Was glancing at a book today analysing Ferguson's success at ManU.

One thing it said was that he did not allow his players to do 'community' events as he wanted a complete focus on training and tactics.
Now we are full time, will there be a temptation to use too much extra time for community events such as the visit to Leigh Market?

Not saying I agree with Ferguson but it did make me think a bit...........

That's one of many reason Football is now carp. LRLFC have a clear accessibility strategy that is taking the team into the hearts of the community, and guess what - the community love it

Another example of Fergie talking complete tripe.

Many (if not most) of Man Utd's fans live overseas - little to no value to being seen locally at events. Complete contrast to Leigh - community engagement is very, very important.

As usual I agree my dear friend.

Simple solution is to use players who are injured for said events.

Ironic from the man in Canada

but I do take your point

Indeed, most of them live in Chad (horrible place)

I hope the club see it as a Community Opportunity.

I think I agree that community involvement is very important. My question is can it become too distracting?

Full time players will have more time for this kind of activity but is it time needed to bring them to a higher stardard.

For me mixing with the Fans and the Community is very important , ive been told the Club have agreed to send a group of Players to the Boxing Night on Saturday evening , they will be made most welcome.

If you are doing to build a fan base it's important that the players are out there and it also promotes the club in the community

No-one is disagreeing that community involvement is very important. However, no-one has answered the question -can it be too much?

If some players are not based locally for example could they be over used in this respect?

It's very good to have the players involved in the community and is something Rugby League seems to do exceptionally well; gets potential fans involved and makes existing fans feel much more a part of the club. If it starts distracting from training then obviously it is too much, although I doubt Rowley would let that happen, but being full time, with the size of our squad and how many of the players live in Leigh I'm sure 9 times out of 10 we'll be able to find some players available. Plus some of them seem to enjoy it.

There have been numerous examples of full-time training itself, proving a distraction to players. 'Full-time' is perhaps something of a misnomer, in that the players are obviously not training ALL day - just a few hours in fact. Once training is finished, players have time on their hands, which could lead to involvement in activities not conducive to their health or development!



I would argue that an involvement in the community could be an excellent 'distraction' for the players.

Quite agree Alan I have just got back from the gym and in view of what you have said I will refrain from watching Star Trek this lunchtime and go to the pub for one of my 5 a day.

Correct, they can’t train for 8hrs per day everyday, even when you add in the video/game plan sessions etc.

Community work is a great way to fill in the working day, and can be very rewarding for the players in terms of team building, moral etc as well as those they visit.

I'm with glow and Alan.

Answering the question, community Development in our sport of Rugby League can never be too much. I think it makes our players better people and is welcomed by the majority of players and helps with their personal profiles.

Alex Ferguson may have stopped them doing community work but he didn't stop them making bundles of money making commercials that I personally worked on. There must have been one or two commercials per week being made somewhere in Manchester that involved his players. I have even done them at Carrington so they are available just before or after training.
I am sure that our club will monitor what the players attitudes are towards this type of work and if it is affecting the team then something will have to be done. I have every faith that this bunch of players and club staff can work together and make both things work.

I'll have a bash - if every player did 2 hours a week and 4 players attended each community event then we could cover 8 events per week - sounds simple and not time consuming

They key is planning and sharing - if you asked them to do 20 hours a week then the club could attend 80 functions or 16 per day - that's too much even if there was that many to attend

The last time we were ' full time ' the coach stopped all the players from doing community work, then again he was a muppet

the exception proves the rule as they say!

He was a visionary, liked by all and had only the future well being of the club at heart

And he tried to get Charlie banned from Hilton Park. PS that's true.

Not just Charlie .
I was. Accused of calling him in the bar after our first game and I wasn't even in the country it was someone else !!!