A new campaign has been launched to make sure kids stop walking away from sport, as participation numbers at certain age levels continue to plummet.
Sport NZ and five major codes are aiming at grassroots to stop the rot, that includes parents and coaches, and make Saturday mornings great again.
Other sports are being asked to come on board or face a shaky future.
“We have a strong evidence base to say 'this is what the kids are saying,’” Geoff Barry, the general manager community sport and recreation at Sport New Zealand, said.
“We've been doing so many things wrong in sport over a long period of time and they number are telling us. Kids have had enough of that,” NZ Cricket project leader Martin Snedden said.
NZ Cricket are one of five major sports signed up to address the significant drop off in participation.
To do that they're calling on the grassroots to start by changing attitudes and behaviour targeted by previous Government campaigns.
Parents are one group being targeted but what about the pressure from coaches.
“It's wrong to tell them whether or not they're talented at an early age. It's wrong to then put them in a talent development programme that fill up nine or ten months of the year, four nights a week. it's just burning them out,” Snedden said.
Registered sports get taxpayers' money to achieve change through education and development, sports that don't change, stand to lose part of their funding.
SHARE ME