''we have 6 first team players who spend almost every day in schools in calderdale . . we have Mission Nutrient a healthy eating lesson which goes out to every year 5 class in calderdale, delivered by players . . we have rugby training courses,. . we have Cheerleader classes....''



Taken from Fax site, Widnes use players to deliver the schools programme.

It enables better players to be employed and benefits the club.

Should we do the same?

With players who work during the day?

I assume Fax found players who didnt want to work during the day



I assume its players like Penky, Black, Gleeson etc who would command the higher contracts.

AFAIK all our players are employed during the day so on that premise whilst an idea it wouldn't work at Leigh, and we have a pro-active youth department as it is.

:3brrmmy1



Possibly one or two of those but also quite possible that they have some ' junior ' squad players doing this as well



Leigh used to do it , Weisner , Marshall , Sanderson , Smythe not forgetting Rowley [ remember the sponsored scooter Paul had

I just feel that if we had say, a Lee Briers/Morley/named import type player (Moran last year)doing the school work we could offset some cost and the kids would get a bigger kick from it.

But wouldn't any monies paid still be on the salary cap restrictions? and not all players want to do this sort of work, and isnt this another of those perrenial posts that come up? Like I have said before having done a lot of work in schools players should only be used as a 'tool' unless they have an apptitude and a willingness to do this work, would you let a carpenter repair your leaking toilet? horses for courses.

Fred you`ll have to explain what a " carpenter" is to some of younger posters.

There are plenty of "grants" around these days especially government ones for anything to do with healthy lifestyle and diet. Many of them can be rescourced by schools themselves as they also get extra funding for teachers preperation time away from classrooms.So in certain cases they can afford to pay players to deliver the healthy eating/ lives lessons whilst their teachers are on thier Prep time.The Fax players have been trained by Eureka for the healthy lifestyles package I do believe an award was won by the club for it.It has got to be a win win situation for any club and for individual players who take part ,they are learning skills for later life which are valuable when thier carreer is over.I believe Frank Watene is the leader of the first teamers who take part.

It might be more advantageous for you to run sessions at the LSV and invite schools to visit you there, assuming there's a space in which you could do it.



That way you'll be getting kids into the new facility, which will have the wow-factor, and can reward them for completing tasks with tickets for the next home game.



They're far more like to use the free tickets, and bring paying parents, if they've actually been to the ground and 'tasted' the facilities whilst taking part in learning activities.



You'd still need to find a player or two to show their face I suppose, but could run it with other club staff instead - the wow-factor would come from the stadium rather than the actual player.

I really think you are underestimating the power of the player as a marketing tool for thier own club. It`s the most important asset any club has.I have been involved in education for over 30yrs and I can tell you players attending any kind of function and speaking to children will get them coming along to watch.Once there it is up to the matchday experiance that will keep fetching them back.Of course speaking to kids does not come naturally the Aussie players appear to be best at it as there is lot more importance played on players promoting thier own club.There are certain skills that can be taught however and I am pretty sure some kind of promotion work will be in a players contract now.I honestly think players should help to promote clubs more for the money they are paid.If I had any money and had anything to do with players contracts at a club, I would build in a bonus system for crowd increases into a contract so they got extra money if they increased the crowd.You would soon see the players out and about at galas ,schools and anywhere else they might get a few more punters from.

Quite a few years ago when Bradord won the league and Deacon moved in as there promotions manager I answered my phone at school and it was Bradford asking when our school gala was I asked them why and they said "Well we`re sending a couple of players a signed ball and the "Bulls Roadshow" you will make money and we`ll give free tickets to the kids.I declined and said you shouldn`t` be poaching over in someone elses patch. But the papers were full of schools who took them up on it they were also at every junior awards night. The rest as you say is history they did "think out of the box" and took the rewards .