yakstorm
First Grade
- Messages
- 6,145
As mentioned by many already, it was a combination of factors that prevented League from growing like Union did, however one of the biggest in my opinion was just missed opportunities & poor luck.
Right from the very start after the split in 1895, other parts of the UK were also going to break away from the Union establishment, however that unfortunately fell through... Then you had with the All Golds, the unfortunate death of Baskerville, and then a number of the All Gold players being signed with English clubs, killing the momentum back home.
We then had other fun mistakes, ie. the cancelled 1965 World Cup in France killed momentum in South Africa, the mistake of not letting Italy become part of the European Championship, League's lack of fight with Italy, Yugoslavia, Germany, Canada, USA all through the 60s', the lack of capitalising on Fiji's breakaway in 92, letting France fall by the wayside so much, and of course Super League....
A lack of desire to take over the world/expand in general lead to a number of the above poor judgement calls occurring, plus considering France was our most proactive nations for so long, letting them fall apart just undid their great work, same Super League killed a lot of the development work the ARL did in the late 80's and early 90's.
Anyway no point us worrying too much about what didn't work in the past. At least as a positive, over the past 15 years the code has made some really significant growth internationally. The important thing for us as a sport is to continue this and ensure that in the next 15 years we continue to create more and more outposts for the sport.
Right from the very start after the split in 1895, other parts of the UK were also going to break away from the Union establishment, however that unfortunately fell through... Then you had with the All Golds, the unfortunate death of Baskerville, and then a number of the All Gold players being signed with English clubs, killing the momentum back home.
We then had other fun mistakes, ie. the cancelled 1965 World Cup in France killed momentum in South Africa, the mistake of not letting Italy become part of the European Championship, League's lack of fight with Italy, Yugoslavia, Germany, Canada, USA all through the 60s', the lack of capitalising on Fiji's breakaway in 92, letting France fall by the wayside so much, and of course Super League....
A lack of desire to take over the world/expand in general lead to a number of the above poor judgement calls occurring, plus considering France was our most proactive nations for so long, letting them fall apart just undid their great work, same Super League killed a lot of the development work the ARL did in the late 80's and early 90's.
Anyway no point us worrying too much about what didn't work in the past. At least as a positive, over the past 15 years the code has made some really significant growth internationally. The important thing for us as a sport is to continue this and ensure that in the next 15 years we continue to create more and more outposts for the sport.
