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 a subset of clubs from that competition. Currently, the league contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand.

The current Premiers are the Sydney Roosters.

History

In 2016, the Cronulla Sharks and St. George Illawarra Dragons contested a Women's Nine's match, which served as a curtain-raiser to the NRL match between the Sharks and Sydney Roosters, at Southern Cross Group Stadium. The Sharks won the match 16–12.

In March 2017, the Cronulla Sharks played another Women's Nine's match, this time defeating the Canberra Raiders by 28–10.

2017 – 2020: Establishment

On 6 December 2017, shortly after the conclusion of the 2017 Women's Rugby League World Cup, which concluded with the Jillaroos defeating the New Zealand Ferns by 23–16 in the final, it was announced by the National Rugby League that the inaugural NRL Women's season would operate in a round-robin format, and be held in August 2018, towards the back end of the men's season, with some matches to be played as curtain-raisers to NRL finals matches. The Grand Final, would be contested between the top two teams at the end of the round robin stage, and be played on the same day as the men's Grand Final. It was also announced that a stand-alone State of Origin match would also be contested during the representative weekend, in June.

The Newcastle Knights, St. George Illawarra Dragons, Brisbane Broncos, New Zealand Warriors, Sydney Roosters, South Sydney Rabbitohs and Cronulla Sharks all declared their interest in applying for a licence to participate in the inaugural NRL Women's competition. Other clubs, such as the Melbourne Storm, Manly Sea Eagles, Gold Coast Titans, North Queensland Cowboys, Canberra Raiders, Wests Tigers, Parramatta Eels, Penrith Panthers and Canterbury Bulldogs, all decided to delay bidding, citing money and time constraints.

On 27 March 2018, the National Rugby League announced that the Brisbane Broncos, New Zealand Warriors, St. George Illawarra Dragons and Sydney Roosters had won bids to participate in the inaugural NRL Women's competition, commencing in September 2018.

The Brisbane Broncos were the most dominant team in the opening three seasons winning all three minor premierships and all three premierships.

2021–present: Competition expansion

In June 2021 the NRL announced that the NRLW competition would commence expansion and increase to six teams. Initially this meant adding an additional two teams to the competition; however, the New Zealand Warriors announced that they were withdrawing from the competition due to difficulties of moving through borders during the COVID pandemic and an exodus of players and officials. This created an additional spot in the competition, with the NRL announcing that the Gold Coast Titans, Newcastle Knights and Parramatta Eels would be joining the competition for the 2021 season to keep numbers at six.

In March 2022, the National Rugby League and Australian Rugby League Commission announced that NRLW competition would further expand over the course of the 2023 and 2024 seasons by adding two clubs in each season.
Clubs were invited to make submissions to join the league and were required to by April 2022, six were received. The clubs that made submissions for an NRLW licence in the expanded competition were: Canberra Raiders, Cronulla Sharks, North Queensland Cowboys, South Sydney Rabbitohs, Penrith Panthers and Wests Tigers. The New Zealand Warriors had previously indicated their desire to return a team to the NRLW competition, but they did not place a submission at this time.

In June 2022, the NRL changed their stance and decided to bring all expansion sides in together with the four teams all be admitted in the 2023 season and that those four clubs were Canberra, Cronulla, North Queensland and Wests Tigers.

Following the announcement both the South Sydney Rabbitohs and Penrith Panthers released statements congratulating the clubs that had been chosen and that they both would be interested in joining the competition in future seasons.

The 2023 NRLW season ran for 11 weeks with 9 rounds, Semi-finals and a Grand Final with the Newcastle Knights claiming their second premiership and the first of the expanded 10 team competition.

On 28 March 2024, the NRL announced that the competition would expand by two teams in the 2025 season, with the addition of Canterbury Bulldogs and the return of the New Zealand Warriors.

Clubs

The NRLW currently consists of twelve clubs. Six clubs are based within the Greater Sydney area (including one that also represents the Illawarra region south of Sydney), another in regional New South Wales, three in Queensland, and one each in the Australian Capital Territory, and New Zealand. The league operates on a single group system, with no divisions or conferences and no relegation or promotion.

Current clubs

Players

The club's playing lists were constructed from scratch through the later stages of 2018. All participants in the 2018 season were required to be over the age of 17.

Initially, clubs were asked to nominate a list of desired players, with the NRL assigning two of these "marquee" players to each club. In addition, clubs were able to sign a number of players with existing connections to the club, or with arrangements for club sponsored work or study.

Salary

NRL Women's Premiership hands contracts to 40 elite women players.

The top level salary in 2022 is $60,000 (excluding marquee deals). Representative Origin payments are $6,000 per game.

Season structure

Pre-season

Prior to the commencement of the NRLW home-and-away season teams use this time to organise trial matches to test playing combinations.

Premiership season

The season operates using a Round-robin format, until 2024, the top four finishing teams contested two Semi-final matches, first versus fourth and second-place versus third with the winners meeting in a Grand Final which was typically held on the same day as the men's NRL Grand Final. From 2025 with the expansion to twelve teams, the format changed to a six team series over three weeks. Winners of 3rd place versus 6th place and 4th place versus 5th place in Week 1 meet 1st place and 2nd place in Week 2 semi-finals. Winners of the semi-finals meet in the Grand Final in Week 3.

For the first three seasons 2018, 2019 and 2020 the draw was structured around the men's finals series and the top two of the then four teams contested the Grand Final. Due to measures in place to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia in September-October 2021, the 2021 NRLW season was postponed until February 2022, with the Grand Final held as a stand-alone match on Sunday, 10 April 2022. For the actual 2022 season, the NRLW Grand Final reverted to being held on the same day as the NRL men's Grand Final, which was Sunday, 2 October 2022. The two Grand Finals women's and men's were also held on the same day and venue in 2023, and (as scheduled for) 2024.

The rules and regulations are mostly the same as in the men's game, with a few exceptions:
* original matches were sixty minutes long, with thirty minutes in each half. 2022 season revised to seventy minute matches, consisting of thirty-five minutes per half.
* ten interchanges in each match, with an additional two during golden point; and
* a 40/30 kick advantage providing for tactical kicking and unpredictability during matches.

Postseason

In October 2018, NRL announced the inaugural edition of Rugby League World Cup 9s in Western Sydney on 18–19 October 2019, featuring 12 international men's teams and 4 women's teams. This would be around one month after the Women's Grand Final and preseason tournament Auckland Nines in previous years was replaced.

Seasons

* The 2021 season was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic; the season started on 27 February 2022 and was completed on 10 April.

Grand Finals

Awards

The following major individual awards and accolades are presented each season:

*Best & Fairest Trophy – to the best and fairest player in the league, voted by the referees
*Leading Try Award – to the player who scores the most tries during the home-and-away season
*Rookie of the Year –
*Veronica White Medal –
*Karyn Murphy Medal – the best player on the ground in the NRL Women's Grand Final, not voted by a committee of media members

Records

Tables last updated 7 October 2024 (after the Grand Final of the 2024 Season).

Most Appearances

The following players have made 25 or more appearances in NRLW matches.

Most Individual Points

The following players have scored 25 or more points in NRLW matches.

Most Points in each season

Most Tries in each season

Most Tries in a Match (Try Hattricks)

Most Goals in a Match

Premierships

Most consecutive

*3 – Brisbane Broncos (2018 to 2020)

Runners-up

Minor Premierships

Most consecutive

*4 – Brisbane Broncos (2018 to 2021)

Matches played

Last updated: 7 October 2024

Share % is the percentage of points For over the sum of points For and Against.

Media coverage

Television

In its inaugural season all matches will be televised live by affiliate partners the Nine Network and Fox League.
And NRLWRAP

Online

The official internet/mobile broadcast partner of the NRL is 9Now and Kayo Sports.

Outside Australia, the inaugural season is available on WatchNRL.

Corporate relations

Sponsorship

Holden is the league's past and inaugural naming rights partner.

Telstra is the league's naming rights partner.

All playing and training equipment as well as all licensed apparel and hats for the league's four clubs are manufactured by Nike.

Other league sponsors include Rebel Sport, Harvey Norman and Kellogg's.

The official ball supplier is Steeden.

Merchandising

Official match day attire together with other club merchandise is sold through the NRL's stores and website as well through the clubs and through some retailers.

See also

* List of sports awards honoring women
*Australia women's national rugby league team
*Women's rugby league in Australia
*Australian Women's Rugby League
*National Rugby League
*Women's Super League
* NZRL Women's National Tournament

References

External links

*
Dragons Lair – NRLW Fan Discussion Forum

{{Women's sport in Australia

National Rugby League
2018 establishments in Australia
Sports leagues established in 2018
Women's rugby league competitions in Australia
Professional sports leagues in Australia
Professional sports leagues in New Zealand
Rugby