A week after Tiana Penitani called upon the NRLW competition to implement a tiered roster system, two Sydney Roosters and NSW Blues stars have pushed back against the idea.
The pair rejected suggestions that the Roosters and Brisbane Broncos are in a league of their own, labelling the growing “two-horse” discussion race as “bull****”.
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Over the past few years, the Broncos and Roosters have established themselves as the NRLW’s benchmark clubs, with their star-studded rosters consistently putting them ahead of the rest of the competition.
This prompted Penitani to call for a tiered-roster system to help spread the elite talent more evenly across the competition and create a more balanced playing field
“When I put my fan hat on, I absolutely think something needs to be changed as we move towards hopefully making the women’s players full-time,” Penitani said on Fox League’s NRLW on Fox.
The comments sparked a response from Roosters dummy-half Keeley Davis who pushed back on the suggestion.
“It’s honestly bull*** the two-horse race thing,” Roosters dummy-half Keeley Davis said on Say Less with Millie, Keeley & Kernick.
“Honestly look at the competition now and there are big blowouts and it’s not just from us and the Broncos.
“We haven’t had a blowout game at all
“I think we’ve had marquee system which is a bit different to the tiered system.
“I think that changes completely how our competition is ran and how we develop our pathways.”
Is it really a two horse race in NRLW? | 07:58
The Roosters star also argued that clubs should be rewarded for investing in their pathways system rather than being penalised for producing elite talent.
“I think team’s doing really well are rewarded for how they are investing in their pathways and our young girls coming through,” Davis added
“We do it a bit different to other clubs where we are pretty involved with our pathways.
“I think that investment has been really good for us.
“We’ve had a lot of girls that have come through (Under 19s) Tarsha Gale that are our dev (players) at the moment or in the Top 30.
“I look at someone like Aaliyah Nasio who is a Roosters junior who has come through the pathways.
“If we are not to be rewarded or if we are penalised for her being an international player in years to come but we’ve developed her then it’s really unfair.”
‘Reason players want to be a Rooster’ | 03:02
Roosters and NSW Blues star Olivia Kernick echoed her teammate’s concern, arguing that a tiered system could discourage clubs from investing in their pathways.
If it was to be set up like that, then we won’t be rewarded to genuinely try and develop our younger players,” Kernick said.
“That means our investment into the junior pathways wouldn’t be there because they wouldn’t care if they (are going to) lose their junior players anyway.”