Youngsters in Ismaning,Munich are introduced to Rugby League.

[Der Kaiser]

This week has seen the start of a Rugby League Development Programme in the village of Ismaning, which is just north of Munich. The programme is being initially aimed at under 10 year olds. Simon Cooper is running the weekly programme after a parent at his work asked him to run a Rugby training session for her kids and their friends. This week saw 7 youngsters take part, but next week should see even more take part. The kids received DVDs to watch at home. The DVDs feature games from the Super League and the NRL and also help the youngsters to learn English. Also each youngster was given a Rugby Ball which was kindly donated by the RLEF.
Next Thursday July 31st, Simon Cooper, Felix Miernik and Donnie Wood will be guests at Kirchheim Gymnasium near Munich where they will run a 2 hour session with a class of 28, 15 year olds. Felix Miernik is an 18 year old from Munich who spent a year in Australia on a School Exchange. He played Rugby League for his School there and also for Thirlmere/ Tahmoor Roosters at Under 18 level and is involved in developing Rugby League in Munich after arriving back home to finish his Schooling in Munich this month. Donnie Wood is a Scotsman, who is a local School Teacher at the Bavarian International School and is involved in developing Rugby League in Munich as well.

 

[taipan]

Great work,the effort you guys are putting in with few resources is amazing.Wish you continued success.

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

well done.

 

[Titanic]

and not a "suit" to be seen ... fantastic

 

[VictoryFC]

Nice I guess, and I dont mean to be the devils advocate, but lol @ 3 soccer tops.

 

[deluded pom?]

This is why we need to keep hitting the DRL website sponsors guys.

 

[Der Kaiser]

Nice I guess, and I dont mean to be the devils advocate, but lol @ 3 soccer tops.

Munich is a massive Soccer City-maybe even more so than manchester, Barcelona, Milan etc. bayern Munich games are sold out well in advance. 1860 Munich play in the Second League and have the highest gates in that League. There are not enough soccer pitches in Munich-atleast a 5 year waiting list. Its why we do not target cities too much like Munich but rather small towns and villages like Bad Reichenhall and Ismaning where Soccer has less of a presence although it is still very big especially with kids.

As said the more people that click on our website the better especially when clicking on the Google and Amazon adverts at the bottom. It helps bring in money for us to try and develop the game. This year we are struggling money wise due to rise in fuel costs and also the money we get from the RLEF is less due to the strength in the Euro over the pound and bank transfers etc. We need to look at ways of making money-but often we are struggling as we cant spend things on merchandise to make mney as we have lost money in the areas just mentioned.

So please click on daily our website and use the Google and Amazon adverts! Thanks

 

[VictoryFC]

Will do.

I know all about Munich though, and worldwide football - its my game I was in Serbia last year when Bayern played Red Star.

My main issue is that its very hard to rouse interest in any other sport in Germany when you have a millions of people lining the streets for football matches, plus TV audiences of 30+ million as was the case in the semis and the final just a month ago in the Euros.

 

[Der Kaiser]

Will do.

I know all about Munich though, and worldwide football - its my game I was in Serbia last year when Bayern played Red Star.

My main issue is that its very hard to rouse interest in any other sport in Germany when you have a millions of people lining the streets for football matches, plus TV audiences of 30+ million as was the case in the semis and the final just a month ago in the Euros.

There are plenty of people fed up with the amount of Soccer on TV-Basically a game a day and the way certain players act both on and off the field. Refs have been sent to prison recntly on max fixing in Germany and there are many issues in European Soccer.
The main thing we feel is we get Rugby League played and known by as many people in Germany as we can. We will never challenge Soccer-or many other high profile sports. But that does not mean we give up!