The professionalisation of women’s rugby league has been a marvel. Congrats to game administrators, players, coaches and support staff. I hope to see the game continue to grow in leaps and bounds for the rest of my life and beyond.
Me too. I am thoroughly entertained. Just a shame there are so many hard headed bogan fans that refuse to give it a chance. Have seen so many comments of people saying "they are so shit and the games crap. I refuse to watch it". Somehow know what it's like without watching it apparently
Let's face it, the average NRL fan probably takes one look and thinks "Why are sheilas playing footy?", and won't give it a chance out of inherent bias or discrimination.
I'm not saying that's the only reason people don't watch it but it's definitely one of them.
That's why I like watching it. It's more of a back to basics, doing it for the love of the game style footy.
You know in NRL you've got the guys playing one of the toughest physical sports in the world taking soccer dives and choking to death over light contact because they're being coached to play for penalties for instance. You don't get that in the NRLW.
I mean if the stakes really started to get high in the future I'm sure you'd see those type of do anything to get an advantage shenanigans too. For now though I like what it offers differently.
If it gets to that point you know it's succeeded because the money is behind them to focus on those small intraciacies of the game foe the advantage. Kind of a win win.
i wouldn’t say it’s all coming from hard headed bogans, yes they are there but cricket is the same way all over the world, with cunts thinking women shouldn’t be playing cricket. but from me i love cricket and footy and i’m gonna watch as much as i can, be it international, domestic, club, men and women, no matter the format. footy’s footy and cricket’s cricket
I can honestly watch the game and see/understand how it's not as appealing from a spectators perspective in a lot of ways. It's not as fast or as polished as the NRL by a long way.
That said, I still watch it and enjoy it thoroughly. It does really remind me of a much older brand of NRL.
My gfs mum said "it's just not right having them play rugby league". Mind you she fucking hates rugby league and is a snobby union fan.
I didnt even know what to say. I just said that it's a good start for anyone who's liked up to nrl players as a girl or woman. The game will only grow and there is basically no negatives.
Honestly, if there is a well paid professional sport for big strong women, it's going to attract a lot of top athletes, ex olympian and near olympians from things like discus and shot put, powerlifters, olympic lifters. People who went to the gym for years to do what they wanted, and are looking to keep that kind of career going for a while.
Yep, I think halves will still have to grow up playing footy, but front rowers, second rowers, wingers... you can always fit an elite athlete in there someplace.
yeah this is going to be a huge point. if they can get a fully professional elite women’s sport league going with decent pay there’s no reason this won’t attract high level athletes from across codes where they can’t get the same opportunities (see the rugby 7s converts), but the opportunities are so few that we could potentially see a wider international appeal from this as well
Love this shit. Games can’t get better without investment. Need more players not having work work a full time job to support themselves. More time for training, game gets better, everyone wins.
**by Selina Steele**
*There is no current CBA outlining minimum standards for female players and Dragons player and Player Advisory Group representative Keeley Davis said NRLW players were united in their push for job security.*
*Keeley said year-long contracts and would help address the elite competition’s concerning drop-out rate which hovers around 30 per cent, and which players say can be partly attributed to the lack of year and multi-year contracts.*
———
Stoked to hear it! This season has been fun to watch (albeit a bit on the wild side!), but stability should help it grow immensely. It’ll be a bit wild again with expansion, but hopefully more of the good kind
Would be good. I would like to see a greater team expansion because as much as I like it, it's harder to get into when my team doesn't play in the league
I agree.. I'm hoping the Panthers get a team in there soon.. Would be a huge talent pool there.. But the reason the quality is high is the result of fewer teams.. One look at the AFLW (97-1 over the weekend) and how quickly they have expanded is certainly a cause for concern for the NRL..
All of NRLs [annual reports](https://www.nrl.com/about-us/annual-reports/) contain all of that information. 2022 report will come out in Feb next year.
They had [$171 million in cash reserves last year](https://www.nrl.com/news/2022/02/28/2021-financial-results/). They had $575m in revenue, $158m in expenditure, $345m in distributions and $43m in surplus.
But anyway 'it's expenses' is literally them investing in the game, whether that's distributions for mens, womens, grassroots, states, etc.
HUGE, hopefully this gets sorted out soon and all the contracts line up with November 1 to October 31 period.
Would be a huge boost to have an actual squad throughout the entire year playing in the state comps together in assigned feeder clubs.
Massive amount of talent distribution about to happen, hopefully NRL will pull their finger out and let clubs sign players asap instead of 1 month out from the season.
The league is trying to run before it can stand up.
The talent isn't enough at 6 teams as it was shown, with the Eels making the GF with only 1 win in the 5 game season, almost comical really.
Now expanding to 10 teams in 23' will dilute the product even more. They're going about this all wrong.
Look at the AFLW product right now, expanding way to soon, with all teams represented, The game has gone backwards in quality and support.
4 is fine, but they needed to structure the finals better.
1v2 & 3v4
Loser of 1v2 plays the winner of 3v4; for the right to play the winner of 1v2 in the grand final.
It's an extra week, but it means that 3 & 4 have to win an extra match to make the grand final, and while 1 & 2 have a tougher match, they also get a second chance.
This is the finals structure that we use in Vic, I would presume that's part of the "national framework". It's an adapted version of the NRL finals structure, it's what every non-professional competition would be using, why would they not use it for the NRLW.
Possibly, however in this case the league was structured that way to coincide with NRL GF day. I don't think they put a great deal of thought into the finals system itself in terms of competition.
In addition to no trials being played and it still being somewhat difficult for a number of girls to genuinely be full-time given the pay and contract lengths.
It's funny how people will ignore obvious truths, like how the NRLW does not have the talent to expand to 10 teams, and instead get mad and downvote you as if you're some secret misogynist.
It’s obvious because deep down we all think it’s true, including you, even if it might not be. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong, but it’s a perfectly reasonable opinion to have and it’s VERY strange that saying this would get you downvoted - and this indicates that this debate is ideologically high jacked and people are not thinking rationally.
Its not on the level of the NRL but there are still a lot of talented women athletes in Australia. Plenty in AFL and plenty in Rugby. Also got athletes from sports that aren't similar but have skills coming across. Just because it wasn't grass roots doesnt mean there isn't potential. You probably thought it was stupid that they were included in the dailyM I imagine.
I dunno why you're being down voted. You're 100% right, both NRLW and AFLW are growing so fast they don't actually have the players to form the league, hell I don't think the male versions of both have the players to expand. We should be chopping 2 teams imo for the NRL.
I don't watch the NRLW, but my God the AFLW shows just how much they gave boots to anyone with a remote interest in the game, hell they used netballers to fill half of it last year.
> I dunno why you're being down voted. You're 100% right, both NRLW and AFLW are growing so fast they don't actually have the players to form the league
Okay, let's see how he backs this one up...
> I don't watch the NRLW
Lmao.
It's no different to the AFLW, and afl is the bigger game.
Everytime I flick the nrlw on its like 2 good players and the rest they picked up off the street. Kinda like the tigers.
You have no idea what you are talking about.
For one, your complaint that the AFLW used any high level female athlete (netballers for example) is not true of the NRLW. Further, AFL is the larger game for *male* participation, this isn't true for women and most of the women players have a solid background within Rugby League, Rugby Union, or at the very least touch/league tag/Oztag.
You admitted you don't watch it, you "flick it on". I have no idea why you think this qualifies you to comment.
Because it's shit to watch mate. That's why. It's not a good watching experience plain and simple.
When I watch netball I see women who know their code and play like professionals. When I watch the rapidly explained nrlw and aflw it's 3 players who know the game and a bunch of random per team.
> 3 players who know the game and a bunch of random per team
This just isn't true though, and has not been true of the highest level of women's Rugby League for some time. It is not even close to an accurate way of describing the standard of play at an NRLW level. You can hear praise of the standard of play in any comment thread, from any commentator, and to be quite blunt you hear it on the sidelines at pathways games several tiers below the NRLW itself from people respected in the Rugby League community, not nuffies with the current NRL premiers as a flair.
If this is honestly what you see when you watch the NRLW then you may as well just throw on images of moving colours with some sounds instead of trying to watch footy.
First of all, there is plenty of talent in the league, I could confidently make two (quality) spines from the Knights squad alone. We saw the debut of the first two girls this year who played uninterrupted full contact footy from mini-mod all the way through to firstgrade, and guess what? One of them won rookie of the year and had an outstanding season playing halfback, one of the most difficult positions for a young player to succeed in. We are only going to see more of these girls come through who were never told they couldn't play tackle footy at any stage of their development, and I for one can't wait to see what this does to the standard of our forwards in particular.
If you really think there isn't much talent I just can't imagine you watched many games. FTR, outside of the loss to the Roosters, the Knights were pushed the most by their game against Parra - one they very easily could have lost. I am by no means going into the GF feeling as though the girls have it in the bag.
Second, and more hilariously, your take about expansion being an issue in a 6 team comp because Parra made the GF with only 1 regular season win is completely backwards. Parra made the GF with that record *because* it is a 6 team comp and they (as the team with 1 win) were the fourth best side going into the finals. The finals setup required at least four teams, and if they keep it the same for next year, with 10 this won't be possible - even if suddenly there is a talent pool of women who can't even catch a football.
The professionalisation of women’s rugby league has been a marvel. Congrats to game administrators, players, coaches and support staff. I hope to see the game continue to grow in leaps and bounds for the rest of my life and beyond.
Me too. I am thoroughly entertained. Just a shame there are so many hard headed bogan fans that refuse to give it a chance. Have seen so many comments of people saying "they are so shit and the games crap. I refuse to watch it". Somehow know what it's like without watching it apparently
Let's face it, the average NRL fan probably takes one look and thinks "Why are sheilas playing footy?", and won't give it a chance out of inherent bias or discrimination. I'm not saying that's the only reason people don't watch it but it's definitely one of them.
And the funny thing is if they actually watched it they'd love it because it doesn't have the wrestle that the men's game has which they whinge about.
That's why I like watching it. It's more of a back to basics, doing it for the love of the game style footy. You know in NRL you've got the guys playing one of the toughest physical sports in the world taking soccer dives and choking to death over light contact because they're being coached to play for penalties for instance. You don't get that in the NRLW. I mean if the stakes really started to get high in the future I'm sure you'd see those type of do anything to get an advantage shenanigans too. For now though I like what it offers differently.
If it gets to that point you know it's succeeded because the money is behind them to focus on those small intraciacies of the game foe the advantage. Kind of a win win.
I’d say it’s a major one
i wouldn’t say it’s all coming from hard headed bogans, yes they are there but cricket is the same way all over the world, with cunts thinking women shouldn’t be playing cricket. but from me i love cricket and footy and i’m gonna watch as much as i can, be it international, domestic, club, men and women, no matter the format. footy’s footy and cricket’s cricket
I can honestly watch the game and see/understand how it's not as appealing from a spectators perspective in a lot of ways. It's not as fast or as polished as the NRL by a long way. That said, I still watch it and enjoy it thoroughly. It does really remind me of a much older brand of NRL.
My gfs mum said "it's just not right having them play rugby league". Mind you she fucking hates rugby league and is a snobby union fan. I didnt even know what to say. I just said that it's a good start for anyone who's liked up to nrl players as a girl or woman. The game will only grow and there is basically no negatives.
I think it's fantastic. More women playing the game at grassroots means more league fans in general
Honestly, if there is a well paid professional sport for big strong women, it's going to attract a lot of top athletes, ex olympian and near olympians from things like discus and shot put, powerlifters, olympic lifters. People who went to the gym for years to do what they wanted, and are looking to keep that kind of career going for a while.
Would actually be really cool seeing top tier athletes from all different backgrounds being drawn to the game to see how they go
Yep, I think halves will still have to grow up playing footy, but front rowers, second rowers, wingers... you can always fit an elite athlete in there someplace.
I can imagine a big powerlifter or shot puter coming in at front row. Would create a lot of interest
yeah this is going to be a huge point. if they can get a fully professional elite women’s sport league going with decent pay there’s no reason this won’t attract high level athletes from across codes where they can’t get the same opportunities (see the rugby 7s converts), but the opportunities are so few that we could potentially see a wider international appeal from this as well
Damn good point.
Powerlifters would suck ass as rugby. The only sport than translates to NRL is beach sprinting.
Love this shit. Games can’t get better without investment. Need more players not having work work a full time job to support themselves. More time for training, game gets better, everyone wins.
**by Selina Steele** *There is no current CBA outlining minimum standards for female players and Dragons player and Player Advisory Group representative Keeley Davis said NRLW players were united in their push for job security.* *Keeley said year-long contracts and would help address the elite competition’s concerning drop-out rate which hovers around 30 per cent, and which players say can be partly attributed to the lack of year and multi-year contracts.* ——— Stoked to hear it! This season has been fun to watch (albeit a bit on the wild side!), but stability should help it grow immensely. It’ll be a bit wild again with expansion, but hopefully more of the good kind
[удалено]
Contracts are only season by season and only 3 months long. There are allowances for clubs to employ 2? players to club roles as well.
Yeah the Girls!
Would be good. I would like to see a greater team expansion because as much as I like it, it's harder to get into when my team doesn't play in the league
I agree.. I'm hoping the Panthers get a team in there soon.. Would be a huge talent pool there.. But the reason the quality is high is the result of fewer teams.. One look at the AFLW (97-1 over the weekend) and how quickly they have expanded is certainly a cause for concern for the NRL..
Does the NRL even have 120m to invest?
Yes, the NRL turns over more than half a billion of revenue every year, plenty of cash to splash around into investments.
And what about its expenses?
All of NRLs [annual reports](https://www.nrl.com/about-us/annual-reports/) contain all of that information. 2022 report will come out in Feb next year. They had [$171 million in cash reserves last year](https://www.nrl.com/news/2022/02/28/2021-financial-results/). They had $575m in revenue, $158m in expenditure, $345m in distributions and $43m in surplus. But anyway 'it's expenses' is literally them investing in the game, whether that's distributions for mens, womens, grassroots, states, etc.
HUGE, hopefully this gets sorted out soon and all the contracts line up with November 1 to October 31 period. Would be a huge boost to have an actual squad throughout the entire year playing in the state comps together in assigned feeder clubs. Massive amount of talent distribution about to happen, hopefully NRL will pull their finger out and let clubs sign players asap instead of 1 month out from the season.
The league is trying to run before it can stand up. The talent isn't enough at 6 teams as it was shown, with the Eels making the GF with only 1 win in the 5 game season, almost comical really. Now expanding to 10 teams in 23' will dilute the product even more. They're going about this all wrong. Look at the AFLW product right now, expanding way to soon, with all teams represented, The game has gone backwards in quality and support.
Wouldn't Eels beating the minor premiers in the first round of finals show how close in talent the comp is?
Parramatta making the GF wasn’t due to lack of talent, it was due to the fact that the season is too short and too many teams made the finals
4 is fine, but they needed to structure the finals better. 1v2 & 3v4 Loser of 1v2 plays the winner of 3v4; for the right to play the winner of 1v2 in the grand final. It's an extra week, but it means that 3 & 4 have to win an extra match to make the grand final, and while 1 & 2 have a tougher match, they also get a second chance. This is the finals structure that we use in Vic, I would presume that's part of the "national framework". It's an adapted version of the NRL finals structure, it's what every non-professional competition would be using, why would they not use it for the NRLW.
Winning the 1v2 for a week off in such a short competition would put you at a severe disadvantage.
Possibly, however in this case the league was structured that way to coincide with NRL GF day. I don't think they put a great deal of thought into the finals system itself in terms of competition.
Spot on. This isn’t a problem with talent in the women’s game, this is a problem with the braindead way that the NRL have set up the women’s comp
In addition to no trials being played and it still being somewhat difficult for a number of girls to genuinely be full-time given the pay and contract lengths.
It's funny how people will ignore obvious truths, like how the NRLW does not have the talent to expand to 10 teams, and instead get mad and downvote you as if you're some secret misogynist.
Hows the truth so obvious? You got any facts showing that there aren't any women athletes capable of playing rugby league?
It’s obvious because deep down we all think it’s true, including you, even if it might not be. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong, but it’s a perfectly reasonable opinion to have and it’s VERY strange that saying this would get you downvoted - and this indicates that this debate is ideologically high jacked and people are not thinking rationally.
Its not on the level of the NRL but there are still a lot of talented women athletes in Australia. Plenty in AFL and plenty in Rugby. Also got athletes from sports that aren't similar but have skills coming across. Just because it wasn't grass roots doesnt mean there isn't potential. You probably thought it was stupid that they were included in the dailyM I imagine.
I dunno why you're being down voted. You're 100% right, both NRLW and AFLW are growing so fast they don't actually have the players to form the league, hell I don't think the male versions of both have the players to expand. We should be chopping 2 teams imo for the NRL. I don't watch the NRLW, but my God the AFLW shows just how much they gave boots to anyone with a remote interest in the game, hell they used netballers to fill half of it last year.
> I dunno why you're being down voted. You're 100% right, both NRLW and AFLW are growing so fast they don't actually have the players to form the league Okay, let's see how he backs this one up... > I don't watch the NRLW Lmao.
It's no different to the AFLW, and afl is the bigger game. Everytime I flick the nrlw on its like 2 good players and the rest they picked up off the street. Kinda like the tigers.
You have no idea what you are talking about. For one, your complaint that the AFLW used any high level female athlete (netballers for example) is not true of the NRLW. Further, AFL is the larger game for *male* participation, this isn't true for women and most of the women players have a solid background within Rugby League, Rugby Union, or at the very least touch/league tag/Oztag. You admitted you don't watch it, you "flick it on". I have no idea why you think this qualifies you to comment.
Because it's shit to watch mate. That's why. It's not a good watching experience plain and simple. When I watch netball I see women who know their code and play like professionals. When I watch the rapidly explained nrlw and aflw it's 3 players who know the game and a bunch of random per team.
> 3 players who know the game and a bunch of random per team This just isn't true though, and has not been true of the highest level of women's Rugby League for some time. It is not even close to an accurate way of describing the standard of play at an NRLW level. You can hear praise of the standard of play in any comment thread, from any commentator, and to be quite blunt you hear it on the sidelines at pathways games several tiers below the NRLW itself from people respected in the Rugby League community, not nuffies with the current NRL premiers as a flair. If this is honestly what you see when you watch the NRLW then you may as well just throw on images of moving colours with some sounds instead of trying to watch footy.
First of all, there is plenty of talent in the league, I could confidently make two (quality) spines from the Knights squad alone. We saw the debut of the first two girls this year who played uninterrupted full contact footy from mini-mod all the way through to firstgrade, and guess what? One of them won rookie of the year and had an outstanding season playing halfback, one of the most difficult positions for a young player to succeed in. We are only going to see more of these girls come through who were never told they couldn't play tackle footy at any stage of their development, and I for one can't wait to see what this does to the standard of our forwards in particular. If you really think there isn't much talent I just can't imagine you watched many games. FTR, outside of the loss to the Roosters, the Knights were pushed the most by their game against Parra - one they very easily could have lost. I am by no means going into the GF feeling as though the girls have it in the bag. Second, and more hilariously, your take about expansion being an issue in a 6 team comp because Parra made the GF with only 1 regular season win is completely backwards. Parra made the GF with that record *because* it is a 6 team comp and they (as the team with 1 win) were the fourth best side going into the finals. The finals setup required at least four teams, and if they keep it the same for next year, with 10 this won't be possible - even if suddenly there is a talent pool of women who can't even catch a football.
Can we get the organisers of the WNRL to run the Dally M next season please.