yeah theyll be fine

kids who cant tackle big polynesians arent suited for the nrl anyway because its going to be dominated with these kind of players so they might as well get used to it

I think a similar argument is going on in Rah Rah as well. Possibly even worse for them, because part of RU's appeal was that all shapes and sizes could play, from the fast thin kid to the lad who was built like a Portaloo. The pro era has changed all that, and it's feeding down into the juniors.

I guess that has probably been an issue in RL for a long time, but the specific demographics of the sport down under are causing this to be considered.

I'm not 100% convinced (I know nothing about junior RL) at all, but if there's a problem, it makes sense to at least consider a suggested solution.

I don't think you quite realise the extent to which the physical side of the game puts kids off. Kids who could with a bit of nurturing of their confidence turn out to be very good players. Even if they don't turn out to be players they've been kept in the sport and are more likely to at least be fans of the game and attend matches that if they had been lost to the sport at a young age.

Couple of points.

The best tackler on my son's U'14s team is the smallest (by some way!) boy on the team. So being of smaller stature doesn't always put kids off.

Likewise, my son is one of the biggest and fastest and plays a year above his age - he is of maori stock - but you wouldn't put him down as the youngest on the pitch. However, he also turns up for every training session and works hard to improve his skills. I have no doubt that playing above his age has improved him a lot more than if he played in his own age group. Natural size and strength can only take you so far. Big kids with no talent soon get found out on a rugby pitch.

I personally don't believe that they should introduce weight divisions and should keep to the current age-related rules.

I have seen kids including (this Sunday) who are well over 6ft and probably around 18+ stone playing in the U18s.

Is it fair? Maybe, maybe not. It's just the way it is. Most are Tongan or Samoan and not maori.

Dally should go and see some juniors play rather than quoting articles. He can get a true understanding of the size differences on offer.

i see the size difference in the nrl

good small players will make it to the NRL and the poor ones wont ...

just a fact that RL is a game for big kids that can run fast

much harder to play the game when your genes arent the right ones

kids might as well find that out when they are younger

they can still play touch footy if they want to play the game without getting hurt

The smaller lads need to be kept in the game until they develop, could you imagine the game without Cronk, Smith, Slater and the rest?

I've heard of a few kids going to AFL in western Sydney because of their parents fears of them getting hurt, one was the son of a Parra reserve player.

A fact known to the ARL Development people is that a lot more parents are getting their kids playing Assoc. Football as there is a greater risk of injuries with the larger kids in the game now.

Dally, the NRL is nothing in numbers compared to the juniors. Have a look at all the kids playing in Matts at the mo. The ratio of polynesian kids to non poly kids is only about to hit the NRL, so you're misguided.

In fact I told you at least two years ago that more than 50% of kids playing in junior reps was about to become polynesians. One more thing is that the NRL are looking at the number of officials from polynesian backgrounds, or lack of numbers being the case.

more like 65 - 70% of juniors are either islanders or kiwis

weight based junior teams is a laugh

if they cant compete with islanders then they wont make it in the nrl

as time progresses the nrl will largely be dominated with islanders anyway, they have the build for it

depends on what junior is for - if it is to develop NRL players then weight based stuff is wont work, non islander kids need to get used playing against the big boys

if its to get kids as fans of RL well maybe they can promote Oztag, mod league or something like that

the number of Polynesians and kiwis in both juniors and the nrl is only going to keep growing so weight based leagues wont achieve squat

soccer has always had massive juniors in australia ...

when they turn 16 they give up the sport

indeed RL benefits, Dean Young, dragons star was a great soccer junior, i think playing for australia

then he went to RL.

RL is a different sport to soccer .... if parents are worried about contact sports then theyll pick soccer

but little johnny might convince his parents he wants to play RL after watching benji do a side step on TV ....

It seems that virtually every poster in Australia has missed the point
1 If Rl just becomes about big kids running fast then the game will become pretty boring as there will be no room for skillds based players
2 The problem with big kids playing puts of smaller kids and their parents. Children develop at different rates and attempts to manage that as kids can only be a positive thing
3 If the demographic becomes purely polynesian will that affect the ability to market the game in Australia either because kids cannot identify with the players or more covert racism..

Some of the comments posted on here are just palin stupid eg if they are not tough enough let them go.

If all the kids are going to AFL and Soccer then that is a concern.

I dont know the solution but being aware their is a problem is a start. Unfortunately our posters on here cannot even do that.

yeah ,,,,

FYI RL juniors are growing every year ...
there have always been big kids playing RL, the smaller kids adapted or gave up ...
bringing in a weight based system is actually covertly racist ...

allan langer no problem developing as a fine RL junior and player being very small, he survived ...

this is a tough sport ...

and the number of islanders is going to keep growing ... what do you suggest down the track - one junior system for islanders and one for non islanders .... lol

Aussies couldnt care if a star is black, white or purple as long as hes talented

i mean most RL fans look up to benji and he isnt even an aussie

How many polynesians did Langer play against as a 10 year old? I can tell you, not many!

Reality is less than 0.1% of kids who play jnr RL will go on to play NRL. The other 99.9% play it and will continue to play it for the love of the game. This is a new issue in terms of the number of polynesian kids in the game in the last 10-15 years mainly due to the influx of polynesian families to the Sydney and Brisbane suburbs where RL is the number one choice.

Watching SG Ball this last two years it is clear that unless you are a pretty huge by the time your 16-17 you won't get into an SG Ball side in the outside backs or any forward position. The size of these kids is amazing.

I watch a fair bit of the under 16s and under 18s at Newcastle, and these days you see Islander kids who are fully grown adults at 14.
I was watching a kid named Tevita Pangai in the Knights under 16s the other week. He is 14 years old and about 188cm (6'3"icon_wink.gif and 95kg or so. He just pushes off 16 year olds like they aren't there.
Having said that, the secret isn't to stop those kids playing, the secret is to keep the door open to other kids who develop late.
The Knights also have two great second rowers in the under 20s, Carl Means and Matt Herman, who didn't get a shot at a Knights junior squad till last year at age 19.
I've seen 50 Islander kids in the last few years who were world beaters at 15 or 16, and were gone by 19, and i've seen blokes like Kurt Gidley not get a run till he was 18 and go on to play for Australia.
A lot of the non Islander kids actually pick up their game because they have to play against these kids who develop very early, and then go past them when they start to develop a few years later.

That is the key we dont want to be putting people off the game so early on. If you have not made up for it by the age of 20 you probably never will. You dont want kids giving up at 14 because they think i will never compete with Greg Inglis

Quote ="JB Down Under"How many polynesians did Langer play against as a 10 year old? I can tell you, not many! Reality is less than 0.1% of kids who play jnr RL will go on to play NRL. The other 99.9% play it and will continue to play it for the love of the game. This is a new issue in terms of the number of polynesian kids in the game in the last 10-15 years mainly due to the influx of polynesian families to the Sydney and Brisbane suburbs where RL is the number one choice. Watching SG Ball this last two years it is clear that unless you are a pretty huge by the time your 16-17 you won't get into an SG Ball side in the outside backs or any forward position. The size of these kids is amazing. '" to be fair, you can still be small in Matts and SG Ball. As an example you can see the juniors at Norths. Not all are that big. northbears.250x.com/pages/ball-team.html northbears.250x.com/pages/matts-team.html

Quote ="JB Down Under"How many polynesians did Langer play against as a 10 year old? I can tell you, not many! Reality is less than 0.1% of kids who play jnr RL will go on to play NRL. The other 99.9% play it and will continue to play it for the love of the game. This is a new issue in terms of the number of polynesian kids in the game in the last 10-15 years mainly due to the influx of polynesian families to the Sydney and Brisbane suburbs where RL is the number one choice. Watching SG Ball this last two years it is clear that unless you are a pretty huge by the time your 16-17 you won't get into an SG Ball side in the outside backs or any forward position. The size of these kids is amazing. '" to be fair, you can still be small in Matts and SG Ball. As an example you can see the juniors at Norths. Not all are that big. northbears.250x.com/pages/ball-team.html northbears.250x.com/pages/matts-team.html

Theres more than one way to skin a cat, the non-polynesians will just have to focus on using speed, agility and skill to counteract the polynesians advantage in size and strength

Very true this. Believe or not RL tried something similar way back in 1969, when weight based teams competed against each other. You had teams aged between 11 and 14 using playing criteria that provided for a maximum weight of 7st. The problems came because at that age, even if you were a 7st 11 year old, the muscle development of the 14 year olds meant the 14 year old would be far stronger.

Quote ="Rooster Booster"to be fair, you can still be small in Matts and SG Ball. As an example you can see the juniors at Norths. Not all are that big. northbears.250x.com/pages/ball-team.html northbears.250x.com/pages/matts-team.html'" True and in our squad we aren't giants by any means. However when you see teams like Reds and Norths come up against the likes of the Roosters and Bulldogs (who were giants across the field) they are usually on the end of good hidings. There are alot of blow out scores in SG Ball and it is usually the small teams against the big sides that are getting a tonking. Having said that the Storm team we played were bigger than us by a long shot but with the advantage of a 40degree morning and keeping the pace of the game up we wore them out and managed a great win.

Quote ="Rooster Booster"to be fair, you can still be small in Matts and SG Ball. As an example you can see the juniors at Norths. Not all are that big. northbears.250x.com/pages/ball-team.html northbears.250x.com/pages/matts-team.html'" True and in our squad we aren't giants by any means. However when you see teams like Reds and Norths come up against the likes of the Roosters and Bulldogs (who were giants across the field) they are usually on the end of good hidings. There are alot of blow out scores in SG Ball and it is usually the small teams against the big sides that are getting a tonking. Having said that the Storm team we played were bigger than us by a long shot but with the advantage of a 40degree morning and keeping the pace of the game up we wore them out and managed a great win.

Some good points there. Unfortunatley both rugby codes have hit a problem with the professional top tear of the game becoming a quantum leap in standard to the level below. In my youth I played both codes at a high level & played alongside internationals who where no fitter or bigger than me (just had buckets of skill I did not have) At 86 Kg I was considered big for a wing or fullback & was often pushed into the pack. Today I would be small for a half back even with the extra I have put on as i got older. just look at the physique of todays players, they could not keep that up & maintain fittness if they had to work full time as we had to. To keep kids in the game we should play by wheight groups as I belive they do in the schools in PNG.

The only way to stop that if we made brought back 5m rule or reduce the 10m to 7m or 8m.

The other thing about Islander players is that most come from huge families, and when you have one do well, you get the rest of the family showing up and training hard.
Anthony Tupou is a great example. He was a big, fat kid at at 120kg when he started playing at the Knights, and within a few years he had three brothers playing for the Knights (Willie, Jon and Ben) who were all fitness freaks.
The Knights have also had 4 Wilsons (Wendel, Kruize, Jermaine and Winston) 4 Mata'utias (Pete, Chanel, Pat and Sione) 3 Taufaao (Josh, Aloi and Felise) 2 Taufaus (Mark and Larry) etc etc etc.
I was talking to the father of one kid recently and he said his son was a nephew of the Taufuas and a cousin of the 4 Wilsons.

It's great for a club to sign an Islander kid, because you tell one how to eat and train and give him a chance to earn good money from sport, and 10 others show up at training fit and ready to play within a few years.

im all for the ploynesian invasion of the nrl

they are all 6 - 6'4, weigh like 100 - 110 and can do 100 m. in like 10 -11 secs.

other than play making roles and lock and hooker i can see future NRL teams being largely polynesian.

its inevitable in a collision sport like RL that the biggest and fastest guys will rise to the top

the only thing that holds them back is they give away penalties and have less disclipine and take longer to adapt to the rigours of the nrl but they more than make up for that with their genetic gifts

That post makes me feel very uncomfortable – reminds me of the ‘black players can’t captain, coach or manage’ attitude prevalent in UK soccer up to a few years ago