Struggling to juggle the challenges of club v school footy, as well as the tyranny of distance in North West ,NSW Central North and Armidale juniors teamed up with clubs to find a solution.

In this podcast we talk to Central North Jnr President Renee Parks and local NSW Development legend Gary Walsh to learn how they grew youth rugby numbers from 200 to 1900 participants in 3 years.

By thinking outside of the box and having a clear vision to do whatever needed to get more kids playing rugby, this region made Friday Night Rugby Night. By allowing schools and clubs to play in the same comps, and hosting rounds in each of the towns rather than just Tamworth, competition administrators made it easy to play.

As they say, 'build it and they will come', and come they have, with numbers growing from under 200 players in 2017 to 1966 in 2020, including an increase of 450 players during Covid.