Forums » Smalltalk » AMA: I help grow grassroots rugby league

Hi all! As mentioned in the title, I've been helping grassroots rugby league grow in my country. This is something I've been doing for several years now. Feel free to ask me any questions regarding the sport and I'll do my best to answer!

Hi there!

How difficult is it to organize and find volunteers?

Are there specific rules and conventions that define a league?

Hello! Thanks for the questions!

1. To give the difficulty a numerical value I'd say its around a 7.5/10. There is already a community of rugby league enthusiasts here so it isn't too hard to find volunteers who would help out but the real challenge is more on the logistics side of things. The main one being looking for a field or a pitch to play in. Sports played on grassy fields aren't that popular here compared to indoor sports so places where we can play, while available, usually cost a lot. Especially since rugby league is a game where you play two 40 minute halves with a 10 minute break. For context I joined the organization that sets these up close to the end of the pandemic so this is all that I have experienced from that point on. Afaik things were running a lot better before the pandemic hit but ever since then its become more difficult as costs have gone up and priorities have shifted.

2. We try to host games via a season / tournament. League is actually a part of the sport's name. Rugby League. Its different from another sport with similar name and gameplay called Rugby Union. I don't blame you for calling it a league, I was quite confused when I first started showing interest in the sport . Okay to answer your question, the ideal format would be to have at least 4 teams with a minimum of 13 players on each team. We'd have each team face off against each other once and the top two teams duke it out in the finals to get crowned as the overall champions. Ideally having more games would make things a lot more interesting but this is very much an amateur league and the people who play have other priorities outside of it.

Hope my answers suffice! I'll be happy to add or answer anything else if needed ^^

I learned so much! I didn't realize that was just the name of the sport and not some kind of separate way to play!

Thank you so much for answering my questions. I've never played rugby and I'm not big into sports in general, but I love hearing about things that people love. So this was cool to learn about.

As someone who knows absolutely nothing about sports/this sport in general, what does it actually mean when you say you help grow grassroots rugby league?

Great question! Grassroots rugby, or grassroots in general is considered the foundation of sports. This is when a small group of people come together to build a community, grow the sport, and help develop local talent/athletes. It is usually at the local level where the bulk of those who play it are amateurs or youth. The aim of grassroots in any sport is to be as accessible and as welcoming as possible to people of all ages and ability. Think of it like your local adult or kids team that usually only meets up to play every Saturday or Sunday. A bit of fun for the community while also giving the kids an environment where they are allowed to have fun and build a foundation that may help take them to the next level in their chosen sport.