The announcement from the Australian Rugby League Commission of initiatives to grow the women’s game has left me with the biggest lump in my throat that you can possibly imagine.
I was so emotional, so happy and overcome with joy at how far our game has come in recent years, and so excited for what the future now holds.
Expansion to eight teams in 2023, and 10 teams in 2024, a $350,000 salary cap, increased payments for representative matches, private health insurance, these are all things we’ve been discussing in recent years and it’s great to see all the work coming to fruition.
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Even though I knew it wasn’t far away, to see it on paper, in black and white, and official, it’s an incredible step forward.
With the expansion being done in a sustainable way, by taking a couple of years to get to 10 teams it gives new clubs enough time to develop their pathways and put the infrastructure in place to ensure they can succeed.
As players we’ll push for expansion to happen sooner, that’s just the way we are, we want it done yesterday! But this is a great collaboration between the NRL, the Rugby League Players’ Association and the Player Advisory Group to find a framework that works for everybody.
Likewise it’s so good to see the money is also going into participation, where the women’s game has had double digit growth in recent years.
We’re already seeing young women coming through into NRLW squads and they’ve never known the heartache of having to put the football down just because they’re too old to play in mixed teams, and to think we’re going to see more of that is massive.
A decade ago there were women selling their cars so they could play rugby league. We were selling raffle tickets, taking out loans, sleeping in scout halls and doing whatever we could to play in the game we love. Now to see that all the hard work of the last few decades come to fruition is incredibly satisfying.
I love the fact we need to put a salary cap in place. A few years ago I said I’d love to see the game move towards professionalism within five or eight years, now to know that it’s a few steps closer just blows me away, I’m so excited.
All the players at the elite level sacrifice so much for rugby league, they put the game front and centre of their lives, so to see them receive some reward for those sacrifices and be able to dedicate more to a career in rugby league is great.
It’s happening, it’s on our doorstep, it’s not a decade away, it’s just around the corner and that’s a testament to all the hard work that’s been put into it.
I reckon I was paid $500 for my last couple of games for NSW, now the players will be paid $6000 per match for Origin, which will be a two-game series, which is great, it’s a real jewel in the crown. That game garners so much attention and it’s entertaining to watch. TV and radio love it, having it open up rep weekend has been so good for the women’s game, because it can stand on its own in the Friday night time slot, and all eyeballs are on it, and it’s such a wonderful spectacle.
We are going to see the women progress in leaps and bounds because of this announcement. It won’t be a small improvement, it will be massive. The financial investment that we put into these players will be rewarded by the players investing more of their time into the game, into becoming better players, and the product that we see on the field will skyrocket.
It will be the same as what we saw when the men’s game stepped towards that professional space all those years ago. The players love it, they’re fully invested, and to see the same commitment from those running the game excites me so much.
If you saw last weekend’s games, they were phenomenal. The skills, the way they ripped in, they were some of the best games you’ll ever see, and with this announcement you see more of this in the coming years.
Importantly, this isn’t just about the players. The thing that I love about rugby league is that you don’t just have to be a player to have a career in the game. You can be a coach, or an administrator or a referee. That’s a focus of this announcement and that’s huge. You see the likes of Belinda Sharpe or Kasey Badger running an NRL game, or Kylie Hilder and Tahnee Norris coaching State of Origin.
The more that we can include as many of the population as possible the better our great game will be.
And it may seem like a small thing, but covering the players’ medical insurance is huge for the game.
There’s so many things to like about this, I’m proud of how far we’ve come and know there’s still more work to do – but I absolutely cannot wait for the next few years!
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