Is implementing age and positional specific training drills necessary in elite youth rugby league?

Professional sporting clubs invest in pathway programs, at-tempting to develop physical, technical abilities and psy-chological skills within a long-term framework (1,2), aiming toretain these athletes for selection in their senior teams. Often,youth teams will train separately within specified age groups,however, from a physical preparation perspective, there maybe benefit in training cohesively if there is not a large differ-ence in the physical demands of competition between age andperhaps positional groups.