What a year 2021 has been. Whilst the season has come to an early end, there are still many highlights to celebrate.
CRRL has reached an all-time high in participation numbers, up 10% on 2019 figures.
There are currently 5,798 players across all our competitions, with junior participation making up approx. 78% of this number, along with 22% of senior players.
Female participation has also continued to grow in our league tag and tackle competitions in all ages, representing 20% of all participation.
CLICK HERE to see our new participation infographic
On an average weekend roughly 157 games are played between 350 teams. CRRL thank all 1501 registered volunteers who volunteer their time to help and support our teams and clubs in ensuring our players can participate in rugby league each week.
Thank you to the parents and support personnel who also help facilitate our game days at our 35 home ground venues each weekend – people facilitating the canteens, gate keepers, ground manager roles, clock timing and score board duties, team managers, leaguesafers, team mascots and everyone in between.
The number of fully accredited coaches, sports trainers and referees has grown since 2019. There are now 835 coaches, 101 referees, and 312 sports trainers within CRRL. It is important to note that our games are unable to commence without an accredited coach, referee and sports trainer all present on the sideline. This is what makes our sport significantly advanced and ensures safe practices for participants to enjoy and play our contact sport. All accreditations are updated regularly to ensure our accredited personnel are up to date on all aspects specific to rugby league.
The CRRL’s ability to embrace cultural diversity is also highlighted in the Infographic, with an increase of Indigenous participants representing about ten percent of our total participation numbers, along with 459 multicultural participants in total.
The introduction of the new inclusion programs of Wheelchair Rugby League and the Score Raiders has contributed to roughly 60 people who identify as having a disability playing in other variations of our game.
In conjunction with the Disability Trust, this season saw the Score Raiders play in our CRRL U14s junior competition, as well as battle it out against the Score Dragons in Wollongong.
2022 will also mark the second year of our Canberra based Wheelchair Rugby League competition – wheelchair rugby league is for all players to participate and join a team, whether players are regular wheelchair users or not.
Our in-school participation number also risen to reaching over 10,000 students over both primary and secondary schools in the Canberra regions. Schools can participate in the following programs: Canberra Raiders Community Blitz, Sports Schools programs, League Stars, Holiday Clinics, Tackle Safe, and INSPIRE workshops. An additional 3,000 students have the opportunity to participate in one of our school competitions such as, the Legends Shield, Sullivan Shield, Alan Tongue Cup 9’s, etc.
Each weekend our games are played across our Canberra region, from Harden, Boorowa, Cootamundra, Goulburn, Crookwell, Queanbeyan, Bungendore, Cooma and of course all throughout north and south Canberra.
Whilst the season has unfortunately ended abruptly, we want to thank everyone involved in making it happen and for supporting Season 2021.
