Not good news from the RL this week. Nothing in the wind about the inequity of size and experience in the lower ages. Rugby is already addressing the problem so is the Afl , or so I’m told. But nothing from the ostriches wlth their heads in the sand the GOod Ole RL.
Our club on the GC (one of the biggest) is starting to feel the loss of 10, 11, and 12 teams, easily the biggest problem is the increase of the bigger and in some cases older, kids and the fear of parents for their kids.
If they don’t wake up soon, junior league is going to be feeling the backlash of a lot of mums and Dads
The coming discussions about concussion won’t be helping us either,
I know that kids are really safe in the young ages, they would be just as likely to get a bruise or two in the playground ,
Buy we have to fight the perception in the parents minds.
There’s an add for kids from the RL on TV which does nothing to allay any parents fears, As well as being the most boring add for kids sport that I’ve ever seen.
Whose running the asylum at the Nrl, get some money and decent people into the junior clubs, or we will continue to lose players,
As well as that Stop kids from playing UNLESs they have a legit Birth Certificate.
There aresome families who look at rep teams as a way into a better family future.and anything goes to get their kids there is good, some of their birthdays are loose at the least,
But the clubs are too busy getting their rego money in,
The weight issue is being looked at GCT , the NSWRL have a committee at the moment I believe
The hardest problem is working out what to do with the big kids
Many are just gentle giants , but you stick them up against kids 4 years older and they will get eaten alive
And what happens to the really talented little kids that don't have growth spurts until 14-15 , they play under 9/10's and go nowhere skill wise for a few years
Happy,
Last year,I was put in touch with the bloke who was organising the push for a dual competition for the NSW League ,and he sent me the information that he had gathered about the system that Penrith and some others had tried experimentally last year, I didn’t read it all as I’d got it for my son to have a look at it for our club and Coaches,
He was confident that there would be some changes. This year.
. I recently heard that a big carnival was intended for around this time this year, but most of the clubs that had shown interest last season had pulled out; so nsw are back to scratch.,
I know the difficulties involving the big difference in sizes and weight. , but in the proposed competition players could not go up more than two weight divisions,, and the more experienced or skilful kids could continue to remain in their team if they wanted to.
It was a dual competition one graded and one Open, is probably the dest way to describe it.
Basically it the same system that Nathan Cleary has said publicly that it was the only thing that kept him in the game. Because he wasn’t going to play in an open Division
There has to be something done to make the game safer for the younger , smaller kids or we will lose them.
One alarming Development on the Coast was that in one club here this season , theygave out to all kids that signed up, a paper to put down which divion of their age did they want to play,
Hardly any of those kids didn’t want to play DIV 1\. The number of them who did could be counted on one hand.
Despite the fact that there was enough for about 4teams and almost enough rep players to fill a team on their own
Times have changed Hap some of its good, some not so good,
But unless the RL stop having meetings and come up with a solution there’s going to be a drain away from the game. There already is in some places
The Gold Coast is an extremely strong area in RL but when you have a couple of kids that are each the size of the average garden shed , in an under 11 team , parents are going to drag their kids away
I don’t pretend to know the answer, but Nathan Cleary is a pretty good advertisement for the kiwi dual competitions.
