Junior rugby league changes in Canberra 'positive'

But Canberra Region Rugby League boss Mark Vergano said they need a couple more years of data to get a full picture - although results in Queensland from the past three years have been positive.

Debate erupted in Sydney on Saturday about the NSWRL continuing their staged introduction of modified tackle rules in their youngest age groups and the phasing out of finals in the junior game.

That's despite the plans having already been in place this year.

Canberra's under-six season played a tackle-free version of the game, league tag, for the opening six rounds this year - while learning to tackle at training.

They then switched to rugby league for the rest of the season.

That's set to be expanded to under-sevens next year.

It's designed to allow kids to learn the game in a staged manner and has been in place in Queensland since 2019.

One season in, Vergano was confident it was the right move.

"On the whole I think it's positive and people will see the positive benefits, and people will see that children will come better prepared to a game," he said.

"There'll be some who believe it builds resilience earlier and they have to learn how lose - there's valid stuff there - but the kids know when they play whether they win or lose.

"Based on the data that we're seeing out of Queensland we're confident this will be a positive transition."

There's also a staged removal of ladders and finals up until under-12s in progress.

Canberra already had under-10s as the first year when scores were recorded, but that will gradually increase until under-13s become the first competitive season.

Vergano said the gradual approach was a deliberate strategy.

"We didn't want to take away what the kids had and they grew up with a certain expectation," he said.

"The nines had an expectation [of finals in under-10s next year] ... that gives time for people to adjust."

Vergano said there could be multiple benefits, especially increased retention of players throughout the junior ranks - rather than losing players to the game as they get older.

It's also designed to allow kids to get better skills, while taking performance pressure off coaches in the junior ranks.

There's also the possible benefit to referees and their retention, a big problem in sport, due to the removal of wins and losses.

"The proof of the pudding will be in the outcomes over the next couple of years, but our arc has been with increased participation - that's positive," Vergano said.

"We want to retain more players in the game and we think this will go a long way towards keeping people in the game longer because they'll come better prepared with skills.

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"It will also assist coaches as it takes pressure off and they can concentrate on coaching.

"Also there's possibly some other sideline benefits here for referees - it takes the sting out of competition at times.

"Kids compete on the field, but not having the win-loss column will modify other people's behaviour and take some pressure off the referees."

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