Are you sure about that? My vague impression (happy to be corrected if anyone has actual data!) is that while you might have expected to lose a lot of veterans the absences are much more spread out in terms of age.Andrew Zigmond wrote: ↑Fri Dec 03, 2021 1:22 amThe pattern I'm seeing is that numbers are slightly down, probably due to understandable caution at the start of the season. However there is an influx of new players (albeit in pockets rather than across the board - I'll come to why in as moment) and put bluntly, many players who have dropped out over the pandemic are those who would likely have packed it in over the next few years anyway.
Sheffield's remaining woodhouse team might even be actively old vs their absent players. Over in Manchester 3C's have by far the strongest junior system going in the North, and they've got no 4NCL teams and extremely reduced teams in the small OTB Manchester league restart.
York still have a few new players, just some regulars missing too.
I'm sure that some percentage of the players 'absent' have found other things to do, but it won't be nearly all of them. A large percentage should hopefully be back in '22 & onwards for a good while.
There's also definitely people who simply don't want to play with the current restrictions on masks/getting up etc.