The Toowoomba Junior Rugby League has introduced a wonderful new initiative for the 2015 season called the “TJRL Youth Cup”.
The idea came about when a number of clubs had excess players who were not getting a significant amount of time on the field on their normal competition days.
Over the last few weeks Jackie Stepson the TJRL President opened discussions with other rugby league clubs and local leagues in the Toowoomba, Kingaroy and Chinchilla areas on to how to give their excess players within the area additional game time each week.
Under the guidance of Jackie Stephson, the TJRL commenced the ‘TJRL Youth Cup’ last Friday evening.
There are currently five teams participating in the competition including, the Kingaroy Redants, Chinchilla Bulldogs, Toowoomba Valleys JRL, Dalby JRL Teams and also a combined team from Toowoomba Highfields JRL, Brothers JRL and Souths JRL. More teams are welcome to join the competition if they have extra numbers of players willing to participate.
The new competition is being played on Friday nights, which will enable some of the participants to play for their respective clubs on a Saturday also in their normal competitions.
Jackie Stephson, President of the TJRL said: “The focus of the Youth Cup is for players to get more game time. The competition is primarily about kids playing footy. Our main aim is to keep the players interested in playing Junior Rugby League and then hopefully they will continue onto the senior ranks. We spend so much time keeping our players involved and then we come to Under 15’s and 16’s and struggle to retain them. The TJRL are very keen for this concept to grow more and more in coming years. ”
Allen Christensen the Manager of the under 15/16s from the Kingaroy Redants stated: “The Kingaroy Red Ants have been able to regain five extra under 15/16 players due to this new competition eventuating. Had they not signed up they could have been lost to rugby league. We are also working on a few others to re-sign and once they see the extra game time they would be getting they may come back also.”
Youth Cup games will be played in Toowoomba, Chinchilla, Dalby, and Kingaroy throughout the season.
Congratulations to the TJRL for this wonderful initiative and hopefully our younger rugby league players will to continue to play in their local areas for many years to come.
