{"id":799546,"date":"2026-07-14T10:56:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T10:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/799546\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T10:56:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T10:56:44","slug":"nrlw-players-eye-off-longer-season-full-time-salaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/799546\/","title":{"rendered":"NRLW players eye off longer season, full-time salaries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Women’s rugby league players are calling for more fixtures and better pay packets as the NRL considers how to spend the billions of dollars broadcasters are dumping into the game.<\/p>\n

It comes as the agreement governing NRLW salary caps and minimum wages, in force since 2023, edges closer to expiry at the end of the 2027 season.<\/p>\n

Negotiations on a new deal are yet to begin, but on the 20th anniversary of the NRL’s Women in League round, Cronulla captain Tiana Penitani-Gray knows what she wants included.<\/p>\n

“Being able to expand the salary cap, being able to make the women players full-time is definitely a step in the right direction,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Take away financial insecurity, take away having to juggle multiple jobs or study alongside the expectation of putting out a professional product.”<\/p>\n

\"Preston,<\/p>\n

Preston, Penitani-Gray and artist Cherine Fahd at the 20th anniversary of the Women in League round. (Dan Himbrechts\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

The agreement gradually increased female players’ minimum wage from $30,000 to $50,600 per season, taking a team’s total salary to more than $1.5 million by 2027.<\/p>\n

By contrast, the top 30 male players in every NRL club will collectively earn $12.1 million that year.<\/p>\n

Apart from raising wages, lengthening the NRLW’s season would boost the quality of games and reduce the risk of injuries, Canterbury-Bankstown captain Tayla Preston said.<\/p>\n

“We have such a long off-season, girls are going to come and pick up injuries quite quickly,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We’d love to have a bigger pre-season … because some of us might take a couple of rounds to get going.<\/p>\n

“You kind of don’t have that time on your side.”<\/p>\n

From a three-round debut NRLW season in 2018 featuring just four teams, the tournament now boasts 12 clubs playing nine regular fixtures and a three-week finals period.<\/p>\n

\"Premiership<\/p>\n

Premiership Broncos: From humble beginnings, the NRLW continues to grow. (Mark Evans\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

On his second-last day at the helm, outgoing NRL CEO Andrew Abdo’s heart was on more expansion, and his mind on the $5.3 billion broadcast rights deal he had inked the week before.<\/p>\n

“It’s not just about investment, which only enables the salary cap to grow, but it’s also going to fuel the growth of the number of teams that we have … taking it to new markets and winning new fans,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I think the (Australian Rugby League Commission) will be very strategic about where those licences are awarded, and there’s no shortage of interest.”<\/p>\n

But female players have warned adding teams willy-nilly while ignoring the grassroots risks creating a lopsided, hollow competition.<\/p>\n

Penitani-Gray and Preston said while the goal was to have a women’s team for every NRL club, it should not be a target to be achieved at all costs.<\/p>\n

“Expansion, but the right kind of expansion, not always adding new teams,” Penitani-Gray said.<\/p>\n

“We probably need to invest a little bit more in pathways and development to be able to bring up that level of athletes.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Women’s rugby league players are calling for more fixtures and better pay packets as the NRL considers how…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,375358,761,762,158,25993,7889,85,54336,33233,375357,375356],"class_list":["post-799546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-minimum-wages","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-nrlw","tag-salary-cap","tag-sports","tag-tayla-preston","tag-tiana-penitani-gray","tag-women-in-league-round","tag-women39s-rugby-league-players"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799546","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=799546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}