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New Zealand 2 will deal a massive blow to NZ rugby

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,803
And that's a big reason why kids aren't playing contact sports anymore. The precedent that sets will effect ALL Rugby, including League. "Soccer mums" may be a cliché but they are real and having a massive impact.
ARLC need to counteract the BS scare money grabbing tactics with evidence. I saw a breakdown of casualty injuries by sport and RL wasnt near the top.
I got far more injuries playing Am Football with all that protection on than I ever did playing RL.
Problem is people see the damaging contact of FT 115kg NRL players and think thats the game, its not, go watch an amateur's game or a jnr game and the contact is rarley anything like the NRL's.

Theres always touch footy and mens netball for the soft ones.
 

The Penguin #6.

Juniors
Messages
1,161
Theres always touch footy and mens netball for the soft ones.
You want to be careful saying things like that, Touch and Tag League are unrivalled entry points to our game and are excellent ways to involve people in the game if for whatever reason they don`t want to play tackle.
In my local area on the Group website the Tag competitions are treated on an equal footing with the Tackle comp`s, that`s an awful lot of people, boys and girls, who are playing the game and attending on weekends who may well not otherwise.
Denigrating it as "soft" will only encourage others to ridicule it and deter people from playing. Doubly odd coming from someone from an expansion State trying to grow the games footprint.
BTW great to see a Touch game in the lead up to the Indigenous match.
 

Pneuma

First Grade
Messages
5,475
You want to be careful saying things like that, Touch and Tag League are unrivalled entry points to our game and are excellent ways to involve people in the game if for whatever reason they don`t want to play tackle.
In my local area on the Group website the Tag competitions are treated on an equal footing with the Tackle comp`s, that`s an awful lot of people, boys and girls, who are playing the game and attending on weekends who may well not otherwise.
Denigrating it as "soft" will only encourage others to ridicule it and deter people from playing. Doubly odd coming from someone from an expansion State trying to grow the games footprint.
BTW great to see a Touch game in the lead up to the Indigenous match.
Great point. The sharks have expanded their player base by offering tag options at almost every age group and those comps are growing quickly. One club went from 11 to 30 teams simply through offering tag. This is about being inclusive and it’s the way forward. Calling it ‘soft’ is incredibly disrespectful
 

titoelcolombiano

First Grade
Messages
5,324
You'd need more than $20mil a year, and they'd probably need it for longer than 50 years as well. Basing them in Cairns would further blowout travel costs as well. Even if they were based in Port Moresby they probably have the highest travel costs in the league, base them in Cairns and they'd have to fly to every single game.

Broadcast value is negligible in PNG, and their potential sponsorship market is tiny in real terms, but the biggest issues are that at current exchange rates K$1.00 only buys you AU$0.45 and most of the population are subsistence farmers whom can't afford the product anyway.

In other words, to draw a crowd they'd need to have by far the lowest average prices in the league whilst also simultaneously maintaining the highest operating costs by far.

Now lets say that you could get government grants from PNG, AUS, and maybe NZ as well, to completely cover the costs of the club (which is probably a pipedream in of it's self by the way), how long do you think it'll be before that money is redirected?

Whether it's a change of government, public protest, simply that the government needs the money for other things, etc, it'd only be a matter of time before that money is taken away, and it'd be redirected long before a PNG side is independently sustainable. At that point the NRL would be left holding a bill they can't really afford, and be left with the decision of throwing money into the abyss to try and sustain the club for as long as possible, or breaking the hearts of millions of Papuans by choosing to fold the club. Imagine what impact that could have not only on the sport, but also on relations between the two nations.

Everybody wants a PNG side to happen, and sooner or later it will assuming that all goes well, but both PNG and the NRL aren't ready for it to happen yet and it'll end in tragedy if they give it a go too soon.
Do you think a PNG NRL side would provide any benefits that the QRL team currently doesn't already provide in a more sustainable way?
 

Iamback

Coach
Messages
17,198
You want to be careful saying things like that, Touch and Tag League are unrivalled entry points to our game and are excellent ways to involve people in the game if for whatever reason they don`t want to play tackle.
In my local area on the Group website the Tag competitions are treated on an equal footing with the Tackle comp`s, that`s an awful lot of people, boys and girls, who are playing the game and attending on weekends who may well not otherwise.
Denigrating it as "soft" will only encourage others to ridicule it and deter people from playing. Doubly odd coming from someone from an expansion State trying to grow the games footprint.
BTW great to see a Touch game in the lead up to the Indigenous match.

Penrith comp you get Luai and co playing Oztag, You often get RL scouts there for a look at guys.

Really until it is teenagers does someone need to start playing tackle, Sure it helps but there are other options
 

Billythekid

First Grade
Messages
6,570
ARLC need to counteract the BS scare money grabbing tactics with evidence. I saw a breakdown of casualty injuries by sport and RL wasnt near the top.
I got far more injuries playing Am Football with all that protection on than I ever did playing RL.
Problem is people see the damaging contact of FT 115kg NRL players and think thats the game, its not, go watch an amateur's game or a jnr game and the contact is rarley anything like the NRL's.

Theres always touch footy and mens netball for the soft ones.
But no one is worried about the soft ones. Like sure sports like netball and touch are notorius for causing certain injuries. The problem the sorts of injuries they cause, injuries to feet/ankles/fingers/hands/knees just aren't on the same level as causing brain damage. Not only is brain damage much worse but also it's more insidious because you may not realise it's happening until further down the line.

Also you're making a mistake assuming that brain damage only starts at the pro level when that simply isn't the case. Shit even soccer is now having to contend with this problem because repeatedly heading soccer balls is also being shown to lead to brain damage.

All contact sports need to consider how they will contend with this problem in the future as it poses an existential threat to these sports.
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,803
But no one is worried about the soft ones. Like sure sports like netball and touch are notorius for causing certain injuries. The problem the sorts of injuries they cause, injuries to feet/ankles/fingers/hands/knees just aren't on the same level as causing brain damage. Not only is brain damage much worse but also it's more insidious because you may not realise it's happening until further down the line.

Also you're making a mistake assuming that brain damage only starts at the pro level when that simply isn't the case. Shit even soccer is now having to contend with this problem because repeatedly heading soccer balls is also being shown to lead to brain damage.

All contact sports need to consider how they will contend with this problem in the future as it poses an existential threat to these sports.
Its been proven that a third of all dementias are preventable. Do you think people on mass are now going to change their lives and lifestyles knowing that? Of course not, life has risk, we individually determine how much risk for how much reward we are willing to take. Sure minimise risk, but you cant eliminate it.

If people know what the risk is it then becomes their choice. Im in the dementia field, seen the tragic impacts it has, but knowing that better than most would I have not played RL and Am Football(where I got a lot of head hits back in the day), no I wouldnt. Why? Because I loved every minute of participating, hitting and being hit, and the life lessons being part of a team in tough sports gave me. Just like I wont stop driving my car despite that being just about the most risky thing I do in my life, statistically speaking.

Now thats at an adults level, where it gets more complicated is participation rates at jnr levels. And thats because parents are making those choices. The safer we can make it the better and if that means everyone plays flag U12 so be it.

Going to be very interesting to see what the new Union below the waist tackling rules pan out like.
 

The Great Dane

First Grade
Messages
7,767
Do you think a PNG NRL side would provide any benefits that the QRL team currently doesn't already provide in a more sustainable way?
Nope, at least it won't make a significant difference to anything tangible. Intangibles is a different discussion though.

Hypothetically a NRL side could play a part in building a stronger sense of national unity and pride in PNG, and other stuff like that. But that sort of stuff is hard to quantify and it's a moot point anyway because the team isn't economically feasible, let alone competitive with other potential expansion options.
 

Pippen94

First Grade
Messages
5,858
Its been proven that a third of all dementias are preventable. Do you think people on mass are now going to change their lives and lifestyles knowing that? Of course not, life has risk, we individually determine how much risk for how much reward we are willing to take. Sure minimise risk, but you cant eliminate it.

If people know what the risk is it then becomes their choice. Im in the dementia field, seen the tragic impacts it has, but knowing that better than most would I have not played RL and Am Football(where I got a lot of head hits back in the day), no I wouldnt. Why? Because I loved every minute of participating, hitting and being hit, and the life lessons being part of a team in tough sports gave me. Just like I wont stop driving my car despite that being just about the most risky thing I do in my life, statistically speaking.

Now thats at an adults level, where it gets more complicated is participation rates at jnr levels. And thats because parents are making those choices. The safer we can make it the better and if that means everyone plays flag U12 so be it.

Going to be very interesting to see what the new Union below the waist tackling rules pan out like.

If participants weren't declining in number sports wouldn't be looking to change rules
 

The Great Dane

First Grade
Messages
7,767
But no one is worried about the soft ones. Like sure sports like netball and touch are notorius for causing certain injuries. The problem the sorts of injuries they cause, injuries to feet/ankles/fingers/hands/knees just aren't on the same level as causing brain damage. Not only is brain damage much worse but also it's more insidious because you may not realise it's happening until further down the line.

Also you're making a mistake assuming that brain damage only starts at the pro level when that simply isn't the case. Shit even soccer is now having to contend with this problem because repeatedly heading soccer balls is also being shown to lead to brain damage.

All contact sports need to consider how they will contend with this problem in the future as it poses an existential threat to these sports.
Mate they're finding stronger and stronger evidence of CTE occurring in sports that we wouldn't even consider contact sports. Anything that can cause micro concussions can cause CTE over time, and more and more we're finding that almost all physical activity can lead to those minor concussions.

Motor sports and Olympic bobsleigh are great examples. They've found that just the force from stopping suddenly, cornering, and prolonged exposure to the vibrations created by the friction of going at those sorts of speeds, are enough to cause micro concussions. It's such an issue in bobsleigh that they have a euphuism for the condition; "sled head".

They've even found suspected cases of CTE in gymnastics. It can't be confirm 100% until a few people donate their brains to science, but they're as certain as you can be otherwise. If CTE can occur in gymnastics then it can occur in anything!

Sure the rate of CTE is going to be higher in the combat and contact sports, but where does it stop if society allows restrictions on those sports to reduce the risk of CTE?! The answer is that it doesn't, because people's attention will shift to other sports as soon as the combat and contact sports are restricted/fundamentally changed enough that they don't have the highest rates of CTE anymore.
 
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Perth Red

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Messages
65,803
Mate they're finding stronger and stronger evidence of CTE occurring in sports that we wouldn't even consider contact sports. Anything that can cause micro concussions can cause CTE over time, and more and more we're finding that almost all physical activity can lead to those minor concussions.

Motor sports and Olympic bobsleigh are great examples. They've found that just the force from stopping suddenly, cornering, and prolonged exposure to the vibrations created by the friction of going at those sorts of speeds, are enough to cause micro concussions. It's such an issue in bobsleigh that they have a euphuism for the condition; "sled head".

They've even found suspected cases of CTE in gymnastics. It can't be confirm 100% until a few people donate their brains to science, but they're as certain as you can be otherwise. If CTE can occur in gymnastics then it can occur in anything!

Sure the rate of CTE is going to be higher in the combat and contact sports, but where does it stop if society allows restrictions on those sports to reduce the risk of CTE?! The answer is that it doesn't, because people's attention will shift to other sports as soon as the combat and contact sports are restricted/fundamentally changed enough that they don't have the highest rates of CTE anymore.
80's headbangers and the current mosh pitters are screwed then! Ban the moshpit!
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,803
Afl & league boasted by female numbers. Doubt even the former is seeing increase in males.

Still plenty of people and kids playing sport, thankfully! Id suggest now a days kids tend to try lots of sports rather than stick with one for life like previous generations.

  • 55% of women who participate do at least some sport related activities,
  • 70.5% of participating men do at least some sport related activities,
  • 67.3% of participating children do at least some sport related activities

  • Swimming (33%); Football/soccer (13.8%); Gymnastics (10.5%); Recreational dancing (8.9%); Basketball (7.3%); Australian football (6.5%); Tennis (6.1%); Netball (5.7%); Cricket (3.9%); Athletics/jogging/running (3.8%); Rugby league (3.5%); Karate (2.6%); Touch football (2.4%); DanceSport (2.2%); Rugby Union (2.1%).
 
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