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Celebration Lions are looking for guys who have left school but keen on playing league.

Program is fully paid 30 hours a week

we only have places for 7 guys left so if you are not afiliated to a club or havent played or been a member of a club for a year contact Kelly 3897055 or drop down to 81 Bickerton St between 9.30am and 4.30pm Mon to Fri

Must be quick starts soon

Is this an academic programme and if so with what Educational provider?

Hi no not academic, but has funding for special training modules, more sport development

are you happy for these players to be affiliated with clubs other than celebration?

I left school... quite some time ago... can I join up?

Hi coyote really a recruiting tool for the Lions that's why looking for guys not playing now or not affiliated to another club.

Hi Trainer, I think you may be well past the under 20's sorry
Might need to give Bernie a call

so this academy is more to just pay younger players to join the club??

or.....

What qualifications will these young guys leave with and after how long??

how long do they have to sign on for??

what is the rate they get paid etc?

You a little bit off the point there Trainer.

Were not paying anyone to join. Its just an opportunity for some young guys around their sport. Were not having anyone from other league clubs. Were happy to just develop new guys or currrent players from cele. To much finger pointing to bother with other club guys... their own clubs have a responsibility to develop their talent..

Trainer you guys do a good job so i wouldnt worry too much.

We should talk though at some stage. We looking at Melbourne Storm SG Ball Squad coming to CHCH to play at end of the year..

They'll be here for a week and will play 2 games at this stage.

Your 18's might appreciate the opportunity, seen as Bulls 16's, 18s cancelled

I'm also curious to know how much you (Lions) are paying these guys to train? Some 18 year olds these days are entitled to a student allowance anyways and I feel that a sporting programme with some kind of academic element is far more beneficial for our youth. Particularly the majority of our kids from the Eastern Suburbs of Christchurch.

Also,what will you be doing to equip these young players with the life skills and basic numeracy/literacy skills required to succeed outside of football if they fail in their pursuit of a career in sport? we must acknowledge that the percentage of players from Canterbury that go on to a professional career is very small.

Rather than take some of these kids out of school. The best approach for all clubs is to develop an "elite training/academy group" which pulls players of various ages together to train under some elite coaches. Halswell are leading the way here. But this is also the structure that has been in place for a long time across the ditch i.e. fringe players identified as potential first graders. CRFL also used to run a camp out at Lincoln Uni which would be great to get back up and running for the youth of today. NZRFL also jumped on board and sent players from all over the country down for the week to train under NZ's elite coaches.

Sorry MurrayW - I thought when you said "Program is fully paid 30 hours a week" I thought you were paying the kids etc...

Also wasnt walking along the "poaching" train of thought as you clearly mention "not affiliated to a club or havent played for a year" etc :)

Yep not too worried about it... but just curious as if there is something you guys are doing to grow the game... (which is awesome!!) then I would love to hear how you are doing it and what these kids come out of it with...

Some good points AAKeas19 yep an i do agree. But as you are fully aware working in a school environment, not everyone stays at school to finish their education.

We are not setting ourselves up as a education (literacy/numeracy) provider. We are a Rugby League club looking to develop our talent and also we will at the very least be helping these guys gain valuable life skills and work experience.

The more clubs and groups out there doing their bit the better it will be for our young people and the game in canterbury.

We arent pulling kids out of school either btw !!

just so you know

That would be very short sighted !!!

Focus on kids who have left school and can't find work.

League and basic trade development, not three www's

Wages min wage, much better than student allowance.

Trial program 6 months but good indication it could go for year or more and then repeat

AAKea you make me laugh always trying to promote something not connected with Lions

Lots of kids out there not interested in school, but better suited to trade development.

I don't think school based academies achieve any great academic heights

Thanks to all the guys applying for the course, sorry we will not be able to fit everyone in this intake, will be in touch

You amuse me also Murray in that you have resorted to actually paying younger players now to join your club and "academy".

I guess I will always promote something disconnected to the Lions as I'm not actually a Lions supporter/player Murray

I do commend you guys on your efforts but all I have is an opinion like everyone on here is entitled to have.

School based academies do indeed achieve great heights my friend as the cater to all students i.e. Trades, Music, Carving, Sports, Cooking, Tourism, Childcare, Drama.

AAKeas19 not resorted, I strategically pay young players like all the NRL clubs.

I think its a good thing if you can identify real talent when they are young, you can also invest in the kids and assist in their development. A few dollars can help the parents help their kids.

I'm offering my grand kids a dollar a try this season

I also plan to invest in coaches, managers, and clubs with a good clean family friendly environment.

We don't have an academy yet but we are absolutely committed to developing one at the right time, if there were two league academies in ChCh the competition would create a better end product

Okay Murray, I guess I just disagree with the payment of juniors here in Canterbury as we now have kids focused on going where the money is rather than learning the game for what it truly is...fun, friendship and discipline. Throwing money at kids early on will only mess with their values I truly believe.

As for the two academies in CHCH, best of luck with that. Aranui Rugby League Academy is quite different to what you are proposing on here. We are focused on developing all students/players from right across Christchurch, no matter what club they are from.

Andrew do you know up to what age are kids allowed to remain at high school.

There may be a gap after high school not being provided for at moment, although poly tec has something I believe

You might want to do some research there Murray There are plenty of providers out there at the moment catering to the needs of this "group" of school leavers. Aranui High School is one of them. Our Academies have improved their numbers quite considerably since last year.

All good Aranui academy growing, I'm all for it.

Our program kicks off tomorrow 18 guys

Looking forward to it.

Go the Lions

The "word" around town is that the funding for this programme has been incorrectly used. That the community organisation are unaware of the "Rugby League programme" as this should be used for work placement for youth. Can anyone enlighten us? I do believe that the Aranui Community Trust are looking into this.

I know of one Lions 18 year old player that has been promised $300 per week but he is also tied up with another community organisation (Pacific Island Evaluation) and has been caught double dipping. I do believe this boy is getting paid but he does not attend your "programme."

He also happens to be a boy that wished to transfer clubs in 09 and also this year but miraculously back tracked. I guess the $300 is the "carrot" he needed.

I have also heard rumours of this CrackerJack as one of my Academy students is the player mentioned. It appears that something very fishy might be going on...

You guys know more about this rumor than I do, probably because you started it

All the boys doing good money being used correctly.

All the guys sign in every day, you must know how these things work, double dipping can't happened all done through govt

No 18 year old being paid $300 a week to play for club.

I do think a certain academy may lose support if they try to recruit players from clubs who encourage their guys to go to the academy. Major lack of integrity if it gets used to feed one club and not support league in city

Hey cracker front up name the guy and name yourself

What academy are you referring to Murray? You aren't making sense with your last post. If you are referring to Aranui High School, we actually don't recruit students/players as they come to us to study and improve their knowledge of the game. We also do not "feed" players into one club, their are players from all over Christchurch here at school.

I have now been in contact with Pacific Island Evaluations in regards to the student mentioned. I do believe this was the case as he was going to be paid by Celebration as well as them (P.I.E).

In the end the player had to choose between the two options and he has decided to stay with P.I.E.

CrackerJack, I went straight to the source and found out the truth. He was hoping to be paid by both organisations but was caught out. You cannot assume the Lions knew this was going on.

It's not fair to the Lions for you to accuse as they get very touchy about these kinds of things

so this is where my taxes are going to fund this

Cut it out cracka and andrew...

No were not running an academy we do however have an initiative running with 18 young people. This is work skills type program for guys not at school aged 17-24. There are some sporting elements to one of the groups but around our community gym project and sports coordinator roles working with primary schools. thanks for the interest but ya not really aware of what is happening and yes you are making a lot of assumptions mostly based on fiction not fact..

Youre insinuating its a bad thing we are doing !!! Its not a bad thing at all. "Helping young people in the community" We are like any of the other 75 community groups in chch who are running these types of initiatives.

So enoughs enough let us continue our project without the finger pointing. the guys are doing a great job here !!!! If you are aware of the numbers of young people out there out of school and out of work, you would realise that we need more of these types of programs in the community.

I was not finger pointing Lion Man so get it right! I do believe that CrackerJack did the finger pointing, did he not? I am only going by what a Pacific Island Evaluations rep had confronted me about two weeks ago.

I heard a rumour which in fact was cleared after I confronted the student today about what I had been told.

I'm all for helping young people in the community find employment and opportunity, I would not be in the profession that I am if I didn't believe that.

Good luck with the initiative you have in place. I guess there was just a bit of confusion caused considering Murray did call it an "academy type programme." Therefore it is just another recruitment mechanism for your League Club. The reality is that you are using taxpayer money to fund it. I guess that is the controversial fact, what do you think Lionman?

If you would like to discuss the matter further feel free to pop into Aranui High School for a chat. I would be more than happy to fill you in.

?

Get lost Lion Man! This is B%$*#@%t! I'm with Doctor Hone Ropata on this one! Is this where my taxes are going? To help the Lions recruit players for their "work skills program!" The Pastor of the church is even on here saying it is a recruitment tool, What a friggin joke!

Can I join? I'm a drug user, assault people and I steal anything and everything. Just like some of your players

AAKeas, I did say it was the "word around town" but thanks for clearing things up. You didn't actually need to go and contact them hehe. I hope you gave him (the boy) a telling off for even considering ripping off the system haha. I guess they teach them young at the Lions

"Helping young people in the community"

More like boosting your own egos

To recieve funding from these sorts of groups you must have to meet some sort of criteria.

If Celebration Trust meet this criteria and have put this program in place, what bussiness is it of anyone else.
If they can turn around a few lives of the young kids in the community then full credit to them.

If other clubs are worried about losing a player to this, then put something in place for your own people.
Over and over again Celebration have offered help and knowledge to other clubs, swallow some pride and ask how they managed to do this, and do it in your own community.

You can't just thrash a youth player at training and on Saturdays and give him no support outside of league.
Some of these youth could definately benefit from 91% of the good people in the league community, just keep them away from that other 9%.

Don't bring down the house, when we all live under the same roof.

I am more than happy to see my Tax dollars spent on the youth in the community if it means they don't have time to steal my Big screen TV, tag my fence and wake me up at 2am in the morning doing burn outs in the streets.

I do believe it costs something like $80000 per annum to house a prisoner, so if one of these youths turn around their lives then we save $80000 of tax payers money, don't we?

Pretty deep stuff here. Pretty average attempt at justification though. The point is W.T.T that our taxpayer money is going towards the development of the Celebration Lions club.

So are you saying WTF that the youths that attend this academy are theives, taggers and boy racers???

I dont think they would be at all.... ???

Back in my day (which wasnt that long ago) you played league to get thrashed... and then go back for more... its not always about hugs and pats on the back....

I think thats whats wrong with society nowadays.... we are all "here - let me help you" instead of "here are some tools - help yourself"... but I digress....

Everyone has choices in life...

Nothing Changes if Nothing Changes

Hi AAKeas,

no need to justify anything as its not me running the course and I am not a member at Celebration.... Celebration are not answerable to you as you and your academy is not to them..... and i'm sure if there are some dodgey dealings going on, you have the contacts to have it looked into and already have.... i guess.

All these programs have a process to go through I am sure, and if the youth end up running round the fields for Celebration that is just a by-product of the course......

This may have or may not have been their intentions, but it does help those youth and the community......

Maybe its something that Canterbury Rugby League should have looked at to benefit all the League youth for all clubs, as their is obviously a need for it.

As you have said your academy is academic as well, and that isn't for all but it is still great what your academy achieves for all clubs and the community. well done to you and all that keep it running.

Hi Trainer GB,

yes it is all about choice and crossroads and that is what Celebration and Aranui offer....

Choices and Crossroads............

so they don't turn into theives, taggers and boy racers???

If they play for Celebration as a by-product is that no different than the Hornet offering a scholarship to the Sharks as a carrot to play at the nest, or Aranui to the storm.

I know that doesn't include tax payers money, but if its legal to do what they are doing why isn't Canterbury league doing it?

yeah good point WTF about CRFL... they could apply for funding and run some courses as well... but I suppose it would come down to resources???

I am assuming Cele have resources available from various organisations to help run these course.... which is good to see to local community getting in behind the project.

Cant wait to hear/see the results from this academy but Im not sure if the results are measureable??

Crackerjack of course AAKeas had to contact them, otherwise it would have written off all the credibility Aranui have built up over the years.
Why does everybody expect the administrative body (CRFL) to hand everything to them on a plate? Those clubs mentioned Lions, Aranui and the dirty old hornets have put their own plans in place and will reap the rewards.

Sorry to correct you Uenuku but we do not directly feed players into the Aranui Eagles. However we do have alot of boys at school who play for the club. There is a very talented group of Year 9 students that have arrived that make up the Aranui Eagles 13 or 14 years team.

Sorry, I was alluding to the Eagles relationship to the Storm, and respect the fact the academy does not try to steer players to any club