come with that.

What a load of bollox from Jenky & the North stand bloke & what may well have been the Chuckle Brothers to me to you Steve love , Lynda and Starbug alternating comments all day .

If your on the board Lynda why wasn't this little nugget " Leaked " ?

Let me help you out a bit the curse of Juniors Rugby ( and Leigh are as much responsible ) is this community / schorarship fiasco which takes 11 / 12 players each from the Easts and Miners U16's each and make these lads think they've made it and the other 10 lads in their teams won't get a game for months on end and so walk away ?

Of the 20 odd in the service area farce only 3 or 4 may be kept on , and of the 3/5th's of the ones released they bigged it up so much signing that they can't swallow their pride and return and and walk away and for the ones that do ........ there's no team left for them to return to



Now who's turn is it on the compy Lynda ? , is it Trev or Simon ?

WHO? , who Michael? How many community coaches did the 2 clubs have?

Tiswallace, can you expand and simplyfie this post, I think I know what you mean, but I just want to be sure

Sorry Lynda, not a lynch mob more a witch hunt. I just can't believe what I am reading on here. I hope it doesn't get so far as fans hating fans because that is a sure way of reducing crowds. Well done scare mongerers. Get over this hate Wigan thing people. We are Leigh and will always be Leigh.