This year’s NRLW season will be moved to the start of next year, creating a bumper 2022 schedule for the women’s game that will include two domestic seasons, State of Origin and a World Cup.
The NRL made the call today to postpone the 2021 season due to the disruptions caused by COVID-19.
In a statement released by the NRL it was explained that the 2021 season would be moved to next year because “the infection rate in NSW is currently more than 10 times greater a day than it was when the men’s competition was relocated to Queensland.
“It also took into account a significant number of players and officials are located in NSW Local Government Areas of concern and cannot currently train under the NSW Stay At Home Orders.”
While that outcome isn’t what anyone in the game would have wanted it creates an unprecedented 12-month period that has the potential to take women’s rugby league to another level.
“The rescheduling gives us an opportunity to create a full 12-month calendar for women’s rugby league in 2022 and will importantly mean our athletes will not have to relocate,” NRL CEO Andrew Abdo said.
“Next year there will be two NRLW competitions, a World Cup, an Origin series and state competitions. That’s never happened before. This presents an opportunity to build the profile of the women’s game next year and we are looking forward to making the most of that opportunity.”
Dates and the draw for the expanded 2022 NRLW competition will be released later in the year.
Abdo added that the NRL had “exhausted all options” in an effort to ensure the 2021 season would go ahead as scheduled but in the end determined that it “is simply not possible”.
“When the men’s competition was relocated to Queensland there were 77 cases in NSW on that day, there’s now consistently over 1000 cases a day and restrictions around border closures are much tighter than they were in the middle of the year,” he said.
“We also acknowledge that nearly all our NRLW athletes are not full time athletes. They have careers off the field that limit the ability to be able to relocate for a long period of time and that’s something we also considered carefully.
“This decision highlights the Commission’s absolute commitment to ensuring the 2021 season is played.”
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