Russell Crowe: switch NRL junior comps to weight, not age
GLADIATOR star Russell Crowe has called for parents to support rugby league competitions that match children by their weight, not their age.
NSW
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GLADIATOR star Russell Crowe has called for parents to support rugby league competitions that match children by their weight not their age.
Crowe, who is a regular at the football with sons Charlie, 14, and Tennyson, 11, made the call after watching a full season of the Souths Juniors league.
“The single greatest move that Rugby League needs to make right now is to switch all junior competitions to weight, not age,” he says in an exclusive column in The Saturday Telegraph.
At the moment children can be pitted against opponents the same age but up to 30kg heavier.
No 11-year-old should be swung through the air by a player twice his/her weight,” said Crowe. “It’s unsafe, and patently unfair.
Crowe is the owner of the South Sydney Rabbitohs and wants to see the game thrive.
“If Rugby League doesn’t do something quick to reassure parents that we put the welfare of the kids who want to play the game as our priority, then the greatest game of all will wither at its roots,” he said.
His call was backed by Australian Medical Association national president Michael Gannon who said the risk of injury was equivalent to a boy running into a man.
“There is a risk of head or spinal injury. Sport has many positives but we need to recognise there are risks.
“We would support any careful considered look at this issue,” he said.
NSW Rugby League has offered competitions where children are matched by weight which have been supported by the junior leagues.
But NSW Rugby League general manager of football BJ Mather said clubs had not signed up.
“We think it is a brilliant idea. There are a lot of kids out there who are sick and tired of playing against a kid who is 20 or 30kg heavier than them,” he said.
He argues the age competitions could still run but a competition organised on weight would “open up the game to a whole lot of new young players.”
Luke Curry, CEO of South Sydney District Junior Rugby League, confirmed: “NSW Rugby League has offered these programs but there has not been very much pick up.
“It is pretty much set in peoples’ minds that this is the way the game is played. There is a lot of flak given to the differences in size but when it comes down to it very few people will play in those leagues.”
Junior coach Michael Frain put his son Cooper, 11, into one of the weighted competitions last year. “It was brilliant,” he said.
“He is only small and was playing against players his own size. Compared with a normal game his involvement increased tenfold in both attack and defence.
Mr Frain, who coaches Cooper in the Dundas Shamrocks in the Balmain League, said smaller players were naturally afraid in a normal age game.
“I think the smaller players might worry about injury because they have these bigger bodies hurtling towards them,” he said.
It is a concern shared by many parents on the touchline. Karen Mardini, who sons Samuel, 11, and Christian, 9, play for the Merrylands Maulers, is concerned when she sees a big player run onto the pitch.
“I have seen those kids and it’s just the way they are built, they are just big teddy bears,” she said.
“The little kids are taught in training to tackle the legs not the top because they will just carry them along with them.
“I guess as long as they are wearing the safety gear, the head gear and the mouthguard, they will be OK,” she said hopefully.
Crowe said bringing in games on weight instead of age would prevent an exodus of talent between the ages of 12 and 14. It was also every parents’ responsibility.
“I believe the future of the game is making decisions that mums and dads recognise as being on behalf of their kids,” he said.
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