Newcastle Knights Women

 Newcastle Knights 

Club information
Full name	Newcastle Rugby League Football Club
Nickname(s)	Novocastrians
Colours	Primary:   Blue   Red Secondary:   White
Founded	Team: 2021;3 years ago (2021) Club: 1987
Website	newcastleknights.com.au
Current details
Ground(s)	McDonald Jones Stadium (33,000)
CEO	Phil Gardner
Coach	Ben Jeffries
Captain	Hannah Southwell
Competition	NRL Women's Premiership
Current season
Uniforms
Home colours Away colours
Records
Premierships	2 (2022, 2023)
Runners-up	0
Minor premierships	1 (2023)
Wooden spoons	1 (2021)
Most capped	Yasmin Clydsdale, Olivia Higgins, Caitlan Johnston, Shanice Parker, Tayla Predebon, Jesse Southwell – 18
Highest try scorer	Tamika Upton – 12
Highest points scorer	Jesse Southwell – 98

The Newcastle Knights Women are an Australian rugby league team based in Newcastle, New South Wales. The team is part of the Newcastle Knights club and competes in the National Rugby League Women's Premiership (NRLW). The team's home ground is McDonald Jones Stadium. The team has won two premierships over its history (2022 and 2023).

History

On 11 June 2021, the Newcastle Knights were granted a licence to compete in the 2021 National Rugby League Women's (NRLW) competition. Recently retired Knights player Blake Green was announced as the head coach. ^[1] The season was planned to commence in August 2021, postponed to October 2021 and further postponed to 2022 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. ^[2]

On 1 July 2021, the Knights announced their first ever NRLW signing in Indigenous All Stars and Prime Minister's XIII representative Caitlan Johnston, who was a foundation Tarsha Gale Cup player for the Knights in 2018 before spending two seasons with the Sydney Roosters NRLW side. ^[3]

On 25 November 2021, it was announced that Knights Tarsha Gale Cup coach Casey Bromilow would be taking on the head coach role after Green had been appointed into a specialist halves role alongside Andrew Johns with Newcastle's NRL side. ^[4] Jess Skinner was announced as the assistant coach. ^[5] On the same day, the Knights announced a further six Newcastle and Hunter based signings in Bobbi Law from the Sydney Roosters, Jayme Fressard from the Brisbane Broncos and Georgia Page from the St. George Illawarra Dragons, as well as Phoebe Desmond, Chantelle Graham and Kyra Simon from local teams. Six development players were also announced in Bree Chester, Sophie Clancy, Matilda Jones, Kayla Romaniuk, Jesse Southwell and Tylah Vallance. ^[6]

On 1 December 2021, the Knights signed nine Kiwi Ferns representatives in Ngatokotoru Arakua, Maitua Feterika, Annetta Nu'uausala, Charntay Poko, Krystal Rota, Charlotte Scanlan, Autumn-Rain Stephens-Daly, Katelyn Vaha'akolo and Kararaina Wira-Kohu, ^[7] Two days later, the club signed Romy Teitzel from the Brisbane Broncos, AFLW player Paige Parker, rugby sevens player Emma Sykes and North Queensland Gold Stars players Rangimarie Edwards-Bruce, Katie Green, Emma Manzelmann and Tahlulah Tillett. ^[8]

In January 2022, the Knights signed Kirra Dibb from the New Zealand Warriors after Emma Sykes withdrew from the squad. ^[9] On 21 February, the 24-woman squad was finalised with the signing of Shannon Evans from the Central Coast Roosters ^[10] and Romy Teitzel was named team captain, Caitlan Johnston and Krystal Rota named as club captains. ^[11]

The club played in 5 matches without a win in its inaugural season. ^[12]

In April 2022, Ronald Griffiths was announced as the new head coach for the upcoming season. ^[13]

On 18 May 2022, the Knights announced the signing of Australian Jillaroos players Millie Boyle and Tamika Upton for their second season in the competition. ^{[14] [15]} Additional notable signings for the 2022 season were Sydney Roosters premiership winning players Yasmin Clydsdale, Olivia Higgins, Simone Karpani, Tayla Predebon, Hannah Southwell, ^{[16] [17]} former Jillaroos player Caitlin Moran and former Roosters players Shanice Parker and Kiana Takairangi. ^[18]

On 16 August 2022, Millie Boyle and Hannah Southwell were appointed co-captains of the club. ^[19]

After winning 4 of its 5 regular season games, the Knights won their first premiership during the 2022 NRL Women's season, defeating the Parramatta Eels 32–12. ^[20]

Players

For the complete list of Newcastle Knights Women's players, see List of Newcastle Knights Women's players.

Current squad

Further information: 2023 Newcastle Knights season

Newcastle Knights women's – current squad

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2024 NRLW top 24 squad						Development list		Coaching staff
4 Caitlan Johnston – SR, PR 26 Yasmin Clydsdale – SR 27 Olivia Higgins – HK, LK 28 Shanice Parker – CE 29 Hannah Southwell (c) – LK 30 Jesse Southwell – HB 32 Tamika Upton (vc) – FB 33 Tayla Predebon – PR		34 Simone Karpani – LK, PR 38 Caitlin Moran – FE, HB 41 Kayla Romaniuk – LK, PR 42 Laishon Albert-Jones – LK, SR 43 Rima Butler – PR 44 Sheridan Gallagher – WG 45 Abigail Roache – CE 47 Nita Maynard – HK		48 Viena Tinao – PR 49 Georgia Roche – FE 50 Felila Kia – SR 51 Jacinta Carter – PR Jayde Herdegen – FE Evie Jones – FE Jules Kirkpatrick – LK Tamerah Leati – WG		Leah Ollerton – HK Lilly-Ann White – FB		Head coach Ben Jeffries Legend: (c) Captain(s) (vc) Vice-captain(s) Updated: 14 January 2024 Source(s): Newcastle Knights Profiles, Rugby League Project

Captains All players that have captained the Newcastle Knights Women's in first-grade. Cap No. Name Years As Captain Debut Round Games As Captain 1. Romy Teitzel 2021 Round 1 5 2. Millie Boyle 2022 Round 1 7 3. Hannah Southwell 2022-23 Round 1 9 4. Tamika Upton 2023 Round 1 3 Coaches Casey Bromilow (2021) Ronald Griffiths (2022–2023) Ben Jeffries (2024-present) Seasons Season Regular Season Finals P W D L F A Pts Pos 2021 5 0 0 5 48 123 0 6th — 2022 5 4 0 1 112 68 8 2nd Premiers 2023 9 8 0 1 224 119 16 1st tbd Club Records This section last updated: 15 September 2023. Individual records Career Most Games Yasmin Clydsdale 18 Olivia Higgins 18 Caitlan Johnston 18 Shanice Parker 18 Tayla Predebon 18 Jesse Southwell 18 Most Points Jesse Southwell 98 Most Tries Tamika Upton 12 Most Goals Jesse Southwell 39 Season Most Points Jesse Southwell (2023) 78 Most Tries Sheridan Gallagher (2023) 7 Tamika Upton (2023) 7 Match Most Points Kirra Dibb (Semi Final, 2022) 14 vs. St. George Illawarra Most Tries Tamika Upton (Semi Final, 2022) 2 vs. St. George Illawarra Kiana Takairangi (Grand Final, 2022) 2 vs. Parramatta Eels Abigail Roache (Round 4, 2023) 2 vs. Gold Coast Titans Shanice Parker (Round 5, 2023) 2 vs. Brisbane Broncos Shanice Parker (Round 6, 2023) 2 vs. Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks Tamika Upton (Round 8, 2023) 2 vs. Sydney Roosters Abigail Roache (Round 9, 2023) 2 vs. Wests Tigers Tamika Upton (Grand Final, 2023) 2 vs. Gold Coast Titans Most Goals Kirra Dibb (Semi Final, 2022) 5 vs. St. George Illawarra Jesse Southwell (Round 3, 2023) 5 vs. Parramatta Eels Margins and Streaks Biggest winning margin Margin Score Opponent Venue Date 34 38–4 Parramatta Eels CommBank Stadium 6 August 2023 Biggest losing margin Margin Score Opponent Venue Date 36 4–40 St. George Illawarra Dragons McDonald Jones Stadium 20 March 2022 Most consecutive wins 9 – (6 August 2023 – 1 October 2023) Most consecutive losses 5 – (27 February 2022 – 27 March 2022) References "A New Dawn: Knights to enter NRLW in 2021". Newcastle Knights. 11 June 2021. "NRLW season postponed until early 2022 due to pandemic". "Newcastle Knights sign Caitlan Johnston". Newcastle Knights. 1 July 2021. "Knights target parity for NRLW stars". National Rugby League. 26 November 2021. "Leading the way: Casey Bromilow appointed as NRLW Head Coach". Newcastle Knights. 25 November 2021. "History confirmed: Knights announce first NRLW signings". Newcastle Knights. 25 November 2021. "NRLW 2022: Newcastle Knights, club confirms nine Kiwi Ferns for inaugural campaign - NRL". National Rugby League. 1 December 2021. "Knights finalise NRLW squad with signings of Queensland-based players". Newcastle Knights. 3 December 2021. "Kirra Dibb joins inaugural NRLW squad". Newcastle Knights. 28 January 2022. "Full NRLW squad and development list for 2021 season". Newcastle Knights. 21 February 2022. "Trio named as inaugural Captains of the NRLW side". Newcastle Knights. 21 February 2022. "NRLW 2021 - Newcastle Knights (W) - Rugby League Project". www.rugbyleagueproject.org. "Ronald Griffiths announced as NRLW Head Coach". Newcastle Knights. April 14, 2022. "Teams: NSWRL Harvey Norman Women's Premiership - 2020 Round 2". League Unlimited. 22 Jul 2020. Retrieved 17 May 2022. "Results: 2020 NSWRL Harvey Norman Women's Premiership Round 2". League Unlimited. 25 Jul 2020. Retrieved 17 May 2022. "Knights announce more signings". Newcastle Knights. June 3, 2022. "Premiership winner joins the Knights". Newcastle Knights. June 1, 2022. "Knights confirm further 2022 NRLW signings". Newcastle Knights. June 9, 2022. "2022 NRLW Co-Captains announced". Newcastle Knights. August 16, 2022. "Custom Match List - RLP". www.rugbyleagueproject.org. External links Newcastle Knights official website