Cowboys, Raiders, Sharks and Tigers to join NRLW in mass expansion

The NRL Women’s Premiership is growing again next year, with the North Queensland Cowboys, Canberra Raiders (likely “Valkyries for the women), Cronulla Sharks, and Wests Tigers to join the blossoming rugby league competition in a mega-sized expansion ahead of the 2023 season.

The four newcomer clubs will join the six already in the NRLW premiership.

Rugby league’s powerbrokers originally plotted for two more teams—which two, we’ll likely never know now—to join the growing top-flight women’s league next year (two seasons down the road), but were impressed by the applications by four instead. According to Seven’s Katie Brown, the lucky four are the Cowboys, Raiders, Sharks, and Tigers.

It won’t happen right away, however: the fifth season, 2022, will keep the same clubs in a six-team format. That is, the Broncos, Dragons, Knights, Titans, Eels, and most recent champions the Roosters.

Then, once the 2023 NRLW season rolls around, the comp will undergo mass expansion.

NRLW expansion announcement expected tomorrow. Hearing Cowboys, Raiders, Sharks and Tigers will be included. Game will jump to 10 teams next season – was originally 8. #NRLW

— Katie Brown 🤸🏼‍♀️ (@katiebrownaus) June 14, 2022

The women’s premier rugby league competition was first founded in 2018 and was contested between four teams; Brisbane, St George Illawarra, Sydney, and New Zealand. The Warriors soon departed, however, under the cloud of COVID-19. The Broncos won the first three titles in a row between 2018 and 2020, dominating the competition.

In the 2021 season (played earlier this year due to last year’s lockdowns), the Sydney Roosters snapped that streak and became just the second-ever club to lift the women’s trophy.

The Titans, Eels, and Knights joined the league last season and finished third, fifth, and sixth.

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