The NSWRL has mandated a major change to its youngest age group, banning tackling before June 1 in favour of using velcro tags. After six weeks of playing tag to start the season, tackling will be introduced at the under-six level.

A loss in junior rugby league participation numbers across the country due to growing safety fears from parents has prompted the change, which was successfully implemented in Queensland in 2019.

"It's mainly in that player development framework aspect, around the kids being introduced to the game and also ensuring the parents that the game's being very responsible in teaching them how to tackle, to build confidence and build safety," Vergano said.

"Getting your head in the right position, that will generally improve and the league tag aspect improves the skills.

"It's been shown that the kids' skills [improve], without the potential that they're going to get crunched in a tackle. Their spatial awareness picks up, they can look at the game, they can concentrate on the ball and not their body because its tag, they're not being physically hit.

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"Those other league skills are really enhanced by taking the tackle element out, and they enjoy the game more.

"Kids are going to sample different sports, we all get that and we want them to find their right niche. If our churn is preventable, ie better tackling, better spatial awareness, better understanding running with the ball, they'll come back [to rugby league]."

Bidgee regional manager James Smart presented the proposed changes to Canberra clubs over the summer.

The non-tackling approach was adopted in south-east Queensland in 2019, before expanding to cover the entire state.

The NSWRL has been looking at the model for several years now, but its implementation was slowed due to the Covid pandemic.

"The disruptions and hesitancies around the pandemic and too much change coping with everything that it's had to cope with up until now has been hard enough," Vergano said.

"We're hopefully seeing that we're coming through the other side of things, this is now the appropriate time for the NSW part of the business we start implementing this.

"It's not just being dropped on, there's been a pilot, then it was rolled out in south-east Queensland and it was rolled out further in QRL.

"When you're changing a long held practice, ie they come straight to the game with a straight tackling and playing, any transition period has some challenges and takes a little while for the adjustments to work their way positively through the system. It's a fairly innovative approach here."

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