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![\"Tayla](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/01nh0816.jpg\"\/)
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\n Tayla Preston and Tiana Penitani Gray with artist Cherine Fahd who created ‘The Captains’ exhibition to commemorate 20 years of Women in League
\n \u00a9Nathan Hopkins
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Mahalia Murphy brought her Parramatta NRLW Community Award from 2024, Yasmin Meakes was photographed with her three NRLW Premiership rings on one finger, plus a letter from her mum and dad, while Tiana Penitani Gray was captured in both her Tonga and Jillaroos jerseys.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These three leading NRLW players are among the 12 \u2013 one from each club \u2013 photographed in a variety of poses for an exhibition entitled \u2018The Captains\u2019, which will run at Sydney\u2019s prestigious Museum of Contemporary Art at Circular Quay until August 10.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The brainchild of Harvey Norman CEO Katie Page the black-and-white artwork was launched to both coincide and celebrate the 20th anniversary of the \u2018Women in League Round\u2019, which Page initiated in 2007.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The artist, and St George Illawarra supporter, Cherine Fahd had asked each individual player to bring objects connected to the game that they cherished when they arrived at her studio.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The portraits are striking and powerful and that\u2019s exactly what photographer Fahd wanted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are superheroes,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is a poise and a grace about them. And they trusted me and were open enough to make art with me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bulldogs skipper Tayla Preston said there was some unknowns of how the exhibition might turn out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\n Tayla Preston and Tiana Penitani Gray with artist Cherine Fahd who created ‘The Captains’ exhibition to commemorate 20 years of Women in League
\n \u00a9Nathan Hopkins
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\u201cBut once I saw the images I could see it was possible to merge the two worlds of athlete and art,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt made me realise we can have a bigger impact than we realise.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The exhibition is expected to be seen by upwards of 100,000 visitors as it is strategically placed in the main foyer of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney.<\/p>\n
Penitani Gray said all the players felt extremely privileged to be part of the exhibition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\n ![\"Women](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/01nh0722.jpg\"\/)
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\n Women in League Round celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2026.
\n \u00a9Nathan Hopkins
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\u201cI thought it would be really hard to depict that softness of us as women because we run and bash each other up each weekend, but this project does it,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shows us as warrior women but it also shows us as women.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The idea to commission the work came after Page remembered seeing black-and-white portraits of male rugby league players about 15 years ago in western Sydney.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were true warriors and it stayed with me \u2013 one of the most powerful things I\u2019d ever seen,\u201d Page said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted the world to know these women are warriors. They put their bodies on the line every week and they are teachers, uni graduates, and mothers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is Harvey Norman\u2019s way of saying \u2018thank you\u2019 to women for the past 20 years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was also a farewell gesture for NRL CEO Andrew Abdo \u2013 his last public engagement for the organisation he\u2019s spent 13 years with \u2013 before heading to Tennis Australia\u2019s top job.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t spend enough time asking where we\u2019ve come from and where we\u2019re going to,\u201d Abdo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The Female Athlete Project: Tiana Penitani Gray<\/p>\n
\u201cMy 13 years in the game and I\u2019ve seen where the women\u2019s game is going.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, women are driving the game. It\u2019s one thing to talk about the future but another thing to be actually doing it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWomen are making the game better.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
When the WIL Round started in 2007 was less than 15,000 registered female players, Abdo said, but that figure was now well over 50,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCan you imagine where we\u2019ll be in 50 years?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mahalia Murphy brought her Parramatta NRLW Community Award from 2024, Yasmin Meakes was photographed with her three NRLW…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-800921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800921","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=800921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}