WNRL Teams

So looks like they are proceeding with a WNRL made up of six teams in the firs time instance, which I think is a good idea and a good number, question is, who are the 6 teams, or rather who do you guys think they should be.

My view not every team will ever have a women's team and nor should it, it isn't ever going to be sustainable, so instead of NRL teams competing with each other for women's teams and development areas, I Think there should be key partnerships and cost sharing amongst specific team. This is tricky as you don't want to rule out a couple of key derby games, but I think you want to solidify support for the competition in certain areas.

To that end, I think you could go with something along the lines of:

1. South Queensland Broncos - Qld is a critical market, and the Broncos have the ability to go it alone probably, but I think a partnership with the Titans, with the Broncos the majority stakeholders would work. It would mean they garner complete support from the South and ensure the side doesn't have to compete against itself for female talent. and The logical step for expansion would be for a Northern Qld side down the track making for a great derby.

2. Western Sydney Eels. Playing out of the new stadium, a partnership of the Eels and Panthers would be fantastic.

3. St George/Illawarra Dragons. Already a merged side, this is a no brainer for mine.

4. Central Coast Bears - Throw these guys a bone, give them the female catchment from Manly to Newcastle and see if they can make a go of it.

5. South Sydney - They already have an established side I believe that are very successful, with a large catchment

6. New Zealand Warriors - The Kiwis have some solid female units running around and I don't think they should go South and try and compete with the Women's AFL. Only concern is, I imagine they'd be trying to keep costs to a minimum so the travel costs may be a factor and a bridge to far in the early stages.

If that was the case then the alternative may be the Southern NSW Raiders, a side encompassing everything South of the Shire and the Nations capital.

Brisbane
Newcastle
Melbourne
Perth
Sydney
NZ

would be my 6 teams

withit being all but confirmed that it would be existing teams granted licences and expansion on the cards in future years, i think first priority is to cover the most popular and/or widest-reaching areas, so i'd have Cowboys, Broncos, 2 Sydney teams, Storm, Warriors

NZ don't deserve one. Warriors regularly get 9k turnout and they can't even get more then 17k to watch a NZ world cup match.

NQ
Bris
Melb
Sharks
Sydney
Penrith

2 Brisbane teams

I would think there should be 2 QLD teams - perhaps one FNQ and one in SEQ, but I don't know what the demographics of players is. I say 2 from QLD because given that until the last year or two the QLD women were even more successful than the mens team (I think they were undefeated for something like 18 years), then you'd think that maybe the number of players is actually pretty close to NSW. Touch Football is now part of the NRL, so they should have good statistics of where there are high concentrations of female players.

It might actually be a good chance to have teams not necessarily where there are NRL teams. In the netball for example, Sunshine Coast are the national champions, and I think they get really good local support perhaps in part because there isn't a mens team in any major national football code or cricket or NBL. Maybe 1 team can be there or somewhere like Cairns or Rockhampton or Ipswich.

It gets even more expensive adding in NZ, so that might not be viable. I doubt there's enough support in Melbourne or Perth. Before they go in those areas they would really need to have a big touch football push first I'd say.

I love that women's sport is getting a higher profile in Aust. AFLW was awesome last year, hopefully the NRL will be as great. There's definitely the demand for the 'product'. Traditional women's sports such as Netball should be worried. Not just for the $ but also the athletic talent.

unlike a few, i think NZ is fairly important to have just from the standpoint that a fair amount of the best players are likely based there and its unlikely they relocate


2 x sydney
1 x brisbane
1 x NQ - their crowds for WNBL are often pretty good, they love their league and they pay to watch their female athletes as much as their males, gotta be there imo
1 x NZ
either melbourne or canberra for the last one, could make a reasonable argument for both but lean towards melbourne

Dip wrote:I would think there should be 2 QLD teams - perhaps one FNQ and one in SEQ, but I don't know what the demographics of players is. I say 2 from QLD because given that until the last year or two the QLD women were even more successful than the mens team (I think they were undefeated for something like 18 years), then you'd think that maybe the number of players is actually pretty close to NSW. Touch Football is now part of the NRL, so they should have good statistics of where there are high concentrations of female players.

It might actually be a good chance to have teams not necessarily where there are NRL teams. In the netball for example, Sunshine Coast are the national champions, and I think they get really good local support perhaps in part because there isn't a mens team in any major national football code or cricket or NBL. Maybe 1 team can be there or somewhere like Cairns or Rockhampton or Ipswich.

It gets even more expensive adding in NZ, so that might not be viable. I doubt there's enough support in Melbourne or Perth. Before they go in those areas they would really need to have a big touch football push first I'd say.

Touch needs a huge push in the southern states - to the point that currently, the nationals have stopped doing state-by-state each year because southern states are so shit. It now alternates with an 8 team comp made up of 3 QLD, 4 NSW and 1 Rest-of-Aus teams.

A fair chunk of the Jillaroos and the rugby 7s team came from touch backgrounds, its a great breeding ground for womens elite sport.

They need to get into Melbourne to try and get some of the talent that would otherwise go to WAFL.

Did i hear that they would be played as double header curtain raises to the NRL finals series? If thats the case then it doesnt matter where teams come from for crowd support as they wont really play in front of home crowds that often. Thats why i think they need to spread the teams out as far as they can and try and generate some extra interest from non-traditional league areas.

They need to solidify the base and ensure it's a success, that means Qld, NSW first and foremost. Forget wasting time competeing with AFLW or heading west.

2 X Sydney (obviously 1 is the Sharks)
1 X Brisbane
1 X QLD regional
1 X NSW Central Coast
1 X NSW Bush ???? Not sure about the last one

Ice wrote:They need to solidify the base and ensure it's a success, that means Qld, NSW first and foremost. Forget wasting time competeing with AFLW or heading west.

It's going to be a success in QLD and NSW regardless of what they do - its league heartland. A-League is a success in soccer heartland and its a terrible product. And they've been solidifying in QLD and NSW for years now, through touch - which im pretty sure is the sport most played by girls in Australia.

The only way it will succeed is if they can convince talent in the south or west to play rugby league over AFL. They need to cash in on the draw cards of a world cup / pathway to olympics (7s) / genuine world game and strike while the world cup high is still around.

Its a brilliant initiative. My take would be to reach as far as possible but not trying to "compete" with the WALF

South Queensland
NZ
3 x Sydney teams
Melbourne

ryno_ wrote:
touch - which im pretty sure is the sport most played by girls in Australia.

More girls play touch than netball?

Pieman wrote:

More girls play touch than netball?

Registered, I think soccer is first. But touch is taught in a lot of schools as a part of PE.

Pieman wrote:

More girls play touch than netball?

Harvey Weinstein Institute of Sport

I think you need to build the teams around where the players are and not around traditional supporter bases if you play them as curtain raisers. If you play a pre season stand alone comp like WAFL then it's more about support base

As a guess - for registered junior sport for girls it would be

netball first
Soccer
Touch

Just a guess tho

Touch is played a lot in school yep but so is basketball, netball, Auskick afl. Etc. I wouldn’t think it would be played any more than soccer or netball in schools.

Pieman wrote:As a guess - for registered junior sport for girls it would be

netball first
Soccer
Touch

Just a guess tho

Touch is played a lot in school yep but so is basketball, netball, Auskick afl. Etc. I wouldn’t think it would be played any more than soccer or netball in schools.

Played in school, sure. But between teams, not as a part of PE classes taught to students. At least in SEQ, touch is a staple of PE as of about 5 years ago because the base skills are easy to pick up, girls and boys can compete on the same paddock and you can give out passes to everyone.