Entry 13, 15th November 2010.
Over the weekend Featherstone Rovers opted against applying for a Super League franchise despite winning the Minor Premiership this past season and appearing in a Grand Final.
Rovers cited their support base in being the main reason for not submitting a bid although Rovers director Andrew McNeil reckons the club are heading in the right direction.
A statement appeared on Fev's official website (http://www.featherstonerovers.net) over the weekend in explanation.
Featherstone director Andrew McNeil, who has been liaising with the RFL in working towards the club's bid explained; "We feel we can make a massive contribution to Super League. The club has just about reinvented itself over the past few years. We are well on the way to no longer being labeled a ‘small town club', but an ever growing club that just happens to be in a small town. Our player development and coaching system is state of the art and runs continuously from scholarship to first team.
"The addition of a women's team provides another exciting opportunity, we want to build on this addition with a scholarship or centre of excellence approach to girls' participation in the sport as part of the overall system.
"Our stadium is modern, but needs expansion and we are well on the way to putting everything in place. Our development plan goes beyond just the stadium. With the land at our disposal, we will also be able to maintain the vast training area required to operate so many teams and engage so many people."
He continued; "We need to grow our support base. We seem to have a large group of fans who only come to big games. We want them to enjoy the Rovers' experience on a regular basis and we are working on that. This is the conundrum we face, or it might even be two conundrums. Where do the people who come to go for the rest of the year, and why is there this resistance in general to enjoy an afternoon or evening at Featherstone? People have said to me that Rovers aren't going to be allowed to progress to the top level because the powers that be don't want us. This is simply not the case. The message we need to share is one of the enjoyable, passionate and good value experience that watching Rovers is.
"We have liaised and co-operated with the RFL extensively. They have been helpful and encouraging. We are not dreamers: we have ambition and we are making that ambition work for us. Having that ambition means we have a responsibility to see it through and that underpins our business. We are doing what we are doing not just because of Super League, but because we believe in making our club the best it can be for its own sake. Then only then will we be ready.
"But until then the people of the local area and beyond, who we are working so hard to reach out to get the message, then a license bid has to be on hold for the immediate future."
**Ends**
Now I have to admit, I've got a lot of time for clubs like Featherstone. It's perhaps not something I would have said a dozen years ago when Aussie import Danny Baker was rampaging over Leigh's David Hill and Karl Pratt was racing in for another try, but age, experience and maturity have taught me to look at rugby league a bit differently.
Rovers in particular are a long standing team in a mould not too dis-similar to Leigh. Both towns were hit hard by the Miners strikes of the mid eighties and both towns relied on the local industries for work. I'm sure at one point Rovers were everyone's favourite underdog. Particulary in the early 80s when they caused a big shock at Wembley and won the Challenge Cup with victory over Hull. During this period they assembled a strong team and gave first chances in the game to players like Deryck Fox and Paul Newlove.
A few years ago, Rovers sank to the bottom tier but have been a steadily improving club for the last three or four years.
In 2007 they defeated Oldham at a packed Headingley in the National League Two Grand Final while they survived the spectre of relegation in 2008 before pushing for a play-off spot in 2009, knocking out Sheffield and Widnes before falling to Halifax in the Final Eliminator. This past term they were the most consistent team over the course of the season. They lost two games in the league and qualified for the Grand Final at the first attempt with a thumping win over Halifax. sadly for Rovers, Fax got their own back in the grand Final with Ben Black's Golden Point drop-goal settling arguably the most dramatic Grand Final to date.
They have a respected man at the helm in the form of Daryl Powell and I think they will be there or thereabouts next season. I do think as Mr McNeil pointed out that they need to boost crowds but there appears to be a firm base to build on unlike other clubs operating in quicksand.
I particularly like his comment about building Rovers - "We are doing what we are doing not just because of Super League, but because we believe in making our club the best it can be for its own sake. Then only then will we be ready." That should be turned into a banner and displayed on the door of every boardroom in the game. Wise words indeed.
I for one wish Rovers well. This is the correct way to go about things.
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