Special Investigation: The sickness infecting Townsville junior league
One of North Queensland’s most decorated junior rugby league coaches has sounded the alarm on the region’s misfiring junior development system, warning the issue could soon impact the Cowboys.
Sport
Don't miss out on the headlines from Sport. Followed categories will be added to My News.
One of North Queensland’s most decorated junior rugby league coaches has sounded the alarm on the region’s misfiring talent development system, warning the problem could soon infect the Cowboys NRL team.
The emergence of junior ‘super teams’ and the erosion of opportunities to play rugby league outside of the North Queensland regional bubble has led veteran Ignatius Park College coach Steve Lansley to issue a “wake-up call” to local coaches and administrators charged with maintaining the Cowboys’ precious junior talent catchment.
Lansley was appointed to snap Northern’s six-year title drought at the under-18 state championship this week, having coached Iggy Park to a breakthrough Queensland state final appearance last season.
The region failed to qualify for the six-team finals series.
It was a result Lansley warned would become more common as ‘super teams’ at both club and school level failed to deliver proper competition to North Queensland’s most promising juniors.
PART TWO: THE SOLUTIONS - BELOW
According to Lansley, the issue is being exacerbated by the elimination of club representative teams between the ages of 12 and 15.
That loss of development is felt most keenly at statewide tournaments, where North Queensland juniors exposed to challenging opposition, some for the first time, found their skill levels lagging behind city rivals.
Lansley predicted future success would become even harder to achieve as those failures in the junior system crept into the pathways above, with fears the malaise would eventually infect North Queensland’s flagship NRL team.
“Watching the carnival, we’re pretty good against the regional teams but I get the feeling Brisbane is growing a lot and it feels very competitive down there. I’m not sure if we’re as competitive as they are,” Lansley said.
“The population down there makes it much more competitive to make rep teams whereas here, kids are good, but I feel there’s not as much competition for spots.
“Sometimes those good kids don’t have to work as hard because no-one is coming from behind to push them so they get a bit comfortable.
“In our club competitions, and I feel too that the school competition where Iggy and Kirwan are the best two schools by a mile, we have too many ‘super teams.’
“There are too many teams in the under-13s winning 70 or 80 to nil, and then Iggy and Kirwan are super teams, so they don’t get enough hard opposition.
“The hoarding of talent is not helping the district at all and it’s not helping the development of rugby league.”
Through 40 games of under-13s boys rugby league this season the average margin of victory has been 37.5 points.
Just six games in the division have been decided by single digit scorelines while 18 games - 45 per cent - have been victories of 40 points or greater.
A quarter of matches in the age group have been decided by 60 points or more.
Those one-sided scorelines are being echoed up the development chain.
Lansley’s 2022 Ignatius Park team did not contain a Queensland Schoolboys representative but ran up record scorelines in the Aaron Payne Cup, including a 100-0 thrashing of Mareeba SHS.
When faced with sterner opposition in the Queensland state final Iggy Park fell to Ipswich State High 30-10.
Rugby League Townsville chairman Roger Whyte said transfer rules had been introduced to mitigate talent ‘stacking’ but conceded that the appeal of playing with friends would sometimes mean an abundance of talent at one club.
And while junior teams run riot locally, the absence of representative programs catering to those between the under-12 and under-15 age groups has extended the waiting period between challenging fixtures for top juniors.
While RLTD operate the under-15s Michael Morgan Cup and send female players to compete at North Queensland under-17 events, fewer opportunities to play representative rugby league outside of the North Queensland bubble has created what Lansley described as a fishbowl effect.
Queensland Rugby League cut statewide programs for those age groups out of concern that starting the representative pathway too early risked burning players out while failing to capture and develop other late bloomers.
The ensuing RISE (Routine, Identify, Socialise and Evolve) program, open to 13-15 years olds, was designed to foster passion for the game while developing skills.
Lansley said the RISE model had merit in southeast Queensland but applying the same broadbrush approach across the whole state was not meeting needs in the north.
“I think that has really slowed the growth of football in North Queensland,” he said.
“You don’t go down to play Brisbane and Gold Coast anymore. You play under-12s schoolboys and the next rep team is under-15 schoolboys, then under-16s and under-18s Blackhawks, who only play city teams in the under-18 finals. But there is nothing in between 12 and 15.
“Players develop an attitude where they believe they are outstanding - and I’m not saying they’re not - but what they are is in a fishbowl.
“If they played against a Brisbane team maybe they’d realise they have to do some work on their game. But because they’re winning (locally) they don’t think they need to.
“It’s been three or four years those rep teams have been gone now and you’re starting to see it now come through the under-16 and under-17s age groups.
“We’ve got to be careful because we’re struggling to be competitive which is a bit of a wake-up call to our development.”
SPECIAL INVESTIGATION PART TWO: THE SOLUTIONS
A representative player cap to break up junior rugby league ‘super teams’ is the radical proposal a top North Queensland coach believes can begin to correct the grassroots imbalance threatening the Cowboys talent catchment.
In the first part of a Bulletin special investigation into the shortcomings of Townsville junior rugby league, veteran Ignatius Park College coach Steve Lansley issued a “wake-up call” to officials over the talent stacking of certain junior clubs that robbed players of hardened weekly opposition.
Lansley said the loss of opportunity to play outside the region was compounding the issue, leaving Townsville players as big fish in a little regional pond - only to be exposed when playing city teams toughened by constant competition.
In part two of the investigation, Lansley outlined his solutions to keep the Cowboys talent pathway firing.
Chief among them is the introduction of a representative player limit per team, which the Northern under-18 representative coach believes is what it will take to create an environment where players are tested every week in Townsville.
“We need a stronger club competition,” Lansley said.
“We need more than just a couple of strong clubs or schools because when there are only a couple of hard teams you only play a hard game every six or eight weeks and that just isn’t enough.
“I know at a school level you can’t, but at a junior rugby league level they need to start having a certain amount of rep kids per club.”
Townsville Rugby League chairman Roger Whyte said the rep cap proposal was already under consideration by officials.
“However, in recent times, the RLTD consider that this is best addressed through a tiered competition approach,” Whyte said.
“This is a work in progress, however further strategies are currently being explored.
“The development of junior rugby league is a high priority of the RLTD.”
Whyte said the return of City v Country representative games was being explored for 2024.
Lansley called on junior coaches to reduce the level of structured attack in their teams, declaring that mimicking the attack ‘shape’ of NRL sides had no place in junior league.
“Structured rugby league is for A Grade, the Blackhawks and the NRL,” Lansley said.
“It shouldn’t exist in junior footy. The structure that the Cowboys are playing at should not be a big part of junior development.
“We need to fix the fundamental skills of catching and passing because that should be 60 to 70 per cent of what our kids do at training. Based on this carnival (Queensland School Sport U16-18 Championships) it is evidently something we are down on.”
Finally, Lansley said restoring the NQ Marlins junior rep teams to tour south would add more competitive fixtures to a junior calendar crying out for more difficult matches.
“I don’t understand why they don’t have a club rep competition on school holidays where the Marlins go down and play against the Brisbane teams or Gold Coast,” he said.
Lansley pointed out that the model Queensland Rugby League had moved away from was still paying dividends for rival codes, including the AFL and summer sport cricket.
More Coverage
Originally published as Special Investigation: The sickness infecting Townsville junior league
UFC champion chases thief after wife robbed
A bag snatcher in Paris got more than he bargained for when a former UFC middleweight champion chased him down.
Storm coach puts end date on career
Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy has opened up on his future and putting a potential finishing date on his legendary career.