widnes v barra for the TV game.
it should be a cracker.

Ooooh. Arrogance!

The thing is I think Barrow seem to be hated because we are seen as a threat to your little M62 empire. Admittedly the club has been run very very poorly over the years but Des Johnston and ALL the staff at the club are trying their damnest to rectify that and reach the standard of Widnes which is the bench mark I think for any Club. It is a long way off but if it isn't right on the field first then why bother with the rest. The Barrow Club has some huge bridges to build locally due to the poor running of the club in the past and getting parents to want their kids to play for Barrow is a daunting task trust me. I played for a very good Academy side in the 90's at Barrow and was promised the Earth only to be sh*t on - common in those dark days.

I don't honestly know what the plans are for Craven Park but as we haven't been established in the Cooperative Championship or had a spell in SL the ground and reserves have always taken a back burner. Naughton park, The Shay and Hilton Park were all dumps and rightly so were upgraded to what are deemed as Class facilities - something we need to aspire to. Your clubs were in the same boat as us a few years back - getting it right on the field, establishing yourselves, a Youth structure and then building your Stadia. If I am honest I do not know whether a nice All Seater Stadium is a pipe dream but the current Bod have delivered on their promises so far !

It does appear (and I may be wrong here) that there are a few fans from other clubs who resent our success because we have a 'Sugar Daddy' but I wonder how many of those follow Chelsea. Our Chairman wears his heart on his sleeve and is very passionate about what he does but I'd rather have that than have a passionless Chairman who didn't put his money where his mouth is. To say the Barrow supporters are wanting to be hated is absolute rubbish but the constant jibes about envelopes, the ground etc etc etc are wearing thin and are pretty much boring now. Your clubs were once where we are now (although we have a Championship Trophy that you don't have ) and have built yourselves from the ground up. All this talk of Stadia and Youth policies etc are the RFL's little way of keeping who they want in SL and is a pretty poor model if you ask me (as you lot at Widnes will know). Last seasons performance has given us the right to be where we are now if not in SL and I'm sure we can be excused for being a little over zealous at times. Please remember that the success we've had is new to us. Not to long ago we had crowds of less than 500 and were loosing week in week out so you can appreciate the enormity of what has happened upto now. I
I hope that this is the start of a grand era in the history of Barrow RLFC and that in 13 or 14 yrs I am watching my son playing in SL at his hometown Club.

Anyway this thread is about the NRC Draw so I'll shut me yap Can't wait for this game it should be a cracker !

We sorted our ground out when we were on the field

But you were an established club in The Championship (or NL1)

Nice sig Gary

If you saw what I saw on Saturday night then yours would be the same

Actually the year it was getting built we should have been relagated to the bottom tier but the RFL changed it to 1 league.

Yep.............and justified it would seem

Still, you get my point surely ?

You're quite wrong mate. Harry Edgar has made some very good points about Barrow being in Super League over the years in the 'Rugby League Review'.

I'm in the same boat as Leigh now, hope you do 'em in. Well done Gary I despise Barra' even more now.

This is absolute nonsense to be honest. The idea that any of us resent Barrow just because you are not in the M62. Its as if the M62 is part of some ancient lay line which has some spiritual significance.

This paragraph is as much as to the reason I think there is a certain negativity towards some of your fans. You're being delusional, paranoid, and unfair. Every time we talk our teams up we're arrogant to you. Every time you lost it's the referees fault.





I don't think you will get many on here agreeing with you about the rfl talk of youth policies and stadia. It's an area the sport needs to focus on. Too many clubs were and are relying on over the hill journeymen and foreigners and giving nothing towards the future. We're generally quite proud here of what the club has achieved with youth and facilities. We're looking to the future, other teams aren't.

We might not agree with the licensing, but those two aspects are vital to the future of this sport and our club. If you're a supporter of a club doing nothing off the pitch, you should be worried, because they need to step up.