The Serbian Rugby League Federation has hosted a Level 2 Coach course in Belgrade, attended by coaches from England, Malta and Norway as part of the EU-funded Training and Education Portal project.

Serbian coach educator Slobodan Manak helped RLEF coaching manager Martin Crick deliver the six-day activity, supported by Norwegian educator David Hunter, who led a number of the outdoor sessions. His compatriots Kevin Batnes and Joshua Skidmore-Hornby attended, alongside Maltese trio Jean Pierre Zarb, Zachariah Micallef and Sam Blyton. All participants toiled under the 35 degree Belgrade sun, which meant shortening some of the outdoor sessions for health and safety reasons.

Crick said: “Overall this a very successful course. There are some very good coaches here. We have identified another two Serbian coaches of high promise. The Serbian coaches were keen and fairly knowledgeable. Two in particular, Vlada Dedic and Filip Jankovic, have the necessary attributes to become Level 1 coach educators. Their first step is to complete CATO.”

The TEP is a three-year, €723.000 investment into capacity building through good governance and technical training, funded by €466.000 from the EU’s Erasmus+ project and the remainder from the RLIF and five of its full members. It is intended to build the knowledge and skills of the RLEF’s 21 European members, divided into six regional clusters, through high quality training and mentoring, while granting opportunities to share experiences amongst fellow Europeans dedicated to rugby league development.

Pictured: Martin Crick leads a theoretical session in Belgrade.