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You may not have heard, but the NRL is looking to change the following laws of the game.
1. No tackling until eight years old;
2. No competition until 13 years old:
3. Players born after 30th June can play down in the grade below.
From the article it calls out that the changes are being implemented to discourage a win-at-all-costs mentality at grassroots level while negating the impact of Relative Age Effect and varying stages of physical maturity among juniors.
Unfortunately the issue that they call out does not realistically connect to the changes they are looking to make.
1. Kids learn more quickly in the cognitive stages and the earlier you teach kids to tackle, correctly, the safer the game will be through out;
2. No competition before 13s is not going to stop a win at all costs attitude. It will make the game into a recreation and not a sport Kids will go to other sports to get the feeling of winning and conversely losing. Both actions are character building and unfortunately the PC brigade don’t want anyone to lose, which is not how the real world works.
3. Kids playing down an age group after 30th June is still going to cause a mismatch in player ability as some players are still going to be up to 12 months older if they play down. It just changes the kids who are impacted.
Instead of crucifying the game, there should be a focus on coaching the basics well from a young age and an oversight of the coaches and how they interact with the children, by both the club administrators as well as junior league administrators.
Please read the article and also think about how these rule changes will affect the great game of rugby league, not just for your kids now, but the impact of the game in the future.
If you don’t agree with the NRL’s crucifying changes, please send a message to Todd Greenberg and the administrators in the NRL and your junior league by signing the petition
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