Academics say eligiblity rules could shift power in the Pacific from RU to RL

[B rad]

Peter

How to increase participation levels in junior rugby league (in my opinion) : Targeting Diverse Communities with Representative  Schoolboy Teams. 

My father goes to a lot of old boys RL club reunions. They all have a few beers and get around and talk. One of the subjects is junior participation levels. The consensus according to him is there are a lot of pacific islanders that dominate at school boy level and it makes it hard for non-pacific kids to compete because the pacific island kids are so much bigger and stronger at that age. 

Tavita Pangai Junior just turned down an opportunity to represent NSW and Australia for Tonga. This decision is great for our game. The Pacific Islands need as much depth as they can and Tonga have shown in the RLWC what those nations can bring to our game in the way of passionate crowd support, epic sporting drama, TV ratings and positive media coverage. But I wonder what happened to the kid who's place he took when Tavita played for the Junior Kangaroos? Is that kid still playing or is he working a normal 9-5 job somewhere. I wonder if Tavita Pangai Junior would have been happy to play for a Tongan schoolboy team if he had that opportunity since he obviously identifies with his Tongan heritage?

Kids in their teenage years are fairly narcissistic. I know I was. They strive for approval and admiration from their peers and their parents. To make a representative team gives them that self worth and drives them further to apply themselves in the activity that rewards them with such feelings. That's why representative teams are so important to junior rugby league. Their very existence can give young a goal and keep them interested in a sport in hope to achieve that goal.

If there is more diverse representative teams then more players will be trying to make those representative teams and thus more players will be attracted to our sport or continue to play it. I suggest we diversify our representative teams to be more inclusive of kids with different heritage.  Each major city and some in the bush could contain a number of rep teams from under 13s-16s. Brisbane Tonga, Brisbane Samoa, Brisbane Kiwis Brisbane Indigenous for example. They same could be done in Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast anywhere rugby league is played. A tournament could be played over a few weeks at the end of the school football season involving such teams.

We can target communities that are not traditionally Rugby League orientated and bring a whole batch of new kids to our game. You recently mentioned how you would like to see the next Johnathan Thurston be Asian. There is nothing stopping us from going to Asian dominated schools and letting the kids know we want to start creating Filipino or Chinese rep teams.

Melbourne press has been pushing a Sudanese gang issue recently. Exaggerated or not its happening enough to for media, social media and politicians to make a big deal about it. A Melbourne Sudanese Rugby League representative team would give kids a opportunity to focus on something positive and take their attention away from walking the streets with their friends and onto the football park to practice their skills. It would also give the NRL a positive story for the media as they could work with the Victorian government and the Melbourne Storm to get these kids off the streets and into rugby league clubs. A positive thing for the Melbourne Sudanese community. There is no reason the first dominant rugby league star out of Melbourne could not be a kid of Sudanese decent. What a great role model he would be for other Sudanese kids in Melbourne. What a great way to increase participation levels of rugby league in Melbourne. 

Not only would the NRL be opening the door to different communities and new player pools for our game, increasing our participation levels but our game internationally would benefit as well. There is no reason Sudan, the Philippines or Serbia couldn't be the next Lebanon a few Rugby League World Cups down the track. Heritage teams such as Tonga, Samoa and Lebanon have shown they can amass huge, passionate crowd support from the local communities. The Tongan community in New Zealand broke the ground record when they played England last World Cup remember. If it wasn't for the Lebanese community in Sydney there would be no Rugby League competition in Lebanon as their is now. No messages of support from the leader of that nation when they last played. Heritage teams are making huge inroads for international Rugby League.

Gareth Widdop moved to Australia at 16. He is currently and has been for some time an important part of the English RL squad. How many kids in Australia are born in Wales, Scotland, Ireland or England I wonder? The reason Kangaroos isnt held in as high regard as the All Blacks even though they have a similar success level is because their opponents are viewed as road bumps to their success where as the All Blacks are seen to over come mountains to attain their success. We need to boost our opponents from road bumps to mountains if we want the Kangaroos to be considered the champions they are. There is nothing wrong with developing players for our opponents. It will only benefit Rugby League internationally and that will benefit the Kangaroos who desperately need worthy opposition.   

How much would it cost to have a tournament in the local city? You would need jerseys a coach and for the kids to show up. That's it. It shouldn't be hard to do. The benefits could be huge.

A Brisbane competition might look like this and go over 4 or 5 weeks.

Under 13s

Brisbane                                     Brisbane Kiwis               Brisbane Tonga                 Brisbane Samoa

Brisbane Lebanese                   Brisbane Fiji                   Brisbane Indigenous         Brisbane Great Britain

Brisbane Chinese                      Brisbane Philippines    Brisbane Sudanese            Brisbane Serbia

 

At 17 (open schoolboys) you would combine the teams from various cities. The Tongan open schoolboys would be the best Tongan players from Tonga, New Zealand, Brisbane, Sydney for example. Each game would be video taped and sent to selectors so they could pick the strongest squads for their national open schoolboys team and an annual tournament would be played. To make that squads would be the primary focus of kids playing rugby league up until then, giving them a goal and reason to continue playing our sport. 

Now that's just an example, obviously teams would depend on how many kids could make up the teams and obviously you could replace Brisbane with Sydney, Gold Coast or Melbourne. There might be enough kids from South Africa that could fill a good team. American/Canadian born kids would be a huge benefit considering those nations will be hosting the RLWC 2025. They would be a primary target considering we NEED to build those nations developed to the point where they are not destroyed on the field by 50-70 points if we want to push that market which is the strongest sporting market in the world.

Anyway, that's just my opinion on how you could increase junior participation levels in our sport. I hope you find it helpful and not a waste of your time. 

All the Best for the Future

Brad Boucher. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Its a bit hard to watch this video but basically some scholars are claiming the RLWC will result in Pacific Islanders choosing to play RL over RU.

 

[Kayakman]

35 minutes ago, B rad said:

Its a bit hard to watch this video but basically some scholars are claiming the RLWC will result in Pacific Islanders choosing to play RL over RU.

 

Parksider all the time is wondering where the new players will come from...this is it.

Any Islander, or those that know them well...understand that RL is far more suited to them than Union...its in their nature to like RL more than Union...its in their DNA...its the contact, the free running, beating the man.

My God....I hope everyone gets their ---- together and figures out that this "IS OUR TIME...EXPANSION..SEIZE THE DAY!

"Don't you feel it?"

GO YOU GOOD THING!

[Futtocks]

Instead of taking 17 minutes to watch the video, you can just read the article here.

[Kayakman]

3 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

Instead of taking 17 minutes to watch the video, you can just read the article here.

Full Stop Futtocks!...I'm with B rad on this!...there are people from Workington Town who are site members...have you never even heard of inclusion?

[B rad]

6 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

Instead of taking 17 minutes to watch the video, you can just read the article here.

Champion. I will never get those 17 mins back.