NSWRL will bring new rules changes into junior competitions in 2023

This week NSWRL announced an overhaul of the junior system with a focus on keeping players in the game.

The biggest talking point from the new look competitions is to remove competitive games until under 13s and ban tackling until halfway through the under 7s.

The changes will begin next year as part of a four-year plan to raise the non-competitive age to 13.

In 2023, competitive competitions will begin in under 11s before going up year-by-year until 2026.

President of Dubbo District Junior Rugby League (DDJRL) Bernard Wilson has had his own children come through the system and believes has been coming for a while.

"They've been tossing stuff around for a few years now different things and ways they think will increase numbers," he said.

"I haven't got their full story yet but it's what they believe, I'm definitely not a supporter of it.

"There are things we can bring into play that will benefit the kids but gee we are changing world."

Spectators at the junior grand final days will now only see a handful of games and might not see epic clashes like the Nyngan and Narromine match in the under 16s competition which went into extra-time.

DDJRL's annual general meeting will be held this weekend and Wilson knows the new changes will be the biggest talking point.

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"I think it will be (discussed a lot), they need to separate the rural communities and the city ones," he said.

"City and country are so different in player numbers and the way they do things.

"I think they've just tried to pass it all under the one banner and it just doesn't work."

Players who are too young to place tackle rugby league will participate in the TackleReady program which is designed to teach correct and safe techniques.

While some clubs could be heavily impacted by the changes, Nyngan believes they still should be able to produce strong numbers in 2023.

Nyngan's Andrew Burley is confident the changes won't turn too many parents away from registering their kids to play rugby league.

"We haven't really discussed it much as a club here but you could see it was coming," he said.

"Last year our under 6s played half a year of tag, now they are bringing a full year of tag and the 7s are half tag.

"They've done all the studies and think it's the right thing but us being a small club it's probably not."

"You've already had under 10s, 11s and 12s play in grand finals this year," he said.

"As I read it I think it is implemented year by year, as with the tag we don't compete against a lot of sports so we are lucky in that sense.

"Our league is pretty strong here so I think the kids are going to come to play, we won't get people not to play because it's not tackle."

"I haven't had any issues with the under 6s or 7s playing tackle," he said.

"No parents have complained kids are tackling too hard or anything like that.

"I think it's something they have looked at in the bigger clubs and haven't looked at the smaller clubs.

"It's bred into everyone to be naturally competitive, we've got kids who walk around saying 'I scored five tries to three'.

"It's already competitive, my opinion is we've got to grow some resilience in these kids and it's not going to happen by not being competitive."

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