Last weekend I attended a very interesting Conference organised by the Rugby Football League to discuss player retention and loss in our great game.
It has often perplexed me as to why when someone starts to play Rugby League, why would they leave the game whilst still young as, after all, when many of us started playing the game as youngsters, we were hooked and ‘wild horses’ wouldn’t have kept us from playing. But the evidence is clear that despite a good level of new registrations, we lost nearly 7,500 youth and junior players alone to the game last year, something that we all should be concerned about.
The RFL and Warrington Wolves Community Foundation have made it one of their key priorities to address this haemorrhaging of players from our sport, but before we try to resolve the problem, its important that we understand the main causes, and put actions in place that will retain as many players as we can. The RFL have already started to research some of the causes of player loss and, whilst there can obviously be a multitude of reasons why an individual young person stops playing Rugby League, there are likely to be some key factors which we can collectively work together to address.
Initial research by the RFL has identified 3 key factors that they believe have adverse impacts on player retention, namely:
- Over competitiveness at too young an age; a ‘win at all cost mentality’.
- Poor touchline behaviours during games; arguing with the ref, each other and setting a bad example to those playing.
- Coach & adult education; how do we focus on development of the individual with excellent values, something which is a key attribute of today’s top professional players, and which can make a positive difference in life in so many ways.
I recently raised these issues with the Chairs of Community Clubs and whilst they didn’t totally disagree with these potential causes of poor retention, they also suggested some other factors such as:
- The current structure of the scholarship model; something which leads to the game losing lots of players at 16.
- Poor facilities; a serious issue in our game and one that needs addressing as a priority if we are to develop our stars of the future and provide a first-class experience.
- Competition from other sports; especially where there is overlap of playing season.
Whilst these all of these issues play a part, there is no doubt in my mind that over-competitiveness and touchline behaviours are key factors in why many young people leave the sport.
At the recent RFL conference, footage was shown of an incident at a junior game in Yorkshire where the touchline descended into chaos, with both coaching teams brawling whilst the young players looked on. Yes, scenes like this are relatively uncommon, but a disgrace nonetheless, and I know for a fact that if one of my children had been playing in that match, I’d ensure they never played for either club again – a player potentially lost!
But take a closer look at the offending game and you notice that the game is being played under 13 a side rules, something that shouldn’t be happening at this age group. Why we may ask, when smaller sided games are designed following research to help develop our young players in the right way? In this case the playing of the fully competitive version of the game was due to both coaches agreeing to do so against the rules, afterall they said this is the “proper version” of rugby league, the version that they played when they were kids and which “never did them any harm”! Well, it’s clear the game of their childhood has potentially done them some harm, their behaviour in front of impressionable young people was a disgrace and cannot be condoned in any form.
Fortunately, the vast majority of behaviours at our Community Clubs in Warrington are good and the right; supportive, nurturing, level of competitive conduct on display. But we need to continue to work hard on this and think twice before having a go at the referee, or telling our young 8 year-olds to “go and smash” the opposition instead rewarding good play and effort, not just recognising those who happen to be the most developed at that age, and whom score the most tries.
As you gather from reading this blog, this is a subject very close to my heart and one I will come back to in future blogs, yes people may disagree with some of my thoughts on this, but what’s important is that we work together to understand the causes of player attrition and keep as many players as we can plying the greatest game.
