THE growth of the women's tackle game was on show during the Panorama Platypi's recent training session for their under 12s and 14s at Learmonth Park.
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Players were put through a mix of fitness and football drills to help them prepare for the new Western Women's Rugby League season.
Western Rams coach Kurt Hancock brought his experience to the table to help run drills in Thursday's session, and will keep working with the younger age groups over the next few weeks.
Platypi's under 12s coach Rachel Connors said it's great to see lots of girls coming into the youngest age group of the representative competition eager to try their hand at the tackle game.
"The girls are absolutely loving being out here, and growth of the game has been massive. They're eating all of this training up and they just want to play more and more," she said.
"This tackle side of things for the girls has been so good for not just Bathurst but also for Orange, Mudgee and everywhere across the region. I think it's only going to get bigger and bigger too."
Connors said the fun factor is the number one thing to remember for her side.
"In our under 12s we really just want to see them having fun, first and foremost," he said.
"They'll learn the fundamentals as they play, so just enjoying it is the main thing."
The Western Women's Rugby League is a great pathway that's emerged for the region's top talent to try and progress to the top level.
That's also seen great learning opportunities open up for the region's girls.
"Before the shutdown there was a Zoom meeting with the St George tackle girls," Connors said.
"A lot of the girls from the under 12s jumped on to ask questions. They were quite keen to come and watch the girls play. It's a really good thing to see."
Officials are still chasing more nominations for the under 12s and 18s age groups ahead of the Platypi's Western Women's Rugby League games next year.
Platypi president Mick Roels recently stated that such is the growth of the girls' tackle edition of the game that he envisions it replaced the league tag format in the future.
He also believes a regular winter competition for girls as young as under 10s could also be considered, with enough support.
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