The Canberra Raiders Women are an Australian professional
rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...
football club based in the national capital city of
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They compete in the
National Rugby League
The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...
Women's Premiership (NRLW),
Australasia
Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologi ...
's premier rugby league competition for female players. The Raiders were admitted to the NRLW in June 2022 to commence in the
2023 NRL Women's season.
The Raiders' home ground is
Canberra Stadium
Canberra Stadium (GIO Stadium for commercial reasons) is a facility primarily used for rugby league and rugby union games, located adjacent to the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, the capital of Australia. It is the largest sports ven ...
(GIO Stadium) in
Bruce, Australian Capital Territory
Bruce is a suburb of the Belconnen district of Canberra, that is located within the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. The suburb was gazetted on 6 June 1968 and named for The Viscount Bruce of Melbourne (1883–1967), the eighth Prime Mi ...
. The official symbol for the Canberra Raiders Women is the same as the
men’s team, which is the
Viking
Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...
.
Seasons
Head-to-head records
Notes
* Share % is the percentage of points For over the sum of points For and Against.
* Clubs listed in the order than the Raiders Women first played them.
* Last updated: 18 September 2023
Current squad
The team is coached by Darrin Borthwick.
Club Records
Player Records
Lists and tables last updated: 18 September 2023.
Most Games for the Raiders
* 10 players have played in all 9 matches.
Most Tries for the Raiders
*
Madison Bartlett 7,
Cheyelle Robins-Reti 4,
Shakiah Tungai
Shakiah Tungai (born 29 November 1996) is an Australian rugby league footballer who plays a and for the St. George Illawarra Dragons Women in the NRL Women's Premiership. She is an Australian and New South Wales representative. Shakiah atten ...
4.
Most Points for the Raiders (20+)
Most Points in a Season (16+)
Margins and Streaks
Biggest winning margins
Biggest losing margins
Most consecutive wins
* 4 (29 July 2023 20 August 2023)
Most consecutive losses
* 2 (27 August 2023 2 September 2023)
History
Women’s rugby league has been played in Canberra and surrounding districts since the late 1980s. East Canberra and Woden Valley clubs competed in the National Championships between 1990 and 1994, with several of these competitions hosted in the
Australian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. I ...
.
The National Championships switched to representative teams in 1997 and Canberra or Australian Capital Territory teams competed in several if not all years until 2003.
Canberra hosted the second-ever women’s rugby league test match in July 1995, against
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
.
The following year, Canberra hosted a tour match and the First Test in
Great Britain’s tour.
The region again hosted the 2002
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...
tourists, with a tour match at
Seiffert Oval
Seiffert Oval is an enclosed rectangular playing field in Queanbeyan, New South Wales. It has a grass playing surface and an official capacity of 15,000, 1,500 of which is seated capacity in the grandstand. The oval boasts lighting, toilets, ...
,
Queanbeyan. The Third and deciding Test match of this series was played ahead of a
Canberra Raiders
The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby ...
match at
Bruce Stadium
Canberra Stadium (GIO Stadium for commercial reasons) is a facility primarily used for rugby league and rugby union games, located adjacent to the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, the capital of Australia. It is the largest sports ven ...
.
After a break of fifteen years, Canberra next hosted a women’s rugby league Test Match in 2017.
In 2018 the Canberra Valkyries was made
In November 2021, the
Canberra Raiders
The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby ...
announced their intent to apply for an NRLW licence.
In April 2022 the club submitted their application to enter the 2023 NRL Women’s Premiership.
In June 2022 the
NRL announced that the Raiders were one of four clubs accepted into the NRLW for the 2023 season.
Players
The following players have appeared in
NRL Women's Premiership
The Telstra NRL Women's Premiership (NRLW) is Australia's national rugby league competition for female players. The first season of the league began in September 2018 with four teams. The league is run by the National Rugby League (NRL) and is ...
matches for the Raiders.
Table last updated: 2 September 2023.
Feeder Team Seasons
The Canberra Raiders run a women's team in the
Tarsha Gale Cup
The Tarsha Gale Cup is one of the main Women's rugby league elite aged group competitions in Australia.
The New South Wales Rugby League announced the creation of a nine-a-side under-18s women's league for 2017 Named the Tarsha Gale Nines after ...
and have an arrangement with
Mount Pritchard Mounties
The Mounties Rugby League Football Club (sponsored by Mounties Group) is an Australian rugby league football club based in Mount Pritchard, New South Wales formed in 1927. They currently play in the NSW Cup, Ron Massey Cup and Sydney Shield. ...
for the
NSWRL Women's Premiership
The Harvey Norman Women's Premiership is a rugby league competition for clubs in New South Wales. It is the only state wide open age competition for women in New South Wales and is run by New South Wales Rugby League.
The NSWRL Women's Premiershi ...
.
Tarsha Gale Cup
For Under 18 players from 2018 to 2020. Since 2021, the Cup is for Under 19 players.
NSWRL Women's Premiership
Members of Mounties' 2023 premiership-winning team that subsequently were included in the Raider's extended NRLW squad were: Alanna Dummett, Tommaya Kelly-Sines, Petesa Lio, Aaliyah Lomas, Kerehitina Matua, Mackenzie Wiki, Janelle Williams, and captain
Simaima Taufa
Simaima Taufa-Kautai (born 28 April 1994) is a rugby league footballer who plays as a for the Parramatta Eels in the NRL Women's Premiership and Mounties RLFC in the NSWRL Women's Premiership.
She is an Australian and New South Wales repres ...
.
References
External links
Official website
{{Sydney Sports Teams
NRL Women's Premiership clubs
Rai
RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...
Rugby clubs established in 1981
Rugby league teams in the Australian Capital Territory
Viking Age in popular culture