In March 2017, the Cronulla Sharks played another Women's Nine's match, this time defeating the Canberra Raiders by 28–10.[3]
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,[4] 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.[5]
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.[14][15]
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.[16]
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.[17][18] Clubs were invited to make submissions to join the league and were required to by April 2022, six were received.[19] The clubs that made submissions for an NRLW licence in the expanded competition were: Canberra Raiders,[20][21] Cronulla Sharks,[22] North Queensland Cowboys,[23][24][25] South Sydney Rabbitohs,[26] Penrith Panthers and Wests Tigers.[27] The New Zealand Warriors had previously indicated their desire to return a team to the NRLW competition,[28] 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[29] and that those four clubs were Canberra, Cronulla, North Queensland and Wests Tigers.[30][31]
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.[32][33]
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.[34]
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.
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.
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.[5] 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.[39] 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:[40]
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.[41] This would be around one month after the Women's Grand Final and preseason tournament Auckland Nines in previous years was replaced.
The maximum number of matches including finals has increased over time from 4 in the 2018, 2019 and 2020 seasons, 7 in 2021 and 2022, and 11 from 2023.
In the first five seasons, 2018 to 2022, the player with the most points in each season has also been the player with the most goals in each season.
Jesse Southwell (Knights) with 78 points from 3 tries and 33 goals (from 11 games) finished in second place as point-scorer for the 2023 season, and also in first place as the leading goal scorer in 2023.
Romy Teitzel (Broncos) with 64 points from 4 tries and 24 goals (from 9 games) was the leading point-scorer for 2024 at the completion of the rounds. Jocelyn Kelleher was in second place with 62 points from 1 try and 29 goals. Kelleher was the leading goal-kicker at the competition of the rounds. Zahara Temara was in third place for the 2024 season with 58 points from 2 tries and 25 goals.
Kelleher's tally went above Teitzel's tally in the Semi-Final, with the former kicking 4 goals and the latter unable to play due to injury. Kellher added a further 8 points from 4 goals in the Grand Final.
Gallagher and Robinson with 9 tries each, were the equal leading try scorers for 2024 at the completion of the rounds. Both played in their team's respective Semi-Final, but neither scored.
Penitani scored six tries across the nine rounds of the regular season, one try in the Semi-Final and two tries in the Grand Final.
Two players were in equal fourth place for the 2024 season with 8 tries: Teagan Berry (Dragons) and Madison Bartlett (Raiders).
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.
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Australia (11 teams)
New Zealand (1 team)
Sydney Roosters (2nd title) (2024)
Brisbane Broncos (3 titles)
