What's new
The Front Row Forums

Register a free account today to become a member of the world's largest Rugby League discussion forum! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Expansion of the Women's Competition

MrE_Assassin

Juniors
Messages
444
https://7news.com.au/sport/rugby-league/roosters-warriors-out-of-nrlw-report-c-770074

I told you stuff like this would happen if the NRLW clubs were connected to the NRL clubs.
Yeah but that’s because of the current circumstances that every club finds themselves in. Whilst a lot of clubs are cutting away people in the HQ, the Roosters & Warriors (by that article) have said they aren’t in it this season in order to cut costs. There may not even be an NRLW season this year with the way things are going.

I could understand your statement if the clubs just decided to drop out with no other factors impacting the club, just a “we don’t want to do it anymore” mentality, but the financial impact on all clubs is huge at the moment and they need to cut costs where they can. I’m sure they’ll run again next season, otherwise there’s plenty of other clubs who could pick up the players.... although currently I don’t think any of them will.
 

The Great Dane

First Grade
Messages
7,723
Yeah but that’s because of the current circumstances that every club finds themselves in. Whilst a lot of clubs are cutting away people in the HQ, the Roosters & Warriors (by that article) have said they aren’t in it this season in order to cut costs. There may not even be an NRLW season this year with the way things are going.

I could understand your statement if the clubs just decided to drop out with no other factors impacting the club, just a “we don’t want to do it anymore” mentality, but the financial impact on all clubs is huge at the moment and they need to cut costs where they can. I’m sure they’ll run again next season, otherwise there’s plenty of other clubs who could pick up the players.... although currently I don’t think any of them will.
I accept that this is an extreme example, but what you don't understand is that similar things are going to keep happening all the time.

The NRLW team is a net cost and not the clubs meal ticket, so every time that a club has any financial struggles and needs to cut costs the NRLW department will see the brunt of it, even if the NRLW department isn't were the excess is.

What do you think is going to be the effects on the competition, it's growth, and it's legitimacy, in the long run if every time a club over spends on the men's team and/or has some financial difficulties they gut their women's department!?

It's one of the main reasons why the NRLW should have been an independent competition with independent clubs.
 

MrE_Assassin

Juniors
Messages
444
I accept that this is an extreme example, but what you don't understand is that similar things are going to keep happening all the time.

The NRLW team is a net cost and not the clubs meal ticket, so every time that a club has any financial struggles and needs to cut costs the NRLW department will see the brunt of it, even if the NRLW department isn't were the excess is.

What do you think is going to be the effects on the competition, it's growth, and it's legitimacy, in the long run if every time a club over spends on the men's team and/or has some financial difficulties they gut their women's department!?

It's one of the main reasons why the NRLW should have been an independent competition with independent clubs.
I do understand your point (so please don't tell me what I do and don't understand); however this has so far been the only example of this sort of thing happening and it is only because of the current and very unique situation the clubs and game find themselves in. The NRLW has otherwise been popular and why other clubs want to buy into it. It's easy to be a naysayer and use this one example as your catalyst for saying the whole NRLW is flawed. Up until the shut down of the competitions the NRLW was still going ahead, they even had clubs recruiting and blooding girls at the 9s, so it's not like either the Roosters or Warriors had intentions of pulling out prior to the shutdown of the competition. There were no issues prior to coronavirus affecting the whole sporting landscape. This current issue may just mean the the NRLW, much like many other competitions in all sports, needs to be put on hiatus for 2020. I don't see this as "all is lost".

You'll probably find this is also to do with the State Leagues (NSWRL & QRL) cancelling their competitions for the year and as such the women, who are not full-time professionals, suffer because they haven't had the year to condition, go through selections (National Women's Championship), etc and all the lead up that prepares them for the NRLW at the end of the year.

As for your point that the NRLW should have been started up with individual/unique clubs away from the NRL; I think you would have found that the NRL/ARLC didn't want to do this because of the cost to set up 4 non-affiliated women's teams. Having them aligned with NRL clubs gives them exposure to an established fanbase, facilities to use, stadiums are already locked in so they don't have to compete for venues with other sports/club + the extra rent, lowers the financial burden on the NRL to fund it, etc.

Maybe in the future we'll see some stand alone clubs, much like the NBL/WNBL, but the NRL needed somewhere to start it off with the lowest burden.
 

The Great Dane

First Grade
Messages
7,723
I do understand your point (so please don't tell me what I do and don't understand); however this has so far been the only example of this sort of thing happening and it is only because of the current and very unique situation the clubs and game find themselves in.
Do you honestly believe that when the inevitable happens and a club is struggling financially in the future that they are not going to touch the NRLW department?

What business do you know of that would cut costs in their most important income stream when they have another part of their business that is a net cost?

Even if the NRLW department does eventually become profitable in it's own right, it will still always play second fiddle to the NRL department, because the NRL will always be where the clubs make the majority of their money.
The NRLW has otherwise been popular and why other clubs want to buy into it. It's easy to be a naysayer and use this one example as your catalyst for saying the whole NRLW is flawed. Up until the shut down of the competitions the NRLW was still going ahead, they even had clubs recruiting and blooding girls at the 9s, so it's not like either the Roosters or Warriors had intentions of pulling out prior to the shutdown of the competition. There were no issues prior to coronavirus affecting the whole sporting landscape. This current issue may just mean the the NRLW, much like many other competitions in all sports, needs to be put on hiatus for 2020. I don't see this as "all is lost".
This is the first example, it's inevitable that it'll happen again.This is also just one of many reasons why the NRLW as a business is flawed, not the only reason, not even the biggest reason.

Also I know it's not politically correct, but can we not blow smoke up peoples arses by saying that the NRLW has been popular. Lets be honest, it has to be less than one percent of the NRLW's audience that is paying for a ticket to see them. Basically everybody in the stadium is there for the game afterwards. I'm not knocking them for that, I'm just being honest.
You'll probably find this is also to do with the State Leagues (NSWRL & QRL) cancelling their competitions for the year and as such the women, who are not full-time professionals, suffer because they haven't had the year to condition, go through selections (National Women's Championship), etc and all the lead up that prepares them for the NRLW at the end of the year.
They were very clear that it was a cost cutting exercise.
As for your point that the NRLW should have been started up with individual/unique clubs away from the NRL; I think you would have found that the NRL/ARLC didn't want to do this because of the cost to set up 4 non-affiliated women's teams. Having them aligned with NRL clubs gives them exposure to an established fanbase, facilities to use, stadiums are already locked in so they don't have to compete for venues with other sports/club + the extra rent, lowers the financial burden on the NRL to fund it, etc.
It wouldn't have cost the NRL anything more, they'd have just been giving their grants to 4 new clubs instead of the NRL clubs, and lets be honest, there is no added exposure or benefit from an established fan-base by playing for a pre-existing club.

Anybody that was interested in following or supporting the NRLW would have done it with or without the NRL clubs (if anything you've turned away people who don't support the NRL clubs with NRLW teams), and 95%+ of the fans of those clubs couldn't care less about the NRLW team aside from the novelty factor.

It's the difference between Canberra United and Sydney FC's female team. Sydney FC is better funded and is a bigger club, but Canberra United has way more fans than Sydney FC's women's team.
Maybe in the future we'll see some stand alone clubs, much like the NBL/WNBL, but the NRL needed somewhere to start it off with the lowest burden.
We won't see that.

The NRLW isn't about trying to legitimately build another product for the NRL to sell, it's about ticking political boxes.

Any future NRLW expansion will be through the NRL clubs, most of the clubs won't put any effort into it and will just use it as a tool to gain extra funding from the NRL, and the NRLW will probably never be profitable in it's own right and will continue to be totally subsidised by the men's competition.
 

mongoose

Coach
Messages
11,214
I guess you want to tap into areas where there are islander girls - west sydney, another qld team - maybe titans, melbourne and newcastle for the next 4
 

siv

First Grade
Messages
6,546
Simple answer is for the Dragons to play in the NSWRL Womens comp

Then play NSWRL-W premiers v QRL-W premiers on grand final day

Issue will always be the fact in womens RL is stronger in Brisbane than in NSW
 

The Great Dane

First Grade
Messages
7,723

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,407
It was inevitable that the clubs would treat the NRLW that way, but that is just one of multiple reasons why the NRLW should have been run independently of the NRL clubs.

agreed. I get the kudos of carrying the nrl clubs brand but the comps built on a pack of cards with not much hope of actually growing it into a proper comp
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,407
How does afl get clubs to field women's teams?? I figure they realize they get back with government grants plus public perception & positive media coverage.

Also it pays them to field a team, unlike NRL. They get around $900k a year grant for AFLW. NRL clubs have to pay out around $500k a year to run an NRLW team.
 
Messages
12,406
Wouldn't it make sense to put NRLW teams in Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth with the intent to get more young women into the game, so that when they have kids they will view RL as a candidate for their children to play as they will have the personal experience of knowing it's no more dangerous than fumbleball?

Over time it could lead to Adelaide and Perth getting their own NRL teams. It would give our game good publicity if it could say women played a key role in spreading the game to new frontiers for the benefit of boys and girls.
 

flippikat

Bench
Messages
4,378
Was there ever a chance that NRLW teams could have been joint ventures?

I mean, if say the Rabbitohs, Tigers & Roosters co-funded a NRLW team (Sydney Foundation), run independently.. would that be a model worth investigating?

The NRLW ventures could even pave the way for clubs working together in other aspects - even fielding JV men's teams..
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,407
Was there ever a chance that NRLW teams could have been joint ventures?

I mean, if say the Rabbitohs, Tigers & Roosters co-funded a NRLW team (Sydney Foundation), run independently.. would that be a model worth investigating?

The NRLW ventures could even pave the way for clubs working together in other aspects - even fielding JV men's teams..

the kudos is in carrying the nrl club brand
 

siv

First Grade
Messages
6,546
Was there ever a chance that NRLW teams could have been joint ventures?

I mean, if say the Rabbitohs, Tigers & Roosters co-funded a NRLW team (Sydney Foundation), run independently.. would that be a model worth investigating?

The NRLW ventures could even pave the way for clubs working together in other aspects - even fielding JV men's teams..

Politis already did that and called them the Roosters

Everyone in Sydney and the CC & Newcastle are considered to be feeder clubs
 
Last edited:
Top