NRLW Draw 2025: Full fixture list, schedule for every club<\/a><\/p>\nRoosters unstoppable in perfect season<\/p>\n
The Roosters have gone 11 from 11 this year, scoring 366 points and conceding just 126.<\/p>\n
Not only have they beaten everyone put in front of them, but the closest any team has come – outside of Brisbane – was a 12-point defeat. Most weeks, the result is decided well before full-time.<\/p>\n
Broncos just as frightening<\/p>\n
Brisbane have been just as dominant, with 10 wins from 11 starts.<\/p>\n
Their only loss came against the Roosters, and in every other game they\u2019ve steamrolled opponents. The Broncos have scored 404 points, conceded only 116, and are winning by nearly 30 points per week on average.<\/p>\n
Seven of their 10 victims haven\u2019t even scored over six points against them, and the closest any non-Roosters side has come was a 14-point loss.<\/p>\n
The Cowboys, sitting in third spot, highlight the gulf in class. They\u2019ve been flogged 50-4 by the Broncos and 30-0 by the Roosters in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
Southwell rumours add fuel to the fire<\/p>\n
If that wasn\u2019t enough, reports suggest superstar Jesse Southwell could be on her way to the Broncos.<\/p>\n
The 20-year-old halfback is one of the brightest young players in the game, and rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns has warned that her departure from Newcastle could push the competition into farce.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Jesse goes to Brisbane, every week they will be winning by 40 or 50 points,\u201d Johns said.<\/p>\n
Nothing has been confirmed, but the prospect of Brisbane adding another elite playmaker to their stacked roster has left many questioning where the NRLW goes from here.<\/p>\n
Temporary growing pains?<\/p>\n
Not everyone believes the dominance of the top two is a crisis.<\/p>\n
Ruan Sims, one of the pioneers of women\u2019s rugby league, has urged fans not to tune out after big scorelines.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people see those scores, they tend to go straight into, ‘Oh, this is exactly the proof that we’ve spread the talent too thin and these are boring games and I’ll switch it off’,\u201d Sims told Nine\u2019s NRLW Weekly podcast.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that in this case, especially with the Broncos and the Roosters, they were just too good. It\u2019s actually about them being too dominant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Change is needed<\/p>\n
The debate rages over whether the talent pool has been spread too thin or whether Brisbane and Sydney have simply mastered recruitment and development.<\/p>\n
Some argue that further investment into the competition, allowing all athletes to go full time will close the gap.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s undeniable is that at present, the NRLW is a two-horse race – and unless something changes, that doesn\u2019t look likely to shift any time soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NRLW has a problem on its hands. While the competition has expanded and produced some outstanding highlights,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-139674","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}