Rugby league has seen a 30 per cent growth this year, compared to last. PHOTO: CRL
Rugby League
Participation in the code has seen a huge jump this year – up more than 30 per cent on last year.
Just shy of 2400 players under-18 are in action, compared to 1800 last year.
The number of girls playing has also gone up considerably, with 517 playing this year compared to 350 last year – a 48 per cent increase.
Canterbury Rugby League chief executive Malcom Humm said the increase was down to a number of factors.
“We started running a primary schools tournament, which gave kids the opportunity to play rugby league that they normally wouldn’t have (had).
“The other part of it is obviously the Kiwis gave the Kangaroos a touch up last year (30-0), the Kiwi Ferns beat the Australian Jillaroos, and the Warriors had a good season.
“There’s the aspirational bit in terms of what teams are doing on the national or the international stage.”
PHOTO: MAINLAND FOOTBALL
Football
The most popular junior and youth sport has had steady increases in participation over the past four years.
This year, there are more than 12,000 players under-19 in action, up from 11,562 in 2023, but Mainland Football chief executive Martin Field-Dodgson said the organisation had arrived at this point by not caring about specific numbers.
“Our purpose is just trying to provide a real positive experience for everyone who is involved in the game, be that a player, coach, referee, manager, and the numbers are a secondary outcome.
“A number of years ago, it was all about numbers, and so everyone was just doing whatever they could to convince someone to come play the game, but now it’s more around experience and hoping that they join for a long period of time, and stay in the game for longer. That’s the first priority.
“But it is incredibly pleasing.”
Field-Dodgson said the consistent increase has come with its problems – notably poorer field conditions with more teams playing and less time for the grounds to recover.
But he said the city council’s Long-Term Plan, which promises to put $85.6 million over 10 years into upgrading sports fields, developing floodlit artificial turf fields, and improving additional drainage and irrigation, would be hugely beneficial.
“We can’t wait to see the work under way and then it’s up to us to be able to utilise those facilities to the best of our ability.”
Basketball
While basketball has experienced a small but steady increase in the number of players, Canterbury Basketball general manager Clive Beaumont said there is literally “no more room for improvement”.
He said they were getting to the point where they didn’t have enough courts to cater for all the kids who wanted to play basketball.
Although the figures for 2024 are not being collated until late next month, Beaumont said to expect similar to 2023 – which saw 8450 registered players, a jump on 8209 the previous year.
“We know that they’re pretty similar, if not a slight increase again.”
He hoped those numbers would skyrocket when the new Metro sports facility opens in 2026, bringing the number of available indoor courts in the city from 17 to 26.
“We are patiently waiting for the wonderful Parakiore to come online, at which point we may see a massive increase in numbers playing,” Beaumont said.
He said the rise in interest reflected an increase in popularity of the NBL competition, which was won by the Canterbury Rams this year.
“It’s a real showcase and as the quality of imported players now increases, that increases the quality from the local players as well, and it’s a rolling stone that seems to be gathering pace.
“It means that basketball is very much more now in the headlines and that again appeals to youngsters and gets them interested in the game.”
Netball
While netball only records the number of teams entered rather than the number of players, the figures have held steady over the past three years.
The number of teams has fluctuated – as high as 625 in 2017, and as low as 520 in 2022. It sits at 552 this year, with each team having 10 players on average.
Christchurch Netball Centre delivery lead Janna Hooper said it was fantastic to see the movement of a number of grades to the centre, which opened at Ngā Puna Wai late last year, hadn’t caused a drop.
“It’s really good for us to be able to say that we’ve moved a large percentage of our grades indoors and we haven’t seen the drop off that we potentially were expecting.”
Head of engagement Sara Webb said numbers were slowly rising back to pre-Covid levels (there were 579 teams in 2019).
“Even though it seems a lifetime ago, the reality is that over that period, there were all sorts of behavioural shifts, and given the lockdowns and sports put on hold, the numbers reflect that.”
Hockey
There has been a small decline in the number of school students playing hockey over the last three years, dropping from 3776 in 2022 to 3634 this year.
Canterbury Hockey chief executive Shane Maddaford said a key focus was keeping kids in the sport once they hit high school.
“That’s a hard area to continue to see growth, so we’re still working hard to keep them in our sport.”
But he said the sport had seen encouraging numbers at the entry-level grades – years 1-2 and 3-4 – after introducing Friday night games last year for the latter group.
“We’ve seen pretty consistent growth across those two groups, or four year groups.
“For year 3 and 4, we saw a five per cent growth in total numbers last year, and then again this year for that same age group, we offered Friday nights again and saw a three per cent growth.
“It’s actually also offering a solution as well, we’re limited to the amount of artificial surfaces that we have.
“So Saturday mornings with all these junior kids, all trying to play on the same morning, and there’s only a certain amount of turfs. But Friday night is one of the periods that we actually had a little bit of room to move.”
Rugby
How the numbers stack up
Rugby League – under-18
2024: 2391 (1873 boys, 517 girls)
2023: 1836 (1486 boys, 350 girls)
2022: 1683 (1353 boys, 330 girls)
Football – under-19
2024: 12,002 (9635 boys, 2267 girls)
2023: 11,562 (9428 boys, 2134 girls)
2022: 11,078 (9037 boys, 1941 girls)
Basketball – under-18
2023: 8450 (5943 boys, 2507 girls)
2022: 8209 (5785 boys, 2424 girls)
2021: 8184 (5237 boys, 2947 girls)
Netball teams (about 10 players per team)
Junior year 3-8, senior high school age up
2024: 552 (310 senior, 242 junior)
2023: 537 (304 senior, 233 junior)
2022: 520 (367 senior, 153 junior)
Hockey – primary and secondary school
2024: 3634 (1264 boys, 2370 girls)
2023: 3675 (1312 boys, 2363 girls)
2022: 3776 (1398 boys, 2378 girls)
Canty rep ‘just wanted to give league a go’
De’Ella Molioo, 14, has just finished her first season with the Linwood Keas.
De’Ella had an excellent season for Linwood, who lost the final 12-8 to the Hornby Panthers, but was rewarded with selection to the Canterbury Bulls under-14 girls’ team to play in Wellington at the weekend.
“It’s exciting,” she said.
De’Ella is a halfback, and says her favourite part of the game is running set plays.
“I like doing the plays a lot,” she said.
“At first we didn’t have any, then I asked someone if we could do some, so we added some cuts and stuff.”
She started playing this season when she was asked by her cousin, who was looking to put a team together.
“I just wanted to give it a go, and so I said to dad and mum, I want to join the team,” said De’Ella.
She supports the Penrith Panthers in the NRL “because they work as a team really well”. Her favourite player is Nathan Cleary.
“I watch the games and see how he plays,” she said.
“I get a lot of tips from watching the games.”
League runs in the family – dad Matt coaches Celebration Lions and Canterbury under-16s, where De’Ella’s brother Ezra plays.
Her mum Kylie said De’Ella is a very sporty kid.
“There was a time we were doing netball, league, and basketball on a Friday night,” said Kylie.
“But I think she’s very passionate about league, so that kind of overrides everything else.”
