Gareth is a top rugby league journalist who has one very exceptional distinction. He chooses to write about matters pertaining to the Championship and League One.
Although this blog is devoted to Featherstone Rovers it is always good to read opinions about matters relevant to us, but not specifically about us. We hope you enjoy reading Gareth's column each week.
Life in League One
IT took
only one minute but illustrated perfectly the depth of feeling among League One
clubs at present.
Less than 60 seconds after tweeting to
praise York and Whitehaven’s Ladbrokes
Challenge Cup wins over Championship Swinton and Dewsbury, a reply from
Doncaster chief executive Carl Hall appeared.
“And
rumour is League One don’t contribute to the game,” wrote Hall, adding a couple
of wide-eyed emojis.
It was a thinly-veiled response to
Wigan chairman Ian Lenagan’s proposal to
other Super League clubs that there should be two top divisions of 20, and the
rest should have their central funding cut completely.
For clubs like Doncaster, York and
Whitehaven that would be hugely significant. It would be for every single club
that lay outside of that 20 “elite”.
It should be stressed at this stage
that this is only one man’s proposal, and
if anything, the circulation of it has galvanised Championship and League One
clubs and brought them together.
But the Challenge Cup results were a
timely reminder that teams at that level have plenty to offer the sport, both
on and off the field.
Whitehaven’s
stirring 25-18 win at home to the Rams was in contrast to their form up until
then, which had seen them lose both league matches including a thrashing at
Doncaster.
But Carl Forster’s
men rose to the challenge at the Recreation Ground to book their place in the
fifth round.
There they will be joined by the City
Knights, who rushed into a 20-0 lead against Swinton and withstood a Lions
comeback to triumph 26-12 in a match played at Featherstone’s
LD Nutrition Stadium.
The debate about central funding is
likely to run and run this year, with some Super League clubs apparently keen
to take as much as possible for the top table, and those affected naturally
defending their corner.
This writer stands firmly in the
corner of the clubs at the bottom end, who do thankless and tireless work in
their local communities to provide semi-professional opportunities for talented
rugby league players.
There are officials at this level who
have been pouring their own money into rugby league for a lot longer than some
of those that want to cut their funding, and to overlook their clubs’
contribution to the sport is as disappointing as it is disrespectful.
For the amounts of money that we’re
talking - around £75,000 a year for each club in the third tier - it would be
much better off continuing to let them use that to push the sport into their
local communities than say signing another overseas player for top flight
clubs, some of whom can’t even run more than one team.
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