RLN continues to strive toward growing the interest in our game. Through school engagement kids get to experience a quality Rugby League experience. Our biggest challenge moving forward is to develop formal links between school programs and clubs.
Leadership through League
| The Leadership Through League programme, delivered to 203 students (159 in 2014) across 13 Colleges (11 in 2014) | |
| School | Quantity of Coaches |
| Kaitaia College | 13 coaches |
| Ruawai College | 13 coaches |
| Te Rangi Aniwaniwa | 7 coaches |
| Abundant Life | 7 coaches |
| NorthTec Academy | 14 coaches |
| Okaihau College | 10 coaches |
| Tikipunga High School | 10 coaches |
| Dargaville High School | 27 coaches |
| Kamo High School | 26 coaches |
| Te Kapehu Whetu | 26 coaches |
| Lowie Foundation | 18 coaches |
| Northland College | 16 coaches |
| Bream Bay College | 16 coaches |
| These Coaches coached in 38 Primary Schools to 3,541 students (2,996 in 2014)! | |
School Competitions
| Event | Participants |
| Northland Primary Schools Competition | 38 Primary Schools, totalling1,200 Primary school participants |
| Year 9 & 10 Challenge Shield – Nine-A-Side Competition | 12 High Schools participated (10 in 2014) |
| Year 9& 10 Lightning League (girls) Competition | 3 High Schools participated |
| Northland Area Schools 9s | 5 High Schools participated |
| NorthTec Adam Blair Trophy | 11 teams, in 14 High Schools participated (10 in 2014) |
| In 2015 Rugby League Northland had a total of 1,749 participants (1,522 in 2014)who played in an organised School League Competition | |
Our Clubs
Growth of playing numbers in Northland went from 620 in 2010 to 3,472 in 2015. Club numbers saw a healthy increase from 1,472 in 2014 to 1723 in 2015. Officially we have 17 Clubs across Northland (not including schools and rugby teams that played in the Kaikohe Mini Mod).
Much of the growth at club league can be attributed to the launch of the Kaikohe Mini Mod Competition where we moved from Sunday league to Wednesday evening inviting Primary Schools and Rugby Clubs to enter. This competition grew from 9 teams in 2014 to 25 teams in 2015.
Jennian Home Juniors
Junior Rugby League in Whangarei was massive with 45 teams and over 600 players converging every week to the Bluegoose.
We saw the launch of a new club from Parua Bay the Manaia Makos who fielded two teams and hope to build on this next year.
Our football Grades 14s, 16s and 18s saw some big challenges this year. We had a significant drop in teams entering. This was due to a change of grades as well as a change of days. We moved from Sundays to Friday nights. We were effected by grounds not being available and transport logistics. In contrast to playing numbers was the increase in the ‘Rugby League Intelligence’ with a massive improvement in the standard of play. This could be seen by the improvement of the Swords teams at National Tournaments.
| Club Participation Numbers | |||
| Year | Mini Mod\Youth | Senior | Total |
| 2010+ | 199 | 421 | 620 |
| 2011+ | 383 | 392 | 775 |
| 2012+ | – | – | 1,336 |
| 2013+ | 915 | 525 | 1,440 |
| 2014 | 998 | 475 | 1,473 |
| 2015 | 1,042 | 681 | 1,723 |
+ It should be noted that the participation numbers from 2010-2013 are based on a methodology of clubs/teams entered . In 2014 with a large clean up project of the database completed, the 2014 numbers are factual without duplication.
