AS worries over the long-term future of amateur rugby league across the sport's heartlands continue to grow, volunteers, players and coaches in this area are seeking new ideas of how to ensure it remains viable.
It is no secret that rugby league - along with football, cricket and rugby union - has seen a decline in participation numbers in recent years at grassroots level, although the spate of fixture cancellations towards the end of the most recent Cumbria Men's League season has spurred people into action.
The switch to summer rugby, a perceived lack of interest from the RFL and changing social circumstances are among the reasons often cited for the drop-off in playing numbers.
In addition, the change to a four days on, four days off shift pattern at BAE Systems has been blamed for affecting availability for clubs in Barrow and the surrounding area, with a large number of players being employed in the yard.
Walney Central chairman Shaun Morrow is the man who has taken the lead on seeking a possible solution by sending out an open letter inviting suggestion of ways the amateur game could be restructured, whether that be the eight teams in the area reuniting in a Barrow and District competition or alternatives to the current county league set-up.
“It was a way of opening the debate because it seems like we're ignoring the problem and hoping that someone else sorts it,” said Morrow, whose own suggestions include playing A team fixtures on Tuesday evenings and first-team fixtures on Friday evenings.
“It's hard work with everyone being in different leagues. The Cumbria League has been good for three years, but this year every team except Barrow Island and Distington have had to call games off because of a lack of numbers.
“We're doing really well at juniors and it will be good if we keep them together. We had 20 players signed on at under-16s last year who did really well, but once they come out at 18 they're straight onto these shifts.”
Walney were one of the clubs which founded the Cumbria League in 2013 along with Barrow Island, with Roose Pioneers and Ulverston coming on board in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
The rest of the clubs from the area are spread out, with Askam and Millom in the National Conference League, Hindpool Tigers in the North West Counties League and Dalton happy to stick with traditional winter rugby in the Pennine League.
Island coach Joe Elliott is one of those who responded to the letter, coming up with proposal would see the National Conference League regionalised below the Premier Division into Cumbria, Lancashire and Yorkshire county competitions.
“We need to create smaller divisions so that clubs who struggle during the season will finish earlier, and teams that have good squads can fight for promotions and cup successes towards the end of the season when, traditionally, teams who aren't competing for anything struggle,” said Elliott.
“Up and down cycles happen with every club. This structure allows for teams like Walney to gain promotion to the top flight when they are strong – which they would have competed well in two years ago - and also to regroup when they are not as strong through losing players because of their success.”
Along with reducing travelling costs, Elliott believes such a move would lead to standards being raised as well as allowing for all league, and county and national cup matches across the amateur game in rugby league's heartlands to be coordinated under one fixture plan.
“Summer rugby has created many good aspects, but the counter-fighting between administrations is killing the appetite and success that we should be reaping,” said Elliott.
“The league structures need to be coordinated together from local to national Premier as we are now just working against each other at the moment.
“I can't see a Barrow and District League working, especially without all eight teams and being out of sync with other competitions. We need everything from A team leagues to be co-ordinated properly.”
The Evening Mail's amateur rugby league correspondent Paddy McAteer has posed a solution of his own as well, which would see the four Cumbria League teams from the area joining up with Dalton and Hindpool in a reformed Barrow and District League, with the West Coast teams forming their own competition.
“If there was to be six clubs then they could play each other three times, making 15 league games, and also all clubs compete in the Cumbria Cup,” said McAteer.
“I'm sure the Cumbrian clubs wouldn't mind going back locally and maybe at the end of the season have the top two of both leagues meet in play-off, with the final being played on a neutral ground – perhaps, as a halfway house, at Millom?
“Maybe the league could have a March start, ending at the back end of June. Problems really kick in July and August time with concerts and holidays, but the season would be over and time to enjoy the rest of summer with their families, which could also happen if Shaun's views on playing Friday nights came into it.”
Morrow's open letter has generated plenty of interest on social media too, with several of Ulverston's players suggesting a league played in two blocks between September and November, and February and April, along with friendlies or another competition during the winter break and the play-offs in May.
Several concerns were raised over what can be done to halt the decline of the game at junior level and address the dwindling number of match officials as well.
Barrow and District League secretary Terry Barker says the league - which consists of A teams from Askam, Island, Ulverston, Walney and Hindpool, plus Dalton's summer team - are waiting to see what comes out of the Cumbria League meeting with the clubs on November 21 before considering on any possible changes to the amateur structure in the area.
“Going back a lot of years ago, we had 20 teams,” said Barker. “Now we're down to eight and all of the eight's first-teams play out of the area.
"We've done well this year (in the Barrow and District League). We had six teams out of the eight all with second teams and we managed to scrape through. We got about 92 per cent of the fixtures done, whereas last year it was about 80 or 85.
“So it was a bit of an improvement, but we need to cover more teams. Even your strongholds like Millom are struggling for a second team and going back four or five years ago, they probably had 40 players at training.”
Whether there will be any changes before the 2017 season gets underway remains to be seen, but it seems that unless this year proves to have been just a one-off, some sort of reorganisation will be needed to ensure the amateur game can stabilise.
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