So something I've been wanting to see for a very long time, was announced by the club today - namely that League Tag is going to officially be a part of the Parramatt Junior Competition.
https://www.parraeels.com.au/news/2018/02/23/parramatta-league-tag/
Since my boy started participating in Tag, and then I gave it a go myself, I've very much been of the view that Tag is the secret to on-going growth for Rugby League. Over the last couple of years, the sport has literally exploded. I was up at the Oz Tag State Cup competition in Coffs Harbour, and there were 350+ teams and it literally brought the town to a stand-still, and next year there going to split the tournament because they can't find anywhere big enough for its continued growth. For smaller kids, kids who don't like the contact (or who's parents don't like the contact) and for girls, it's a genuine League experience that focuses entirely on the skill.
The decision to run in conjunction with the current junior competition, and not as an off-season sport is an interesting one. It will be interesting to see if it impacts numbers - I've already got one of the boys in my son's League team, re-considering whether he''ll play League this year, and play Tag instead. Personally, at least in its inaugural season, I would have run it off-season, but anyways..
It will be interesting to see how far this goes. Whether there will be pathways to rep Tag, for example.
I'm tipping it's going to boom. The only real issue with the whole thing is that the guy who own the IP to "Oztag" continues to do his own thing, and we'll essentially have two competing versions of the same sport which isn't going to do anyone any good. The NRL seriously needs to get a deal done, to bring it all under the same roof (I guess the push to expand League Tag perhaps gives them a better negotiating position).
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No, this whole League Tag push is definitely coming through the NRL as well. They are pushing it very hard in schools as a PSSA option, and providing a lot of assistance in getting it running and providing refs and so forth. It's obviously working if they're now working with the Junior Districts to push it out further.
I think they were kind of forced into the Touch partnership, because Oz Tag wouldn't play ball - to use a pun - but I reckon they're just going to go hard with League Tag now
Agree it’s agreat idea for the game to reach the younger generation especially. It works very well in the school settings.
I played OzTag a few years ago, and I did like the idea as anyone whose played Touch knows that phantom touches are always a problem. The playing conditions are more like actual Rugby League, but when I played it I found it to be very frustrating.
Under OzTag rules, and therefore presumably also League Tag, if you've lost a tag without knowing, as soon as you touch the ball the tackle is called. I found I was losing tags all the time. Once I had lost one without knowing, (it was down the other end of the field), and I received a pass to score a try, the line was wide open, try time, oops sorry fella, you've only got one tag, no try.
I also found that even though the rules were more like League than Touch rules were, Touch game play was actually more like Rugby League than OzTag was. The most important skill I found in OzTag was how to twist to avoid having a tag taken off, whereas in Touch running to the line to set up the next play is more important, again more relevant to League.
I actually think that difference where being able to position your hips, is why I believe Oz Tag is a superior game and more likely to "break through" as a larger sport. There isn't really much new to learn in touch, so it just feels like Rugby League for wimps. In Tag, you do have a whole new set of skills to learn - ie tag management, spinning, twisting, tagging... You're traditional passing and stepping, and acceleration are still there, but you essentially replace the contact elements with an extra set of skills.
All of my old Touch team came out of retirement to have one last hurrah which was an Oztag round robin type comp at Tempe Park. We lost the first game but then got the hang of it and made it to the semi's. Talking of missing tags, we came up against a team of young Lebanese guys who knew every short cut. We kept losing tags and finding them up the other end of the field covered in pubes. We finally worked out that they were putting our tags down their shorts and dropping them out later. We did OK for old blokes because Tag suits a league brain better than touch does. It didn't happen in the Tempe weekend but I couldn't cop that spinning crap. Pretty easy to bring in a penalty called "Spinning" I would think.I don't know whether Perry still holds the Tag rights but how can the NRL just ignore his IP? Are they hoping he won't fight them?
My preference would be to modify Touch rules to more accurately reflect League. Allow for kicking at least on the 5th, allow for knock backs are two that come immediately to mind.
The constant losing of tags drove me nuts. I had played Touch before OzTag and then went back to Touch and just enjoyed it more.
I don't know how League Tag fastens the tags to the player, but when I played OzTag it was Velcro, and the basic rule of Velcro is that the more you rip it off, the less strong the bond is. By the end of the season they barely stayed on.
The spinning in oztag is the worst part of the game. You can't jump to avoid being tagged so you certainly shouldn't be able to twirl around. I reckon you cut that spinning crap out and it's a pretty good game. And yea tags falling off as velcro deteriorates is pretty frustrating.
I have played 'super touch' that is touch rules but allows a kick on the 4th and 5th tackle. It's not bad but it kind of nullifies a good defensive set because the attacking team can do fuck all for the first 4 or 5 tackles then kick the length of the field on the last. I find it takes away a lot of the skill of running, passing and creating over laps and relies too much on the kick.
I hated that spinning crap, drove me nuts. To me, that wasn’t footy.
I’ve been saying for years that the NRL needs to embrace and legitimise the non-contact versions of our game. To make them genuine pathways for young kids who love the game but don’t want the contact. And also for parents who don’t want their kids getting hurt. (I think I wrote a blog on this issue once?)
This is great news.
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