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") 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.