NRL overhauls training rules in landmark player safety move

ABC Investigations

The NRL is limiting the amount of time clubs can spend doing contact training for both men and women. (ABC Newcastle: Bridget Murphy, file photo)

The NRL has moved to implement landmark safety guidelines for NRL and NRLW training which for the first time limit contact in training.

Internationally, other codes such as World Rugby and the US NFL have had similar restrictions for several years.

The AFL is yet to implement contact restrictions in training despite a coroner advising it to do so in 2023.

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In a major safety move, the National Rugby League has capped contact in training in a bid to reduce injuries including concussion.

The ABC can reveal all 17 NRL and 12 NRLW clubs have been informed of the development, with guidelines limiting the minutes of contact in both in-season and pre-season training sessions.

The move to restrict training loads is aimed at mitigating injuries, including brain injuries, which continue to be a major issue for all contact sports.

All 17 NRL clubs were informed on the eve of the season that their players are to engage in no more than 100 minutes on a regular seven-day turnaround.

In the NRLW, whose 2026 season begins in July, female players can engage in no more than 85 minutes per week on a seven-day turnaround.

For the NRL and NRLW it is no more than 40 or 50 minutes of contact on a five- or six-day turnaround.

The new preseason guidelines place limits of no more than 200 minutes for men and 115 minutes of contact per week for women.

Sports neuroscientists and neurologists had previously called for Australia's major leagues, the NRL and AFL, to restrict contact in training to protect footballers from concussions and subconcussive impacts.

World Rugby and the US's National Football League have already implemented contact restrictions for their athletes in both their preseason and in-season training sessions, to lessen the number of impacts to the brain.

Until now, there have been no set limits on contact training in the NRL and NRLW, with the head coach of the club determining the intensity and physicality of training.

NRL sources say in the last two decades contact in training has exponentially increased.

Preseason has traditionally been the most physical and high-contact segment of the year for NRL and NRLW players but now the coaching hierarchy have been given a set of guidelines.

In the preseason later this year the men will be instructed to have a limit of "contact training to no more than 100 minutes per week pre-Christmas (inclusive of wrestling training)".

The 12 NRLW clubs have been told that during their pre-season this June they should:

There is also a "graded introduction protocol" for both men and women where from day one to five of their respective preseasons there is no physical contact.

On day one of pre-season training both NRL and NRLW clubs must "restrict activities to physical screenings, meetings, classroom education and general conditioning. No football-specific training equipment, or team-based drills".

On days two to five of preseason the guidelines say clubs should limit training to "non-contact, skill-based drills only. No live or high-intensity contact".

Clubs were told the proposed guidelines for the NRLW were based on a survey of NRLW clubs and analysis compiled on the men's data.