Story By : Paul Malone Emma Chalmers

And players as young as 10 are being targeted by agents in a bid to secure future talent, says the chief officer of the accreditation system for NRL player managers, Paul Osborne.

The president of one Brisbane junior league club, who wanted to remain anonymous, said it was not uncommon for agents in Brisbane to approach players as young as 11 at games or carnivals.

Queensland players as young as 13 have been contracted by player agents, with teens and their parents signing contracts of between three and 10 years' duration.

Osborne said an agent approached Sydney under-11 players in July last year at a carnival at St Mary's in western Sydney.

"What happens is the managers throw out a wide net and get as many kids as they can and hope one of them becomes an NRL player," Osborne said.

Murray – one of Australia's most successful recruiters of NRL talent in recent years as Brisbane Norths chief executive – said only 15 per cent of teen players on contract or scholarship with NRL clubs became first graders .

Many players and their parents were unprepared for rejection and did not have an alternative career path mapped out, he said.

"The system is disgraceful . . . it's a rat race. It's catch and kill your own, which is detrimental to the game," Murray said.

"We have 16 and 17-year-old players who are reluctant to work because they are being drip-fed (a scholarship) monthly by their NRL clubs.

"The kids think they don't need to work, they are going to be full-time footballers.

"I don't blame the kids, the parents, the player managers or the clubs, so much. I blame the administration of the game."

Murray said the AFL was the only code with the right approach to juniors. Signing schoolboys is banned, then players go through a draft system.

Brisbane Broncos chief executive Bruno Cullen said he favoured some sort of regulations specifying an age at which youngsters could be signed by league clubs or player managers.

"Market forces are forcing the clubs to look at these kids at 14 and 15 – or another club or code will do the same," Cullen said.

Leading Queensland player agent Jim Banaghan said he understood about 40 players at the annual Queensland schoolboys carnival in Warwick in June already had managers.

"There are Sydney player managers with forty to sixty 14, 15 and 16-year-olds on their books – and I can't see how these can justify it," Banaghan said.

Osborne said he would like to see a minimum age of 16 adopted.

Experienced Sydney player agent Steve Gillis said

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a tin, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a van - loose - was always exciting and great fun.

We drank water from the garden hose or tap and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cakes, white bread and real butter and drank cordial with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because......

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem .

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, No video games at all, No 99 channels,No Pay TV, No cable, No DVD movies or surround sound.

It's crazy! We even had No mobile phones, No text messaging, No personal computers, No Internet or Internet chat rooms..........

WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We played with worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

Made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we didn't poke out anyones eye.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Local teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all!

And YOU are one of them!

CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.

and while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

"It was probably luck more than anything," he says. "I was a pretty plump little kid and the rope wasn't thick enough to hold me."

Racked with guilt, confusion and shame after suffering four years of sexual abuse, the boy from a Moree Aboriginal mission wanted it over with.

Binge says he thought repeatedly about finding a thicker rope throughout his teenage years. But he survived, growing to 183 centimetres tall and weighing 100 kilograms. He almost played first grade rugby league for St George and Manly. Last year Rugby League Week described him as "one of the best Koori footballers never to play in Sydney".

"Rugby league saved my life. Whenever I put on a pair of football boots and I was in that team environment I felt safe," Binge says. "I look back now and I honestly believe if I was able to address the issues in my life earlier I would have had a better career."

It took 10 years for the prop forward to speak about the sexual abuse that cast a pall over his adolescence. In his mid-20s, after running out of excuses, Binge gave into a friend's urgings and attended a Lismore men's group, part of an indigenous program called Rekindling the Spirit. After several visits he finally found the words.

He was six, propped up on crutches after being hit by a tow truck and recovering from a fractured skull, pelvis, leg, arm and collarbone, when two members of his extended family, drink and drug buddies of his father, preyed on him in the family home.

So began four years of hell that his father was too drunk or stoned to notice and his mother too frightened for her own safety to see. In hindsight, Binge is convinced he was not alone.

"I've had some of my best mates take their own lives, a lot of them are drug addicts and alcoholics, and I question whether something happened to those guys too."

At the men's group that turned his life around, Binge says no fewer than 70 per cent of participants reported having been sexually abused as children.

The Speak Out, Speak Strong report in 2002, conducted by the Aboriginal Justice Advisory Council, found a similar link between child sexual abuse and women in prisons, with 70 per cent of those surveyed saying they had been abused as children. The report found that child sexual assault victims were more likely to use drugs, particularly heroin, and that most were imprisoned due to drug-related crime.

Telling his parents what had happened was "one of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my life," Binge says.

Both blamed themselves. His father then broke down and confessed that the same thing had happened to him as a boy. Binge hung up his football boots three years ago at the age of 33 and now coaches juniors in Ballina.

He said the federal intervention in the Northern Territory ought to spur NSW to do more about its epidemic. "We've got communities in NSW that are rife with this sort of stuff. And we're the only ones who can fix it, ourselves, from within. I call drugs, alcohol and violence surface issues. But the underlying issues are the past traumatic experiences that people have had."

He says: "I get seen as the person with the big mouth now because of what I'm saying but I'd rather be that person and have this relationship with my family. I'm not going to be that scared little boy any more."

Nevertheless, one thing still causes him to break down.

The eldest of his four children, Chris, was named man of the match at the Australian schoolboy rugby league championship in Adelaide.

Jack Nobes wraps up one of the Panthers attackers during Cowra’s two-point loss to the Bathurst side in under 16s league.

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The Panthers kicked off, and Cowra dominated possession for the first five minutes.

A beautiful pass from Michael Leach to Jack Nobes and then quickly out to Cohen Cartwright, saw the first try of the match. The conversion attempt was unsuccessful.

Cowra maintained pressure with a knock on from Bathurst on their 10 metre line.

A scrum win from Cowra saw Jack Nobes feed the ball to Rory Brien, who went over a few defenders to score Cowra's second try. Jack Nobes converted the try for a 10-point Cowra lead.

Twenty minutes into the game and a scrum win from Cowra in their half saw Rory Brien chip over the defence, re-gather and score under the posts.

The conversion by Jack Nobes was successful taking Cowra's lead out to 16.

Against the run of play Panthers gained possession and scored a try the length of the field. The kick was unsuccessful, making the half-time score Cowra 16 Panthers 4.

The Panthers came out in the second half revitalised, placing some pressure on the Cowra line. A good backline move saw their winger score out wide.

Cowra then retaliated. A kick through from Jack Nobes into the in-goal area, and some heavy defence on the Panthers players, led to Nobes re-gathering the ball and popping over the line for a try.

In the next ten minutes, Cowra lost their focus, with Panthers capitalising on some simple errors and scoring a succession of three tries, making the score Panthers 28 Cowra 20.

With three minutes to go, Cowra passed the ball out their line into the hands of Rory Brien, who scooted round some of the Panthers defence and scored under the posts.

A quick conversion by Jack Nobes left some hope for the Cowra boys, just two points behind. Unfortunately, time beat them. The final score Panthers 28 Cowra 26.

A disappointing result for the boys, who were the better team for most of the game.

Both Louis McLean and Rory Brien had great games in attack and defence. Travis Bryant played well from dummy-half and made some good metres.

Jack Nobes is really mastering his tackling skills, and downing the big fellows twice his size, as well as some nice work directing the ball around the field. Cohen Cartwright played a good match, with some more great tackling.

RL TESTS: Kieran Foran is ‘looking ahead to the most exciting time of my life’.

Kieran, in Year 11 at Marist College, North Shore, earned his place with stand-out performances in the centres for NSW Combined Catholic Colleges (NSW CCC) at the Australian championships held in Townsville last month.

Kieran, who turned 17 a few weeks ago, plays in the Jersey Flegg competition with Manly; Liam is on the books of the Melbourne Storm.

On his selection for Australian Schoolboys, Kieran said: “I’m extremely proud, it hasn’t all sunk in yet, but my family and especially my brother Liam are very proud of me.

“I’m excited about playing the New Zealanders; it will be very competitive.

“My Mum and Dad will travel to New Zealand to support me, which will be great.

“I’m looking ahead to what will be the most exciting time of my life.”

The Australian Schoolboys team has long been a breeding ground for NRL players.

Last year’s squad which went through its UK tour undefeated included former Marist College, North Shore, old boys Mitchell Pearce (Sydney Roosters) and Liam Foran, along with Chris Lawrence (Wests Tigers) and Israel Folau (Melbourne Storm).

The Australian Schoolboys will have a three-day training camp at the Institute of Sport in Canberra, before playing Test matches in Auckland and Rotorua.

Team manager Steve Ducos says: “Playing on foreign turf is always tough, but we have a very strong side again this year.”

Kieran has already had a big year, representing NSW CCC and Combined High Schools, and is determined to use the Australian Schoolboys as a springboard to a career in the NRL.

He was one of the star performers during the six-day Australian championships, played at Brothers rugby league ground adjacent to North Queensland’s Dairy Farmers Stadium.

“Townsville was an ideal location for the championships because of the warm weather compared to the cold of Sydney,” he said.

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Several times he appeared to have been tackled but those big long legs of his just kept pumping and he ran 40 metres for the opening try.

A couple of minutes later his Peak Hill mate Brendan Westcott scored a similar try as he shrugged off tackle after tackle as he stormed over for try number two.

More Peak Hill brilliance followed as inspirational captain Mitch Westcott latched onto a good pass from Alex Umbers and outskirted and outsprinted the defence to go over to take the score to 15-0.

Things got even better when a few minutes later multiple pairs of hands culminated in Alex Umbers planting the ball firmly between the post for another try.

Another try, another missed conversion and at half time the boys led 20-0.

Wellington came out after the break and put on a few quick tries to get to 20-15.

The boys pulled themselves together again as Thomas Haskell and Kaine Byrnes began pinching valuable ball from their opponents to slow their momentum.

A mistake from Wellington gave Parkes a scrum feed 20 metres out, Alex Umbers grabbed the ball from the base of the scrum and went the blind.