NRLW season 2025 comments

I think the Wahs are the next ones to take a big leap over the next year or two.

The effort they played with to almost steal the win against the Raiders playing the majority of the game with 11 players was massive. Not to mention the lost both halves and Api Nicholls to injury during the week.

Ron’s got them very committed and they really chose the best coach to set them up for long term success.

With Broughton apparently headed back there next year, I think there will be a number of NZ players to follow in the next couple of years as well.

They could become a powerhouse. There’s not going to be any shortage of players wanting to play for the Wahs and they’ll have a whole country of girls that were born with footballs in their hand to pick from.

The thing is if Jesse stays at the Knights, the Broncos are about to lose both Broughton and Brigganshaw, the comp should start to even out a bit more. Just need some of the other teams to go after a few of the Roosters players. That might be a good job for Gus.

I think the Dragons will have a better chance of retaining players now they’ve given Soward the flick. The majority of originals that left before did so because of him. Teagan Berry flat out said it in an interview, that they didn’t like him. Obviously they’re never going to have the resources of the Broncos etc but clubs can’t just fob the women’s team off to some ex-player and expect results either, particularly someone like Soward.

The fact that the Roosters team was full of Knights juniors initially is the reason they never should’ve been given an inaugural team. The Knights should’ve been first they had the players and the support. The Roosters had neither.
 
Certainly it will even out over time as more money comes in generally too, at the end of the day the issue is definitely the very flat baseline value of playing contracts. Just feel like the game growing to that point is jeopardised if they turn the comp into a joke over the next few years.

I too can't imagine why we wouldn't offer Jesse whatever it takes, but I really don't understand the rules around the 'marquee' contracts you can supplement with off-field work at all. Does it have to be a real job she's qualified for? Because I think she's an early school leaver and her only profession as far as I can see is playing footy.
 
Given the NRL doesn’t police the men’s cap I doubt they’re going to be worried about the Women’s game too much.

Let’s face it, the 3 major salary cap cheating cases were all exposed by whistleblowers not the NRL. Don’t think they have any interest in investigating it properly.

That being the case, just make up some BS title for her at the Knights / Wests or whatever. Use the sponsors to throw in some perks car etc

The main thing is that at the Knights, she’s the star attraction. She’ll never be at the Broncos. Also, nobody that watches the NRLW wants to see her at Broncos, despite what Jo Barrett thinks.

Is she kidding with this article
www.foxsports.com.au

What we should really worry about if star makes bombshell club switch — NRLW Talking Pts

What we should really worry about if star makes bombshell club switch — NRLW Talking Pts
www.foxsports.com.au www.foxsports.com.au

Here’s an idea, how about the Broncos develop the next Jesse Southwell since they’re such a big club with vast resources that apparently everyone wants to play for. Why do they need to pinch talent off poor small little clubs like the Knights.

Also, newsflash the Knights team have just as high a success rate as the Broncos
 
The Rugby League media in Sydney and Brisbane have such a superiority complex. They genuinely can’t handle clubs outside of their area being successful and get especially snarky if players reject them and go to another area.

The way they talk about our fanbase is beyond insulting aswell. All of us are blue collar workers working pay cheque to pay cheque who have to scrape every cent together to get to a football game in their narrow minds.

All this talk about Brisbane being a powerhouse and she should go their more more opportunities is crap. We’ve won 2 of the last 3 competitions and are a powerhouse of the female game aswell.

Newygirl is spot on if Brisbane want an elite halfback they can use their considerable resources and produce one.
 
In some ways I think the bias is even worse in the women’s game too. All the games are commentated from the Roosters or Broncos POV and whatever plebs they happened to be opposing.

Jesse’s been able to achieve everything at the Knights, she’ll be the Australian 7 just as Andrew Johns was still able to achieve everything he’s an immortal ffs. Speaking of which, I think the Knights need to ask Joey to have a word to her privately but also complain about it publicly. Fight fire with fire.

Even when we won the comps it was like we’d stolen comps that belonged to someone else. In 22 it was supposed to be the Roosters but they choked in the semi so we got it instead. In 23 the Titans had beaten the all powerful Roosters so they actually deserved it. So yet again we stole it.
 
Newygirl said:
Given the NRL doesn’t police the men’s cap I doubt they’re going to be worried about the Women’s game too much.

Let’s face it, the 3 major salary cap cheating cases were all exposed by whistleblowers not the NRL. Don’t think they have any interest in investigating it properly.

That being the case, just make up some BS title for her at the Knights / Wests or whatever. Use the sponsors to throw in some perks car etc

The main thing is that at the Knights, she’s the star attraction. She’ll never be at the Broncos. Also, nobody that watches the NRLW wants to see her at Broncos, despite what Jo Barrett thinks.

Is she kidding with this article
www.foxsports.com.au

What we should really worry about if star makes bombshell club switch — NRLW Talking Pts

What we should really worry about if star makes bombshell club switch — NRLW Talking Pts
www.foxsports.com.au www.foxsports.com.au

Here’s an idea, how about the Broncos develop the next Jesse Southwell since they’re such a big club with vast resources that apparently everyone wants to play for. Why do they need to pinch talent off poor small little clubs like the Knights.

Also, newsflash the Knights team have just as high a success rate as the Broncos
Click to expand...
Amazing how quickly we go from “the Broncos want Southwell” to “it’s pretty clear the Broncos are getting Southwell, it would be a ‘guilt trip’ (what?) to try to stop it happening”.
 
Would tend to agree with Billy that it’s probably not money-driven if she goes. As has been mentioned the NRLW salary discrepancy is small, especially for players who’ll be more than making up that bit of lost salary with rep payments (the reason the Broncos and Roosters rosters look like that in the first place), and impossible to imagine the Knights won’t pull any strings available to them financially and job-wise.

The 2 players she was joined at the hip with just left the club early in clearly unhappy circumstances. Would be naive to think at least some of that hasn’t rubbed off on her.
 
Joey has entered the. Hat about Jesse and Broncos. Saying “take my loyalty to knights and Jesse but if a club like Brisbane were to sign Jesse, just cancel the comp as they’d never be beaten”. For the good of the game it can’t happen.

Type of comments that need the air time so it’s squashed.
 
Scott Prince was massively under rated as a playmaker IMO.
Jesse will be weighing up if he is a coach that can take her to a new level.
 
Prince was a fantastic player but that doesn't necessarily translate to a great coach. Quite the opposite in fact, more often than not.

The weirdest take I hear is the take that joining a super dominant team like Brisbane is an example of a player "challenging themselves" rather than "staying in their comfort zone".

In one situation she's is the centre of gravity for everything the team does. Her level of performance has more bearing on results than anyone, literally she's twice as important as the next most important player. If her forwards are in trouble, she has to bail them out with the right kick. When we get an advantage it's on her to press it. She'll have to make tactical decisions about how expansively to play on the fly, as she has been this year.

In the other, she'll just sort of sleepwalk behind a preposterous amount of go forward, waiting for her kick or for Tamika to call for the ball...

Which sounds like a bigger "challenge" out of those two?
 
Asked “Watch Her Footy” on Intergram and apparently the Marquee contract is gone from the NRLW. So it’s just down to the Salary Cap, which makes the sides roosters and Broncos have more bewildering.

But also make sense why Knights and Dragons go heavy on development.

So we need to have the $$ for Jesse but also show that this is her future here to lead the young talent. She made some poor choices against the Roosters with kicks, but some of that was on the back foot. So club need to provide the go forward for her and strike.

We’ll need to blood Finau this season I think, even off the bench and hopefully Grace. I don’t know why we keep persisting with Tinao. She has solid honorary but not up to NRLW standard defence.
 
BTP said:
Asked “Watch Her Footy” on Intergram and apparently the Marquee contract is gone from the NRLW. So it’s just down to the Salary Cap, which makes the sides roosters and Broncos have more bewildering.
Click to expand...
I reckon it explains it better tbh, this means that the real difference in income comes from the off-field stuff. The job attached to the playing contract, the networking opportunities, fringe benefits etc. There basically aren't rules about this stuff in the W.
 
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BTP said:
Asked “Watch Her Footy” on Intergram and apparently the Marquee contract is gone from the NRLW. So it’s just down to the Salary Cap, which makes the sides roosters and Broncos have more bewildering.

But also make sense why Knights and Dragons go heavy on development.

So we need to have the $$ for Jesse but also show that this is her future here to lead the young talent. She made some poor choices against the Roosters with kicks, but some of that was on the back foot. So club need to provide the go forward for her and strike.

We’ll need to blood Finau this season I think, even off the bench and hopefully Grace. I don’t know why we keep persisting with Tinao. She has solid honorary but not up to NRLW standard defence.
Click to expand...
It just shows how the roosters have so many girls that have TV and endorsement deals and being flown to Vegas as ambassadors last year, whilst the other half of the side gets picked for origin over players who played only a month or so before for Australia.

There is ways to Rort it to attract those players whilst our girls get their salary and ,most are working for the club or in disability support roles to boost their income

TV and big dollars or footy and support work.

Plenty will chase and it will make the competition go backwards as all sides will just be feeders to the top 2
 
She just confirmed years cap for NRLW is $1,254,000. With minimum wage at $41,800.

So say, out of 18 players of 24 squad are on the minimum wage that leaves $501,600 for the remaining 6 players.

You’re taking the **** to think Rooters and Broncos are using that properly. The media deals for half the roosters and Broncos is ****ing mental. Excuse the French but this really is so frustrating to see.
 
BTP said:
She just confirmed years cap for NRLW is $1,254,000. With minimum wage at $41,800.

So say, out of 18 players of 24 squad are on the minimum wage that leaves $501,600 for the remaining 6 players.

You’re taking the **** to think Rooters and Broncos are using that properly. The media deals for half the roosters and Broncos is ****ing mental. Excuse the French but this really is so frustrating to see.
Click to expand...
And worse still, in broad daylight!
Where I came from as a young bloke, this amounted to “cheating”, but in the new world, this is OK.
Their response is,”why don’t the other clubs do it as well?”
The great divide is still alive in all walks of life, called the Matthew Effect: the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
End of discussion.
 
Defence wins games said:
And worse still, in broad daylight!
Where I came from as a young bloke, this amounted to “cheating”, but in the new world, this is OK.
Their response is,”why don’t the other clubs do it as well?”
The great divide is still alive in all walks of life, called the Matthew Effect: the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
End of discussion.
Click to expand...
I thought that said the Matthew Elliot effect for a moment.

IMG_2339.jpeg
 
Newygirl said:
Given the NRL doesn’t police the men’s cap I doubt they’re going to be worried about the Women’s game too much.

Let’s face it, the 3 major salary cap cheating cases were all exposed by whistleblowers not the NRL. Don’t think they have any interest in investigating it properly.

That being the case, just make up some BS title for her at the Knights / Wests or whatever. Use the sponsors to throw in some perks car etc

The main thing is that at the Knights, she’s the star attraction. She’ll never be at the Broncos. Also, nobody that watches the NRLW wants to see her at Broncos, despite what Jo Barrett thinks.

Is she kidding with this article
www.foxsports.com.au

What we should really worry about if star makes bombshell club switch — NRLW Talking Pts

What we should really worry about if star makes bombshell club switch — NRLW Talking Pts
www.foxsports.com.au www.foxsports.com.au

Here’s an idea, how about the Broncos develop the next Jesse Southwell since they’re such a big club with vast resources that apparently everyone wants to play for. Why do they need to pinch talent off poor small little clubs like the Knights.

Also, newsflash the Knights team have just as high a success rate as the Broncos
Click to expand...
Jo Barrett can go and get ******.

Would be terrible for the game if Jesse went to the Broncos.
 
That opinion piece Mark Fitzgibbon did in the Herald a few weeks ago, that looked like an application to join the Wests board, he talked about how much money Wests has spent on the NRLW and the impact it's had on the overall profit.
It made it sound like we are paying well above the amount the NRL provide.
I think it's a myth that Broncos and Roosters are way better funded than us, and I also think most clubs fall a long way short of our spend.
As I said earlier, we spent a lot of money on signing top names and putting up out of town players in Wests owned units in the years we won premierships, and we have since pivoted to spending a lot on coaching and training staff and facilities to develop our own future stars.

Jefferies was hired to put a lot of time and effort into the entire cohort of women and girls playing the game in the region. I watched the trials and saw dozens of very good prospects, most of whom I've never seen before, and the HVN squad turns up new talents nearly every week and is going from strength to strength.

In short, I think we have the money for Jesse and I think Jesse would see that the club is going in a good direction and has a strong future. I don't think she'll leave - she is just getting an idea of what she is worth, because she needs to make some money, as we all do.

Fitzgibbon said;
"Following a $2 million investment, the Knights now have a highly successful NRLW team and a $25 million centre of excellence"
He went on to say the club has a $40mill turnover and a 2.5mill profit - despite investing in these things for the future.
 
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