Women’s Origin coaches Tahnee Norris and Kylie Hilder have called on the NRL to move the NRLW season forward in future so that it starts ahead of the Women’s State of Origin series.
Thursday’s inaugural game-three decider in Townsville exemplified the growth of women’s elite rugby league, with the Maroons winning 22-6 in wet conditions to seal a 2-1 series victory.
While the historic series boasted sell-out crowds and large TV audiences, there is always room for improvement.
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Sky Blues coach Kylie Hilder and Maroons counterpart Tahnee Norris. Bradley Kanaris via Getty Images
With the start of the NRLW season still weeks away, there is a case to be made that the standard of Women’s Origin could be strengthened if the players were afforded more game time in preparation.
Speaking post-match, Sky Blues coach Hilder insisted that match fitness and game experience built up during the NRLW season would improve the quality of Origin.
“NRLW needs to be before Origin,” she said on Thursday night.
“[The players would be] playing the best footy at a high standard week in, week out leading in.”
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Sky Blues co-captain Isabelle Kelly concurred with Hilder.
“I think that would be the best case for both teams instead of having to play in state competitions,” she said.
Isabelle Kelly and Kylie Hilder address media after the Origin decider. Nine
“We had a great prep though, we were fit, we were strong. Our staff did everything that they could to make sure that we were ready to go, but for me, it would be ideal to have NRLW leading into the State of Origin.”
The year’s first-ever best-of-three series kicked off on the eve of Magic Round at Suncorp Stadium — more than two months before the Newcastle Knights will host the Sydney Roosters to open the NRLW season on July 25.
In this series, Queensland may have had an advantage over NSW with many players participating in the QRL Women’s Premiership which started in March and concluded with the grand final on May 25.
NSWRL could have elected to hold its equivalent state-level competition at the same time but instead chose to align the draw with the NRLW season.
With the Bulldogs joining the premiership in 2025 alongside the returning Warriors, Maroons coach Norris believes the competitions will have to run in tandem with NRLW pre-season occurring beforehand.
“An NRLW pre-season helps. We want to play off the back of an NRLW pre-season but we had to use the BMD Premiership this year and it worked for us on the field,” she said.
Ahead of game three, Hilder implored the NRL to extend Women’s Origin matches to 80 minutes.
Women’s Origin matches currently consist of two 35-minute halves, not taking into consideration extra time for a drawn result.
Norris agreed that the game’s most elite female players are ready for 40-minute halves.
“You look at how fit our girls were tonight, I think we’re at a point where we can really push for that,” she said.
“But we need to make sure that we are continually growing the sport and [work to] get it professional.
“If we’re expecting 80-minute games, then we need to make sure we look after these girls and provide an environment where they’re training full-time to be able to do that.”
