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NRL-Women: Rapid Expansion and Historic Pay Deals Mark Era of Professionalisation By a BBC Sport Correspondent The National Rugby League Women’s Premiership (NRLW) is navigating a period of exponential growth, marked by record commercial revenue, substantial player pay increases, and significant competition expansion. Following a season that culminated in the Brisbane Broncos securing their latest premiership with a dramatic 22-18 Grand Final victory over the undefeated Sydney Roosters, the focus has shifted firmly towards the sustainability and structure of the competition as it moves towards a full-time professional model. Since its inception in 2018 with just four teams, the NRLW has become one of the fastest-growing women’s sports leagues globally, transforming from a semi-professional, short-format competition into a major fixture on the Australian sporting calendar. The Australian Rugby League Commission (ARLC) has consciously accelerated the league's development, recently expanding the competition to 12 teams for the current season, welcoming the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and the returning New Zealand Warriors to the roster. This rapid scaling reflects both the public demand and the influx of capital attracted by the league’s surging popularity. Commercial Confidence and Viewership Records The financial health of the NRLW is arguably stronger than ever, underpinned by robust viewership figures. The 2025 Grand Final, a thrilling encounter, was watched by a peak audience of 1. 03 million people, representing a 36% year-on-year increase in viewership. Across the last full season, the competition cracked a total viewership of eight million people, demonstrating the league’s capacity to capture a mainstream audience. This audience engagement has translated directly into commercial confidence.
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Leading sponsors, including Harvey Norman, KFC, and Westpac, have solidified their involvement, with Westpac notably matching its major investment across both the men's and women's competitions. Industry analysts suggest this mirrored investment is a pivotal moment, signalling that major corporate partners view the NRLW as a commercial product of equal stature, rather than an auxiliary league. "The commercial buoyancy we are observing is directly tied to the quality of the product on the field," stated Dr. Sarah Jenkins, a sports economist who tracks Australian codes. "The game is fast, skillful, and highly entertaining. This organic growth is now being leveraged into lucrative partnerships, proving the financial viability of women’s contact sport at the elite level. " The Collective Bargaining Revolution Perhaps the most crucial development underpinning the league's professional future is the historic Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) reached between the NRL and the Rugby League Players’ Association (RLPA) in early 2023. This five-year agreement (running until 2027) establishes clear financial and contractual growth metrics. Under the CBA, the club salary cap, which stood at $900,000 for a squad of 24 players in 2023, is set to rise significantly, reaching over $1. 5 million by the final year of the agreement.
Correspondingly, the minimum player wage is programmed to exceed $50,000. For the first time, this framework allows for true multi-year deals, providing players with job security previously unavailable. Elite athletes such as Kezie Apps and Tamika Upton have now signed contracts extending four or five years, a crucial step towards career longevity. Moreover, the CBA includes non-financial but vital protections, such as policies covering pregnancy and parental leave, alongside provision for private health insurance. These benefits acknowledge the unique career timeline of female athletes and move the NRLW closer to a genuine full-time employment structure. Balancing Expansion with Player Welfare While the expansion drive has generated excitement, it also highlights the central tension in the league’s development: balancing rapid growth against the existing talent pool and season length. The ARLC has been vocal about its ambition to ultimately match the men's competition with 18 NRLW teams, ensuring every club has a female equivalent. However, players and coaches have expressed caution. Currently, the NRLW season is a relatively short competition, lasting only nine regular rounds plus finals. Many key players, who still rely on secondary employment, argue that adding more teams without first significantly extending the season risks diluting the on-field quality and places an immense pressure on athletes who train as full-time professionals but are compensated as part-timers.
Addressing this, NRL Chief Executive Andrew Abdo noted the Commission’s commitment to sustainable growth. “We are aligned on the vision of ultimately having 18 teams,” Mr Abdo told reporters. “But that growth must be strategic. We are working closely with the RLPA to ensure that as the number of teams grows, the season length increases, and the talent pathways—where we’ve already seen a 14% surge in junior female participation—can sustain the quality required. ” The pathway to full-time status remains the paramount objective for the players. Commenting on the transition, veteran five-eighth Tarryn Aiken highlighted the current sacrifice: “We all still train like full-time professional athletes. We need to go full time to see the game go to that next level, so we don’t have to worry about juggling work and all the other pressures. ” The trajectory of the NRLW is unequivocally upward, driven by strong commercial investment, strategic collective bargaining, and compelling on-field performance. The next few seasons will be pivotal in determining whether the league can successfully marry its expansion ambitions with the necessary structural changes—namely, the extension of the season and the final transition to fully professional, year-round athlete contracts—to solidify its status as a premier global women’s sporting competition. The 2025 NRLW Match Highlights | Roosters v Broncos | Grand Final footage.
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