Tackling a touchy problem

EACH SATURDAY The Chronicle team talks about the big issues in sport locally, nationally and internationally. Glen, Jason and Sean share some of their views in the hope it will generate some discussion among The Chronicle’s readership.

Tell us what you think about today’s topic by emailing jason.gibbs@thechronicle.com .au or send an SMS to 0437 875 203.

Today The Chronicle sport team talks about the decision to “ban” tackling from junior rugby league games in Queensland. Following a year-long trial, the new rule means under-7s throughout the state will be banned from tackling for the first 10 rounds of the year before transitioning into full contact at the end of the season.

JASON GIBBS: I understand and accept why this decision has been made.

But I do have my concerns, not at the board level, but rather at a club level.

Junior league player numbers are on the decline.

Parents and carers no doubt have concerns about the safety of their kids and that needs to be addressed.

Thankfully for the QJRL, their Tackle Safe program has gone some way to alleviating those fears with players and parents expressing more confidence following the significant rule changes.

But I do have some pretty major concerns surrounding the implementation of the new rules/program.

Last year when these changes were first introduced, there were reports of competitions that planned to go rogue.

League was all about contact, and they didn’t want players to “grow up soft”.

I don’t see that ever happening – no one would be that stupid.

Instead, my concern is about clubs not preparing their players in line with the “timeline”.

I’m worried that clubs and coaches might focus on other skills in those 10 weeks.

Learning to tackle properly is great idea, but it’s important everyone is on the same training page, otherwise it’ll be a disaster.

GLEN McCULLOUGH: Look, I know what “they” are trying to do here. It’s all wellmeaning and caring stuff.

Who doesn’t want to protect the health and welfare of kids – especially your own?

But like all nanny-state thought bubbles, it takes changes to extremes.

Where is the middle ground these days when streamlining and improving lifestyles and protocols? If you eliminate tackling from rugby league, it is no longer rugby league.

Tackling and defence is one of the basic skills rugby league is built on – the same as running, kicking and scoring tries.

Tackling is what teams do when they don’t have the ball.

If you are going to eliminate it from the junior code, then call the game something else.

SEAN TEUMA: For blokes like myself who were known as defensive turnstiles, we would’ve loved this to come into play years ago.

As much as I would like to see one of the fundamentals of the game, tackling, kept within the sport for all ages, I think it is a problem that they are trying to address.

We can talk about the world going soft (which in some cases it is), but league officials would be kidding themselves if they didn’t address the elephant in the room of junior numbers falling.

When I was playing in the late 90s and early 2000s, the South Sydney junior competition had enough teams to have a competition on its own.

Now in some older age groups, they need to rely on other districts to build a competition to have enough games to play.

Whether this early intervention will help is yet to be seen. Maybe the answer is in competitive divisions and noncompetitive divisions, which allows those who want to compete to do so, and those who don’t can still remain involved.

Personally I’d love to see tackling in young ages remain, but if it means more kids get involved, then it might be the right thing.