catalysts for the introduction of several initiatives by the national rugby league and ARL development in recent years to curb the number of youth playing other sports. The specific initiatives over the years includes a Safe play code, Kids to kangaroos programmes and new forms of modified rugby league, such as, Mod league and Mini Footy to help young children prepare for the full rigours of the international code. Also with such introductions are the competitions aimed at school children such as Joey league, League of legends and League Sevens, which use modified rugby league rules such as Tag and Sevens. Whilst previous announcements in annual reports have claimed junior registrations as high as 120,667 and up to 1,000,000 children engaged in "rugby-league based physical activities in 2008" (which would equate to roughly 1/3 of all primary and secondary children nationwide in that year), more recent reports have identified far lower participation numbers of 160,691 total registrations and 30,648 students nationwide. Senior participation In 2008, 51,540 people participated in senior rugby league. Participation numbers amongst senior divisions tend to decline in higher age groups. While this can be expected to the nature of a physical sport, overall rugby league senior numbers have declined since the early 1990s. The ARL attributes this to game becoming more physically demanding and the increasing pressure to sustain semi-professional clubs and teams. At the same time, however, it notes that "rugby league is, generally, missing a recreational game that keeps people playing the sport when they drop out of the so-called elite stream." To combat this, the ARL is investing programs, modified rules and gala days to increase senior participation such as the ARL Masters Carnival. Location Rugby league is by far the largest and most popular sport in New South Wales, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory. In these states, NRL viewership figures far outweigh those of any other sport, and crowd figures are ahead of those of Cricket and the AFL, the next largest sports in terms of attendance. New South Wales and Queensland account for the majority of rugby league participation numbers. However, per capita figures show that Queensland and the Northern Territory rate ahead of New South Wales participation figures, making Queensland and the Northern Territory the largest participators per capita of rugby league in Australia. Rugby league enjoys only minor participation in other states of Australia due to competition with