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With the ongoing success of the inaugural AFL Women’s season, as well as that of the W-League and WBBL, one wonders how the NRL would run a women’s competition.
At present, the Jillaroos remain as the only professional women’s rugby league team in Australia, however there are plans for the NRL to establish a competition by as early as 2020 or 2021.
NRL CEO Todd Greenberg recently said the league was in no rush to launch it just yet, saying “that work is underway but I don’t want to be rushed into doing something just because someone else is doing it.”
Last year, there were 482,000 women playing some form of rugby league in Australia, which was a 27 per cent increase on the previous year. In addition, there were 180,000 female participants across Australian schools and clubs.
Greenberg also said that any pathways to women’s rugby league would have to be sustainable as well.
Jillaroos captain Ruan Sims – who was part of the side’s World Cup-winning squad in 2013 and whose brothers Ashton, Tariq and Korbin are established rugby league players in their own rights – agreed, saying last June that it was more important to “do it properly” than to “do it first”.
In August last year, Sims captained the Sharks’ women’s nines side team to a narrow 16-12 victory over local rivals the Dragons at Southern Cross Group Stadium, in a historic occasion for the sport.
Not only that, female presence is also strong in NRL administration and the media – Raelene Castle is currently CEO of the Canterbury Bulldogs, while Yvonne Sampson is about to become the face of Fox Sports’ new rugby league-dedicated channel.
Anyway, let’s get to how the inaugural NRL Women’s season could work.
Like the AFL, the line-up should consist of eight teams to start off, with provision for expansion in the future.
Currently, the AFLW has four teams from metropolitan Melbourne, as well as one each from Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and Sydney. Similarly, the NRLW would consist of four teams from metropolitan Sydney, and one each from Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne and New Zealand.
The teams would be as follows: the Broncos, Dragons, Eels, Panthers, Raiders, Sharks, Storm and Warriors.
This would see the continuation of several rivalries that already exist in the men’s competition, such the Eels vs Panthers, Dragons vs Sharks, and Broncos vs Storm, among others.
A flaw in the fixture would be that four teams would have four home games (out of a total of seven home-and-away matches), while the other four teams would have just three.
To solve this, the fixture would be ‘reversed’ for the following season, so that the teams with three home games would get four the following season, and vice versa. Additionally, teams would alternate hosting rights every meeting.
A ninth team could be added in the future, which would mean two additional rounds to the fixture and, as this would create an odd number of teams, one team would have a bye each round.
It would also allow each team to play four games both home and away, making for a total of eight matches (plus one bye).
Below is a potential fixture for the inaugural NRL Women’s season:
Round 1
Dragons versus Warriors
Eels versus Panthers
Raiders versus Sharks
Storm versus Broncos
Round 2
Broncos versus Dragons
Panthers versus Raiders
Sharks versus Eels
Warriors versus Storm
Round 3
Broncos versus Sharks
Dragons versus Eels
Raiders versus Warriors
Storm versus Panthers
Round 4
Eels versus Broncos
Panthers versus Warriors
Raiders versus Storm
Sharks versus Dragons
Round 5
Broncos versus Raiders
Dragons versus Panthers
Storm versus Eels
Warriors versus Sharks
Round 6
Panthers versus Broncos
Raiders versus Dragons
Sharks versus Storm
Warriors versus Eels
Round 7
Broncos versus Warriors
Dragons versus Storm
Eels versus Raiders
Panthers versus Sharks
Grand final
Team 1 versus Team 2 at Team 1’s home ground
Notes
* Teams would play their home games at grounds much smaller than those used in the men’s competition, except for the Dragons, Panthers and Raiders, who would play at Kogarah Oval/WIN Stadium, Pepper Stadium and GIO Stadium respectively.
* The season would take place over an eight-week period after the conclusion of the men’s season, with Round 1 to take place the weekend after the NRL grand final.
* Matches would take place in the late morning or early evening.
* No team will play more than two consecutive home or away matches.
* Each team, except the Panthers, will travel out of their home state (or in the case of the Warriors, their country) at least twice in the season.
* The Dragons would alternate their home games between Kogarah and Wollongong (two games each); in seasons when they have three home games, Kogarah would host two games and Wollongong one.
* Likewise, the Warriors would alternate their home games between Auckland and Wellington; in seasons when they have three home games, Auckland would host two games and Wellington one.
* The top team would have hosting rights to the grand final, scheduled for the final weekend of November.
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