Official West Hartlepool RFC

It was a player's choice from what i have been told. The player's themselves organised it and carried out what they wanted.

So nodody in authority was able to point out that as the College has formal links with West, who also maintain the pitches and provide the changing facilities, that the do should be held there?
I did have some sympathy with your original argument but it's starting to wear thin.
PS Are you saying this event has taken place. I heard it was an end of season do?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/01/2014 15:09 by Chocky's Butler.

Hi Bigwillt,

And what about the "Centre of Excellence for Skills", where is this based???

Or was that the players choice too?

Well they have had a Christmas gathering after a game, as far as i know the end of season do has always took place at West and will do so along with the college end of season sport's party. Not my place to say where the party is held. Guessing the 'Centre of excellence' is the district's?

Having just read this string of posts a couple if things come to mind. At some point it was referring to west and Rovers U16 squads and specifically lack of numbers. At West we do have a full, if small, U16 squad. We did have some U15 play in our recent game with Rovers, as did they. Any one who watched it would admit what a great game it was.

Over the years a couple of players have gone to Billingham for sure and I know from experience that a player will leave a club because they, or their parents have good reason. The current U16's at West have had a difficult couple of years for various reasons, both the junior and senior club at West have been very supportive and given me a great deal of support. Our squad is unrecognisable from recent years. They have worked very hard and are very loyal to West.

As far as any other club poaching players is concerned it is not always down to coaches, parent's also have in my experience suggested to sons friends they should move clubs without coaches being involved.

We should all be glad that we have so many young people playing and enjoying Rugby.

We are looking forward to playing Billingham at West in a small number of weeks and hope they get a surprise by how much our lads have progressed.

I hate the wander off the subject, but bigwilt's insistence on inserting an apostrophe in front of almost every letter s is really getting up my nose.
Or should that be no'se?

Mr Mould is, as ever, very wise.

For the record, and for what it's worth, I have today completed a senior registration for a lad born in Stockton who has been playing at Rovers and who goes to the College of FE.

I understand from his dad, who brought the form into the club, that the player is impressed by Andy Boagey as a coach and that is what has brought him to West.

As a junior coach for almost 7 year I coached the same set of lads up and through U17's level.

As much as you'd like to think so, you will never end up with the same squad as you started with. Lads come and go, however, we always had a core nucleus of 10-12 lads who were there every week. To be honest, most lads were (squad of about 20), however in the later years, some get part time jobs on a weekend so can't make games and some fall out of love with the game during their teenage years.

I only ever had 1 lad leave for another club over the years and it was for game time. He didn't want to go, however made the choice to in order to develop his game.

It just so happens that this core nucleus of players all went to the same school together. Where did my other players come from - their school. It's inevitable that lads will ask their mates down, and coaches would be mad to turn lads down. Admittedly, the lads that came didn't play for another club, which takes the sting out of the argument. My personal opinion is that if lads want to leave, they will, however if they are fed full of bull (not saying that's happened) as an incentive for leaving, that's wrong.

P.S Sam Miller was in your U17's last year and he's representing your first team. Pretty sure he's played tri counties as well...

Don't know how county coaches are appointed etc. Wouldn't the best thing to do to judge local talent be to go and watch some games?

P.S.

I don't know about other coaches, but I always drilled the "Local Rivalry" shall we say, into my lads. I don't think they'd want to play for another club :-)

We are now in the lucky position where one lad has returned to our squad and another has made contact saying he is coming back, so we should remember player movement goes both ways. Oh and neither are coming back to West from local clubs!

I have also a core pool of players who have been the nuclues of the team since U9 most of whom want to stay on at West to play senior rugby.

Lads will always move around clubs, that was not what the argument was about...
Enough said by me, i don't want telling off again

HBL, ya big galloot. How you keeping?

Having been involved with the current Billingham U16 squad for 7 years, I know that in that time only 1 player has left West Hartlepool to join us and that was about 4 years ago. We have not actively seeked any other team's players at any time, but are willing to give any young player the encouragement and platform to develop. Our squad currently as most of yours will, has a massive array of talent and experience in it. Such is the challenge of a local rugby coach. We currently have players who have been playing Rugby from 10 years to 6 weeks... I am sure you would agree that is hardly elitist.
I find it sad that a local Club that we have a good relationship with and respect for should decide to attack us in this way.
To echo West's U16's Dave Mould, we look forward to playing you in February in the true spirit of rugby, as we have always done in past fixtures.
Happy New Year

Interesting discussion going on at the moment and it's very difficult to find the answer.
Players have and will continue to move around clubs in an area where there are a lot of clubs and loads of opportunities to play rugby at a lot of differing levels.
Players at all levels and ages just want to play the game and obviously parents also want to see their kids getting regular game time, why stand in the lovely north east weather week in week out to watch others play?
As for clubs "poaching" players I think that parents have a lot to do with that during their early years and as kids/players get older they tend to make their own mind up, regardless of wether it's the right decision or not!
I'm guilty of the former myself, I moved both my boys from one local club to another.
Why - because my eldest lad could only play up a year to get a game and my youngest son was doing the same.
There is currently only West with all M & J age groups (less U14)so if someone does want to move there isn't many options available within the town which is unfortunate.
Apart from clubs going the extra mile to keep players there isn't a great deal else they can do!
When younger players see senior players move from club to club within the region they see it as the norm!

We too at Rovers have suffered from this player movement over the last couple of seasons. We had a very good U17 side a couple of years ago which we were hopeful would move to our senior sides and eventually to represent our 1st team.

The coaches worked over a lot of years with these lads and improved them year on year until they reached the level of National Bowl Semi-final.

The club was then hit with the news that a number of them would be leaving and going to play at other clubs, including a number of them leaving to play colts rugby at Billingham and some leaving to play 1st team rugby at BBOB. We had put in place a plan to allow them to play in an under 18 league but this player exodus and the simple fact that you loose a lot of players when them move up to senior rugby meant that almost a whole age group was lost.

Once again it seems like it is going to happen when we have a few excellent players at U16 & U15 levels who have decided to move to the 'larger' clubs. Over the last 3 years I can think of approx 12 - 15 players we have lost to this situation. It is a very sad situation and it must be heartbreaking for the coaches but all that you can do is to make sure that they know that they are always welcome back.

The number of players who do return is very low however due to a feeling of loss of face etc.

It is a sad situation when walking around the town, when you see young lads who used to play for your junior team walking around with other clubs tops on, or worse still young lads not playing at all and just sat about doing nothing on a Saturday afternoon.

As a lad who really enjoyed his time playing rugby who has recently ended his playing time it is heartbreaking and you just wish that you could shake these lads and get them back playing at their 'home' clubs with their mates that they will be on the same teams with for over 20 years...but unfortunately they just look at you as though you are daft!

Regards
Finbar

Some very interesting and valid points raised by many people on this thread so I may as well express my personal (diluted) opinion on the matter. Having played and now 'coaching' at West for many years I have noticed a trend of players aged 16-19 not progressing into senior rugby at the club. We have had a few players (possibly 6-7) in the last three years move up from our junior section to play senior rugby which is a pretty poor return on 11 plus years of dedication from coaches, parents and the club alike. My opinion is that there is a direct correlation between lack of junior-senior progression at the club and the emergence of increased emphasis on the importance of college rugby via the rugby academy's (6th form in our case). Going back around 4-5 years club rugby was always a priority for the young men learning their rugby and college rugby was an added bonus to play on a Wednesday afternoon. It has at times happened that young players have not trained/played for the club for fear of picking up an injury etc for a college game mid week. This in my opinion is all wrong and club rugby should be a priority but never the less this is what happens.
What does not help the cause is that the very successful college academy has a very good coach whom is also the coach of a local rugby club and players of the afore mentioned age bracket often gravitate to that club. The reasons for this are purely speculative and everyone has their own opinions on the matter (I certainly do) however it is a large area of concern, not only for me but many people at West and also other rugby clubs in the town.



To all junior coaches/people's dads...keep up the excellent work.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/01/2014 13:26 by davepicken.

For those of us not directly involved could someone please provide some more detail. Looking at the Billingham team in recent games I see one prop's name I recognize from Rovers and that's about it.
I know one of the Myers went to play there before he went into the Forces but can't think of any more.

Name some names and then we will stop looking paranoid.

Will Turnbull - West
Eldon Myers - West
Josh Bragman - Rovers
Chris Hopkins - Rovers
Jack Angus - West
Luke Chapman - West
Connor Fewster - West
Harry Morgan - West
Luke Armstrong - West

there are more...

Dear all.

I don't like to do this but I think this discussion has run its course with people from a number of clubs having their say.

There has been dialogue about the issues which have been raised and these are ongoing. There have also been reassurances and assurances for the future, and to continue this debate would probably be counterproductive for all involved and undermine a lot of the work already done.