Can anyone validate this comment ?

[Pass the Ball]

I believe this has been happening for a long time..

My theory is that it has happenened since migrant families started arriving in Australia, and happens through all sports.

I do not believe it is because mum and dad want Jonny to be the biggest kid on the footy team. It is an indirect result of the migrant family needing to place their kids in school.

Migrants often have to overcome language barriers when arriving here, and this can take time. Therefore Jonny may not be ready to start school when he is 5. Also, when a kid arrives who is say 8, he may not be up to the level of other 8 year olds at school, so he drops back a year or two.
The most convenient way for all involved is to say he is that age...

Convenient until he squashes some little white kid on the footy field..

Well that's my theory anyway....

 

[Rhino_NQ]

I went through the same thing as a junior, i was a representitive front rower the majority of my junior years and when i was 15 i was 6'1 but only 75kg (twig) and playing at state rep carnivales, schooloby footy for keebra park (benji was my captain) and junior club footy on the gold coast over the next few years i learned i couldn't out hit them or run over the top fo them but could do twice the amount of work and last full games and developed a pretty good technique to bring them down.

 

[Thomas]

We had a heap of PNG lads at my boarding school. They didn't play many sports other than athletics and a bit of rugby but when asked their age they would always say "17" with a grin.

Then it was revealed that one 'boy' had a wife and 3 kids aged between 7 and 2 back home...

 

[Didgi]

I believe this has been happening for a long time..

My theory is that it has happenened since migrant families started arriving in Australia, and happens through all sports.

I do not believe it is because mum and dad want Jonny to be the biggest kid on the footy team. It is an indirect result of the migrant family needing to place their kids in school.

Migrants often have to overcome language barriers when arriving here, and this can take time. Therefore Jonny may not be ready to start school when he is 5. Also, when a kid arrives who is say 8, he may not be up to the level of other 8 year olds at school, so he drops back a year or two.
The most convenient way for all involved is to say he is that age...

Convenient until he squashes some little white kid on the footy field..

Well that's my theory anyway....

I wouldn't bet on his real name being Jonny though...

In this day and age we have to learn the best techniques, otherwise you aren't even going to be able to bring the smaller kids down, becuase they're quicker or will put the step on.

 

[parra pete]

They have two ages....they are 14 when playing football and 18 when they want to go into a pub..

 

[Didgi]

They have two ages....they are 14 when playing football and 18 when they want to go into a pub..

And have proof for neither.

 

[S.S.T.I.D]

Stanley Gene-

Stanley Gene's age has always been a mystery. According to villagers he was born during a full moon several months after a successful kau kau (sweet potato) crop harvest in Goroka, but just before a plague of taro beetle decimated almost all of the region's taro crop. However, what this equates to in the Gregorian calendar has always been debated among scientists and tribal elders. Scientists from PNG’s National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) have attempted to trace back the various taro beetle plagues that have hit the Goroka region over the past sixty years to more accurately calculate Gene's age, but the results to date have proven inconclusive or possibly even contradictory to initial village reports [3]. Although no record of taro beetle destruction could be found before 1984, scientists and researchers were able to conclude that taro leaf blight caused by the fungus Phytophthora colocasiae struck regions near Goroka in 1958, 1962 and 1970 [4]. With this, it is possible that the taro crop decimation stated by villagers was actually caused by this fungus and not the taro beetle as originally believed. If this is true then it is highly probable that Gene was born in either 1962 or 1970, making him either 46 or 38 years old as at 2008. Following the 2008 Rugby League World Cup the PNG National Parliament instructed the National Agricultural Research Institute and the Department of Family and Church Affairs to continue research into Gene's age as a matter of national importance.
Outside of this officially sanctioned government research, it is generally accepted that Gene was born after the end of World War II, with most estimations stating he is between 32 and 58 years old [5]. Gene himself states that he is 34 but has not been unable to provide a birth certificate or any other proof of his date of birth. The latest rumour from Brian Noble says that Gene is actually 42

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Gene

:lol:

 

[Pierced Soul]

This happens in all sports. Hell I played rep inline hockey (think ice hockey without the ice) and we had players booted out of our U13s team when it was found they were actually 16 (I think the fact they were 6'2" and growing a beard gave them away)..

i remember playing school sport and we'd be in year 8 and the other team who were emnat to be the same age would turn up in cars with beards hahahaa

for junior footy i think the weight thing may be needed to try and keep kids on a level playing field. of course there will be kids who just want to play with their mates who may just be bigger than them. i reckon if it was a weight thing i'd be playing with kids 2-3 years younger than me cos i was a twig.

occasionally over the years you'll see some junior footy on the footy show and there'll be like all these little 6 year olds and some islander 3 times the size who just swats them off and walks to the try line - this isnt good for any sport where size/weight can play a central part

 

[kbw]

I laugh at the people that say its crap, because its not crap its a factual statement. Alot of islanders have their DOB as their baptism date, in some cases there is not much differrence, in others there can be a year or 2.

It doesn't apply to all Islander kids either, I have a friend who is not and islander but married one and one of her kids was a monster through junior football, but I know that he was the age he said he was.

The weight for age has alot of good arguements, the only problem is when you get a really big kid and he socially finds his hard to play against kids 2 years old than him.

 

[Hanscholo]

Poly players mature faster than european ones, it has nothing to do with anything other than good old genes.

 

[bartman]

Bring back weight banded junior comps, instead of ones by age.

It worked in the old days - anyone know why it was changed in the first place?

You'd just weigh the kids on rego day, and they then fit in a say 10kg band which determines the comp they play for the year. eg <40kgs 40-50kg, 50-60kg, 60-70kg 70-80kg, 80+kgs etc.

Have a club official and witness sign and date the rego form with weight specified. If another club wants to complain about a player, then it would have to be a certain amount above the range to allow for natural growth spurts, say 5kgs plus for the player to be moved up a division mid-year.

 

[Canard]

Problem with Kids though is that playing as a 10 year old against a 14 year old, although they might be the same weight, its a huge difference in maturity and aggression.

The 10 year old might be just as big, but will be intimidated out of the contest by the 14 year old

 

[Tonearm Terrorwrist]

^^ I don't think so. How will the bigger 10 year old know he is older?

We used to have a kid in my team who played in our grade and also the grade below, back in about 94. Not sure how that worked out :?

Bring back weight banded junior comps, instead of ones by age.

When was this eradicated? When I played in the early 90's it was by age, unless weight didn't kick in until teenage years? Which I didn't play, only for school, which was an every 2 year jump, like junior cricket.

 

[The Gambler]

I played with a few islanders in the juniors, they were two years too old for the age division, and a WHOLE lot bigger than everyone else.

This was however evened out by the fact every other team had islander players too...

 

[Canard]

^^ I don't think so. How will the bigger 10 year old know he is older?

We used to have a kid in my team who played in our grade and also the grade below, back in about 94. Not sure how that worked out :?



When was this eradicated? When I played in the early 90's it was by age, unless weight didn't kick in until teenage years? Which I didn't play, only for school, which was an every 2 year jump, like junior cricket.

Weight divisions went out in the 70's

Its easy enough to distinguish between kids ages, and through attending the same school, or other social circles etc.

It doest really matter if the 10 year old doesn't know anyway, the 14 kid just will be more aggressive and rough.

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

As a kid I played school league, school union, and club union (yes, yes, I know) from the ages of 7-13, and it was ALWAYS weight AND age restricted.

e.g. in the club there was an under 11 years "open weight team" + an under 11 years 40kg team, etc.

The only gripe with that, imo, is that it's hard to know where to set the restricted weight. The weight restriction was always set pretty low- the under 11 weight actually was 40kg iirc- so that even average sized kids were too big. I was always one of the smallest kids in my class at school but I generally came in 5 or 6 kg below the weight restrictions, which meant I was never really playing anyone much bigger than me.

If, for example, they had set the weight at 50kg, a lot of average or slightly above-average kids could've played restricted weight, but I would've struggled a lot more.

 

[bartman]

We're saying 14 year olds will be more mature, aggressive and rough... but will that really matter if kids are grouped within the same 10kg bands? I reckon that's a lot fairer than having a massive kid of the same age being more aggressive and rough to to their size advantage over other kids of the same age?