“One of the key roles of our CCCs was to work with the junior clubs within each Sydney district to help some of our most valued stakeholders – Junior League volunteers – to help create positive environments for all participants.

“One of the things they did at the start of this season was to have face-to-face meetings with almost 3000 Junior Rugby League officials across 11 Sydney districts to provide them with information about competition guidelines, our programs and resources.”

Mather said the investment is paying dividends, with the extra resourcing also resulting in an increased number of alternate formats of the game being offered to specific age groups and cultural groups.

The most significant increase is in girls aged 10-12 years (87.34 per cent increase) as a result of the creation of all-girls competitions for pre-teens.

The number of males playing is stable, with an increase of almost 2 per cent, with the biggest rises in boys aged seven and under, and men 19 years and over (largely contributed to the return of the under 20s competition to NSWRL).

The biggest growth area in NSWRL is in Sydney’s west, with Western Suburbs district (13 per cent), Penrith (4.5 per cent) and Parramatta (3.25 per cent) all recording increases; while strong growth of 12.75 per cent was also registered in the Cronulla district.

The only area that did not experience growth was males aged 13-18 years which is consistent with national figures for many sports.

Mather added: “To address the decline we will be introducing alternate formats of the game as part of in-season offerings in 2019.”