The NRL Women's Premiership Grand Final is the championship-deciding game of

women's rugby league Women's rugby league is the female-only version of rugby league. The sport has growing more popular in Australia, France, Great Britain, and New Zealand. These countries regularly compete in the Women's Rugby League World Cup which has been i ...

NRL Women's Premiership The NRL Women's Premiership (NRLW) also known as the Telstra NRL Women's Premiership due to sponsorship is a rugby league competition in Australasia for female players. The league is run by the National Rugby League (NRL) and is contested by ...

competition.

History

After the formation of the Women's NRL League in 2018 it was announced that the title would be decided by a playoff series and Grand Final as the men's competition does as well. The first two Grand Finals were held at the

Stadium Australia Stadium Australia, currently known as Accor Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium located in the suburb of Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The stadium, which is sometimes referred to as Sydney Ol ...

on the same day and before the men's

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Synonymous with a championship game in North Ameri ...

Venues

The NRL Women's Grand Final is traditionally held in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, as most

NRL The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

clubs are based in there and the current venue for the grand final,

is the second highest capacity stadium in Australia, after the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as the 'G, is a sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, the Lis ...

Qualification for World Club Challenge

The winners of the grand final qualify to play the winners of the RFL Women's Super League Grand Final in the

World Club Challenge The World Club Challenge is an annual rugby league competition between the winners of the Australian National Rugby League and the British Super League, for the de facto club world championship of the sport. Super League sides have won the c ...

Trophy and awards

NRL Women's Premiership Trophy

NRL Women's Premiership Trophy is the NRLW's main prize, awarded to the team that wins the premiership.

Karyn Murphy Medal

The best-on-ground grand final player of the match is presented to the player judged as best on the ground during the grand final by a panel of experts. the best player on the ground in the NRL Women's Grand Final, not voted by a committee of media members

Premiership rings

The NRL present premiership rings for the players and coach of grand final winning sides. Affinity Diamonds have produced the NRL Women's premiership rings

Prize money

Prize money Prize money refers in particular to naval prize money, usually arising in naval warfare, but also in other circumstances. It was a monetary reward paid in accordance with the prize law of a belligerent state to the crew of a ship belonging to ...

is awarded to the victorious club. However the amount is probably not reflective of the magnitude of participating in the event. It is often assumed simply that the winner of the premiership typically experiences an increase in revenue through increases in membership and merchandise sales.

Grand Finals

Entertainment and traditions

It is customary for the NRL Women's Grand Final to begin with a rendition of the

Australian National Anthem "Advance Australia Fair" is the national anthem of Australia. Written by Scottish-born Australian composer Peter Dodds McCormick, the song was first performed as a patriotic song in Australia in 1878. It replaced "God Save the Queen" as the of ...

in which both teams line up opposite each other. Most grand finals thus far have been accompanied by a musical entertainment act that has performed before the match or at half-time. At the conclusion of the match, an award ceremony is held for individual awards, which include the

Karyn Murphy Medal The NRL Women's Premiership (NRLW) also known as the Telstra NRL Women's Premiership due to sponsorship is a rugby league competition in Australasia for female players. The league is run by the National Rugby League (NRL) and is contested by ...

and premiership medals awarded for each participant. The captains of both sides are invited to make a speech, and the NRL Women's Premiership Trophy is presented to the captain and coach of the winning team. Following the ceremonies, players of the winning side assemble on a podium for team celebration photographs with the premiership cup and premiership medals.

Audience

The 2022 NRL Women's Premiership Grand Final saw a new

world record crowd of 40,649, which was achieved at Stadium Australia

Media coverage

Television

The match is always broadcast on

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscri ...

television in Australia, with live rights currently held by the

Nine Network Nine Network (stylised 9Network, and commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of the five main free-to-air television ...

. Exclusive replay rights for the 12 hours following the game are held by subscription channel

Fox League Fox League is an Australian subscription television channel dedicated to screening rugby league (both domestic and international) matches and related programming. It is owned by Fox Sports Pty Limited and is available throughout Australia on Fox ...

and streaming service

Kayo Sports Kayo Sports is an Australian over-the-top video streaming service owned by Hubbl, a subsidiary of Foxtel. Launched in November 2018, the service is oriented towards sports, carrying live and on-demand content from Foxtel's Fox Sports networks ...

Online

The official internet/mobile broadcast partner of the NRL is

9Now 9Now is a live stream, video on demand, and catch-up TV service run by the Nine Network in Australia. The service launched on 27 January 2016, replacing Nine's previous service 9Jumpin. 9Now offers online live streaming of Channel 9, 9Gem, 9G ...

and

. Outside Australia, the inaugural season is available on

WatchNRL The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

Radio

The NRLW has several exclusive rights partners to broadcast matches live via radio nationwide. FM coverage is provided by

Triple M Triple M is an Australian commercial radio network owned and operated by Southern Cross Austereo. The network consists of 45 radio stations with flagship stations broadcasting a mainstream/classic rock music format in Sydney, Melbourne, and B ...

while AM coverage is contracted to

ABC Local Radio ABC Local Radio is a network of publicly owned radio stations in Australia, operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. ABC Local Radio stations broadcast across the continent using terrestrial transmitters and satellites. Its programm ...

and 2GB. All radio coverage is available to be streamed live from the NRLW website.

References

External links

* {{Rugby league in Australia NRL Women's Premiership 2018 establishments in Australia Rugby league club matches Grand finals Recurring sporting events established in 2018 Rugby league finals Women's sports matches