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.

Quite agree Alan I have just got back from the gym and in view of what you have said I will refrain from watching Star Trek this lunchtime and go to the pub for one of my 5 a day.

Correct, they can’t train for 8hrs per day everyday, even when you add in the video/game plan sessions etc.

Community work is a great way to fill in the working day, and can be very rewarding for the players in terms of team building, moral etc as well as those they visit.

I'm with glow and Alan.

Answering the question, community Development in our sport of Rugby League can never be too much. I think it makes our players better people and is welcomed by the majority of players and helps with their personal profiles.

Alex Ferguson may have stopped them doing community work but he didn't stop them making bundles of money making commercials that I personally worked on. There must have been one or two commercials per week being made somewhere in Manchester that involved his players. I have even done them at Carrington so they are available just before or after training.
I am sure that our club will monitor what the players attitudes are towards this type of work and if it is affecting the team then something will have to be done. I have every faith that this bunch of players and club staff can work together and make both things work.

I'll have a bash - if every player did 2 hours a week and 4 players attended each community event then we could cover 8 events per week - sounds simple and not time consuming

They key is planning and sharing - if you asked them to do 20 hours a week then the club could attend 80 functions or 16 per day - that's too much even if there was that many to attend

The last time we were ' full time ' the coach stopped all the players from doing community work, then again he was a muppet

the exception proves the rule as they say!

He was a visionary, liked by all and had only the future well being of the club at heart

And he tried to get Charlie banned from Hilton Park. PS that's true.

Not just Charlie .
I was. Accused of calling him in the bar after our first game and I wasn't even in the country it was someone else !!!

I'm starting to warm to Mr Abram now.

At Abram's first home match in charge I was in the Hilton Park Lounge corporate having a meal. I asked Abram if he would be going over to the Mick Martyn Bar and giving a few words to the fans in the form of a MOM presentation, similar to which his predecessors in Milward and Terzis had done previously.

He replied ' I wont be doing any MOM presentations and... I give my views to the radio.'

Hardly a surprise a he would not embrace the idea of a community club either.

That's why he's been out of the game for 10 years. Least said about the fella the better.

To say current management vs him is like chalk and cheese would be the understatement of the year!!

It is True , Dazzler DID try to ban me , he even told 2 security men to eject me from the Ground



after a Match , but I had done nothing wrong , I had witnesses to say so , needless to say , I wasn't ejected or Banned from the Club , as id done nowt wrong , just disagreed with Dazzler



, I later told him "When he was Long Gone , I would still be a Leigh Fan , and hes GONE , and im still a Leigh fan .Charlie knew .

.

Law of averages says you will be right occaisionally

Nah, as others have said full time players have plenty of time on their hands. Now don't get me wrong they need that time to recuperate and to be fit for match day but attending community events doesn't affect match fitness or focus in the slightest. In fact I'd say it can improve match focus, you realise and understand more who you are playing for.

Community engagement is vital for RL clubs and, despite being better at it and more open than some other sports I think all RL clubs can still do far more.