WHENEVER you speak to Paul Crarey, it is clear the Barrow Raiders head coach sees his job as far more than just preparing his team to go out and perform on a Sunday afternoon.

Crarey might almost be seen as an evangelist for rugby league, going out and spreading the gospel of what the sport's acolytes and believers know simply as 'the Greatest Game' – or at least spreading it around this part of the world, anyway.

That can be seen by the work undertaken at the club since Crarey's return last year: Ensuring the Raiders have a more visible presence in the community, the establishment of an under-19s team and, not to mention, the upward turn of fortunes for the senior side on the field, among other things.

Crarey is not stopping there though and next on the agenda is looking at fielding a team in the Reserves Championship from 2017 to allow more playing time for those members of the squad who are not regulars in the matchday 17, as well as giving open age playing experience to the youngsters coming through.

As ever, though, it comes down to the thorny issue of there being enough money to do that – something very few professional rugby league teams, from Super League to the Kingston Press League One, are particularly flush with.

“It's all about finances,” said Crarey. “If we can get bigger gates and people come and support what we're doing, that's the only way we'll progress.

“We've got an academy in place, we've got a youth development programme with over 160 kids on that and we've got development officers in the town, so the club has grown a lot in the past 18 months and hopefully the Barrow public can see that.

“Sometimes, it's not about winning and losing, it's what we're putting in place for the generations of kids in the area who play sport or want to enjoy watching sport.

“If we don't do that, the club could wither up and die due to the present climate of rugby league.”

Travel to almost any ground in the land and you will find Crarey's concerns echoed on the terraces and in the boardrooms as the sport again finds itself going through one of its intermittent periods of self-doubt, although not without good reason.

Participation numbers are down across the board, attendances are stagnating and the financial problems suffered by York City Knights and, most recently, Sheffield Eagles are a stark reminder that no club is immune to the pressures rugby league faces at present.

“The playing pool is getting smaller, interest in the game at any level is decreasing and they might tell you different, but we know that's not the case,” said Crarey, although he does have reasons to be optimistic.

“You just have to look at the gates in the Championship and League One, and we're top of that list in League One and beat half the sides in that.

“We want to keep that going, win lose or draw and build on that, and make it a vibrant community club everyone buys into and can be a part of.

“It's for the area as a whole as well because if you lose a professional rugby club from the town, there is not a lot for the kids to aspire to.”

Crarey cites the example of Featherstone Rovers - currently involved in the Super League Qualifiers, regularly contending for top honours in the second tier and pull in four-figure crowds for most home games - as one which his side should seek to emulate.

Rovers, who won the Championship in 2011, have continued to do all of this is despite having Castleford Tigers and Wakefield Trinity on their doorsteps, and being from a town of little over 15,200 people, compared with the 56,700 who live in Barrow.

“Let's make our area strong and let's make our club as good as other clubs because Featherstone is only a small town and they are playing top-end Championship, and it's the same for a lot of these places because they've got the community buying into it.” said Crarey.

“We can definitely do that and we've got to keep everything positive on the terraces, and be positive rather than negative in what the club is doing.

“People say if we go up we might come straight back down, but we've got to progress and have a go, and have people get behind us. That's the way it's going now and it's been great.

“The journey for us all has been fantastic with the kids growing and they tell you if it's rubbish or not because they turn up in their droves, so that means we're doing something right.

“Crowds are increasing, we're on a winning run and we just need the town to get behind us.”

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