A week after Tiana Penitani called on 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.”
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.
She also turned the tables on rival clubs to use what the Roosters and Broncos have done to have consistent success as an example.
“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.”
‘Reason players want to be a Rooster’ | 03:02
“Instead of asking and having a little victim mentality to be honest and saying, ‘Poor me, poor me’, maybe have a look at why these players are other clubs don’t want to go to different teams and why they want to stay at these clubs,” Kernick added.
“Why do you think the Roosters and Broncos have retained a lot of their players? The Broncs have retained a few but they’ve still got a lot of new faces this year.”
Davis also went on to explain why she believes a marquee system may not work, drawing on her experience from when a variation of it was introduced in 2022.
She said on that occasion the top 30 players were picked by the NRL and were given the opportunity to indicate their preference on where they wanted to play, including if they wanted to stay closer to home.
However, the idea was the NRL would largely choose where the players went to spread the talent and make it fair.
The challenge with a system like that though, for example, was that Davis ended up at the Dragons alongside Quincy Dodd. The marquee players were all considered starting players and yet both Dodd and Davis play hooker, so it didn’t end up being what was best for their respective careers.
“There are definitely a few issues with that,” Davis said.
“I think anything that takes away the choice of the player or doesn’t allow you to make decisions based on what you want in your footy career can create a really negative environment and not bring out the best in how you play.”
“The other big part of it is a lot of people don’t make enough money for it to be enough to drag you to another club… if it’s an extra $5,000 between going to a new club or a club that’s maybe developing or a club that is solidified and you know the people there and you think you will play your best footy at, $5,000 is probably not worth it for most people.
“That’s probably a big factor that people don’t understand — the difference in salaries because our minimum is at a really good level now. Our cap, from player to player, there is not much difference. There could be maybe $5,000 to $10,000.”