When I was a kid we had a lot more teams throughout the town, what has been the main reason for the teams folding? Not as many kids playing? Not enough volunteers to coach/manage?
I predominantly played football growing up but had short spells with lunts heath lions and the tigers
the main reason I bring this up in this thread is because the future of widnes Vikings is local lads as we can’t afford to compete with bigger clubs
The kids these days are a different breed. Many prefer to sit in on their Xbox/Playstation. The lockdowns won't have helped.
One of the reasons i guess (but not limited to) would be Halton Borough Council. If you look around the town, the majority of sports fields now are football orientated. The whole of Leigh Rec all the way up and across to Frank Myler Pavilion is now marked out for football. Frank Myler Pavilion itself is mainly, if not all football too. It's a shame that the council had the rugby league legend endorse the facility on Liverpool Road and then pretty much not allow rugby to take place there. Also greedy, private owners of some facilities turfing out clubs and leaving them with nowhere to play from as they want to sell for housing development... Clubs end up disbanding as there just isn't the backing in the town from the council anymore. Go to the likes of Wire and Wigan and it's everywhere.
I think the game has changed such that there are a number of big cubs with teams at all ages rather than small clubs with only a few teams, West Bank Bears are an example and play in a lot of the major competitions up to national level. Crosfields are another example in Warrington, their u16 make up 50% of wire scholarship for that year, so I think you have a valid point regarding local lads, I believe a significant number of u16 from West Bank are at Wigan and Saints on scholarship. I think Widnes's only option is to look to sweep up any of these lads that don't make it at academy level and see if they can become good championship players even if they're deemed not good enough for SL, there are a number of examples in this and previous Widnes squads over the last few years.
Plenty of young kids are playing the game in the town, at junior level the clubs are thriving but its when they get older they drop out. At open age level there are hardly any open age teams anymore, and there's no pub teams like there used to be where you could play with your mates.
Being honest summer rugby has been great for young kids but not for the older ones or open age rugby. There is so much more to do in the summer if you are a young fella, holidays, stags dos, race days, in the winter there is naf all to do, but lads don't socialise the same these days. There's plenty of young lads in the gym training to look good, but not to take part in sport, and very few lads go to the pub on a regular basis, socialising by online gaming instead.
People think that allowing more super league clubs to spend more money, which ultimately goes on players wages, will raise the profile of the game, it wont. I love our great game and our great club, but I think life and times have moved on when it comes to rugby league. I don't believe the interest in the game is there anymore, we are a minority sport where participation and attendances are down, I doubt we will ever be any more than that, but I hope I am wrong.
Plenty of young kids are playing the game in the town, at junior level the clubs are thriving but its when they get older they drop out. At open age level there are hardly any open age teams anymore, and there's no pub teams like there used to be where you could play with your mates.
Being honest summer rugby has been great for young kids but not for the older ones or open age rugby. There is so much more to do in the summer if you are a young fella, holidays, stags dos, race days, in the winter there is naf all to do, but lads don't socialise the same these days. There's plenty of young lads in the gym training to look good, but not to take part in sport, and very few lads go to the pub on a regular basis, socialising by online gaming instead.
People think that allowing more super league clubs to spend more money, which ultimately goes on players wages, will raise the profile of the game, it wont. I love our great game and our great club, but I think life and times have moved on when it comes to rugby league. I don't believe the interest in the game is there anymore, we are a minority sport where participation and attendances are down, I doubt we will ever be any more than that, but I hope I am wrong.
Agree with what you say mate and my brother loved rugby league and now has list interest due to Football drummed into the Town. If we was in Super league and quite competitive he would be back in a shot watching Widnes. The schools, local businesses and the Council are the ones who have to regain the interest, and spread the word. I love Football and Rugby, but we definitely need some backing to get to Super league and more rugby clubs in Open age in the Town again.
I think the big one is getting the council to be pro active and the club sending players to local clubs/schools to keep that interest
All youth club players in the town should be given a free season ticket but to be accompanied by an adult, this would definitely encourage their mates to play and also bring in their parents to match day. Then it’s down to the club to put on an entertaining match day experience to keep them coming back, a competitive team is priority but also have fan/players experience. Maybe the injured/squad players having a meet and greet at the stadium with kemik also handing out signed pictures of players etc…
for too long rugby league has stood still, it’s time to be proactive. No club deserves to be successful if they aren’t moving forward with the times.
I was speaking to a mate who lives in widnes and he said the tigers had merged with moorfield
Knock on effect of the demise of the club from a Super League club to an average Championship club. No academy, no development programmes, no development staff, no pathway.
Don't believe the argument that it's just to kids playing on Playstations. Look how Rugby League is thriving in Wigan, Leeds, St Helens and Warrington - no coincidence is it?
Warrington ran an extensive programme recently for different age groups to do development days with a view to moving up the pathway - nearly 200 kids attended one age group. These are kids who are local to Warrington and probably a fair few from Widnes. If local kids don't see the pathway, they'll play somewhere else. Many development sessions/days are ran by volunteers as well, so finance argument only goes so far.
@viking-man this is where the club lacks the initiative to make the youth system work again, maybe even just holding a youth widnes cup and final to be a curtain raiser before a widnes game at the stadium
I think the Tigers were the first team to be banned from playing on their own pitches. You can write off the influx of new houses in widnes has had on that emotional connection to the club. In 2001 there 14 of us going (minimum). My dad goes on his own know. I live out of the area. Only a purist of the game under 25 cares about Myler and co! Its a tough one...
Point is, i dont think its Widnes RLFC's job to make sure the junior game is thriving. Sure they can help, but the Halton Hornets, Moorfield and West Bank need to be the ones driving the junior game in the town. A Successful Widnes side would certainly be a boon but its by no means a necessity.
Im heavily involved with a club that has no Professional team present in the town and recruiting players ( Especially at younger ages ) is rarely a problem. Its just a case of being pro-active and creating the right environment for them.
While there might not be loads of clubs in the town, clubs like Halton Farnworth do a great job of keeping the junior game alive and well.
What skews things is that at Men's level there is an issue in Widnes. Look at the NCL, 2 Dewsbury teams, 2 Leigh Teams, lots of teams are represented from traditional heartland Rugby towns. But i dont think any of the Widnes teams are there ( Correct me if im wrong ). So if i want to play at the top level of amateur RL, i couldnt do that in Widnes, i would need to play for a team in St Helens, Or Wire.
Even in the North west Mens league, Halton performed well, But West Bank failed to complete the season and im not sure if Moorfield even compete?
At Junior the town is going well, but once you get past the U18s the game is on its bottom in Widnes.
@tonyvikinggee I think your missing the point, if more people are playing the sport then more people will be interested in going to watch widnes hence more ticket sales
@tonyvikinggee I think your missing the point, if more people are playing the sport then more people will be interested in going to watch widnes hence more ticket sales
I'm not sure that's necessarily true - essentially people will go to watch winning teams in sport. Widnes start competing at the top of the league and even get into Super League people will come back, whether they play or not.
My worry is every year we don't run any kind of academy (proper academy or cat C/college development squad) we are losing potential first team players to other clubs. We can't rely on Super League clubs releasing players at 18 and picking them up anymore as the return of the reserves means they need to retail those players to fulfil fixtures.
Fantastic to hear the junior game is going well in Widnes, but the minute every Lewis Dodds/Harry Smith/Mark Percival etc. are going to play for Saints/Wigan/Warrington etc. You could argue the really good juniors would anyway, but we need to establish an outstanding environment with pure development of talent at the club so players want to be there.
@viking-man absolutely 👍 I couldn’t agree more. Understandably the club had to fold the academy for financial reasons but why can’t we establish the category c academy, I’m sure there’s a way.