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Opinion
Pending a huge Game 2 of Origin tonight, most of the limelight, as always, is on the men performing on the biggest stage that rugby league has to offer.
However, I am more and more becoming invested in the women’s rugby league competition. Leading up to their one-off Origin match this Friday night, I am becoming a huge fan of the NRLW and think it is time for the women to get the praise they deserve.
The only thing I do not agree with is the minimal amount of teams in the competition – I believe the competition deserves more competitive sides. I was a big fan of the four-week competition this year.
Some of the skills that they portrayed this year were incredible, and their strength, speed and overall quality of footy, was second to none. I was specifically amazed at how good the current champion Broncos performed. A lot of their plays would have definitely given some park footy teams a scare.
The fluidity of their backdoor plays and the overall skill of the Australian captain, Ali Brigginshaw, was something to watch. With the loaning availabilities of rugby sevens players, the NRLW was then introduced to the pure talent of players such as Charlotte Caslick and Ella Green. Caslick, who’s season was sadly shortened due to injury, was sensational using her running prowess to her benefit against the Dragons in Week 1.
Charlotte Caslick of the Roosters. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Speaking of the Dragons, the talent in their backline was great. With players like former Dally M Medal grand finalists Isabelle Kelly and Tiana Penitani, the Dragons may have fallen a lot shorter than their goal, but their backline was exciting to watch. Again, I will go back to the Broncos, where their fullback Tamika Upton was arguably my favourite player to watch. She was brilliant and showed her brilliance on their way to another grand final victory.
With all this said, it is evident there is skill aplenty going around for the NRLW to exceed, but why not appreciate the competition now? With everyone obviously fixated on the male-dominated game, the skill just continues to increase in the women’s version and it is slowly but surely gaining audiences’ attention.
Increasing the number of teams in the competition is the only thing missing. If they could somehow produce four strong sides and spread out the quality of players (for example, the Dragons backline has about four or five possible Australian representatives), and all teams had a fair shade of the talent, I believe surely they could produce another four sides to create at least an eight-side competition.
Having attended games myself in their second division, some of the quality in the North Sydney and South Sydney Rabbitohs sides were definitely good enough to join the competition. Granted, some of the top-tier players in both those sides were included in the four sides in the competition. As I said before, if they spread out the talent and allowed other girls to develop into the competition, it could definitely progress.
I marvelled at the improvements in the NRLW every game I watched and became a genuine fan. With the skill and passion portrayed on the field, why shouldn’t they try to capitalise on this chance by increasing the number of sides and thus making the competition that much more enticing for fans to watch?
The skill level is too good not to be excited about and I for one am open and ready to appreciate the competition, as I hope others will be in the near future.
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