We at Barrow Raiders have been keeping a close eye on recruitment at other clubs and 2021 promises to be one of the most competitive in League One for many a year. Keighley and Rochdale appear to have strengthened significantly whilst we know that Newcastle have a much bigger budget than ourselves and are determined to gain promotion.

Hunslet, Doncaster and Workington will be another three clubs with ambition and then there is Ottawa who have started their recruitment targeting Championship standard players.We have not been standing idly by and the en forced break has allowed us to discuss contracts with most of our squad and we are well on the way to putting together what we believe to be a promotion winning team. We are probably further advanced than we would be in normal years but we appreciate that there has also been a hive of activity elsewhere. We may lose one or two of our squad and have already lost Lee Jewitt to Widnes, but we are well placed to bring in quality replacements if required. We wish Lee well for the future.

Looking to the that future, next week we restart our postponed JETS programme, where firstly we will be inviting local coaches for mentoring sessions from our Head Coach Paul Crarey and then inviting 11-16 year olds to take part in quality training sessions designed to improve their game. We are obviously hoping that the pathway from 16 is to our Furness Raiders side and then to professional rugby. We are creating a familiar path for players with talent.

We have released our community team from furlough and they are now looking to build upon the great work they had been doing pre-lockdown that included winning the Love Barrow award. With schools reopening there is a sense of some normality returning and the local schools have been very quick to book our team in the provision of rugby league and sports for their PE lessons and also re-establishing our Read with a Raider programme.

Our walking groups have restarted and our girls’ rugby programme is now in full flow. Last week we gave out awards to teenagers who had been part of our Leadership programme. All of those leaders have been a credit to their parents, and we hope that they have gained extra confidence for future leadership.

Looking into the future we see the community team as so important to the club and when the time is right I think we should be looking to expand. Rugby League was recently awarded a government loan on the back of all the great community work that goes on in rugby league towns across the country and this is also true of all our local amateur teams. The whole of rugby league and, for me, especially the people involved in rugby league in this area, should be immensely proud of their contribution to society.