Women's rugby league in Australia

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The first Women's Rugby League match in Australia was played in Sydney, on Saturday, 17 September 1921. Players, who had been training in the preceding months, had been divided into two teams, named Metropolitan (who played in blue jerseys) and Sydney (who played in maroon jerseys). Metropolitan won the match 21–11.^{[3][4][5][6][7]} The crowd of 34,000^[5] was the largest ever for women's sport in Australia^{[citation needed]} for many years.^[when?] A second 'return' match was played the following Saturday, 24 September 1921. Three matches were held in 1922 in April, August and October. The organisation was disbanded prior to the 1923 season.^[8][9]

Date	Team 1	Score	Team 2	Venue	References
17 Sep 1921	Metropolitan	21 — 11	Sydney	Agricultural Ground	Sun[3][4] DT[5][6]
24 Sep 1921	Metropolitan	3 — 9	Sydney	Agricultural Ground	Sun[10][11]
17 Apr 1922	Metropolitan	10 — 25	Sydney	National Park, Newcastle	NS[12]
7 Aug 1922	Metropolitan	13 — 0	Sydney	Newcastle Sports Ground	NMH[13]
2 Oct 1922	Metropolitan	11 — 11	Sydney	Sydney Sports Ground	DT[14] Sun[15]

In September 1950 a women's rugby league game was played in Toowoomba, Queensland in support of fund raising efforts for a candidate as queen of the Carnival of Flowers festival.^[16][17] A Toowoomba team defeated a team from Warwick by 16 points to nil, scoring four tries kicking two conversions.^[18]

In June 1951 two women's teams played a rugby league match in West Wyalong, New South Wales as part of a weekend sports carnival to raise funds for the local hospital.^[19][20][21] In September 1951 a game was played in Longreach, Queensland which raised £21 for charity as the Red Gnomes defeated the Blue Fairies by four tries to two for a twelve points to six scoreline.^[22]

In August 1954 two women's teams played a 24 minute match as part of a programme of charity cup rugby league games in Rockhampton.^[23] The Blues defeated the Greens by five to nil, with the day raising £227 for the local ambulance.^[24][25]

On 22 July 1956 an interstate women's rugby league match was held on the Athletic Ground in St Marys, New South Wales between the Belles of St. Mary's and the Queensland Bonfires.^[26][27][28] The match was in part refereed by Clive Churchill.^[28] The Queensland side won by 22 points to 3.^[29][30] The St. Mary's team had played and won three games prior to this interstate match, including a match against the Riverstone Rubies.^[28]

In the mid-1970s Women's Rugby League teams were organised in Perth, including South Perth and Cottesloe.^{[citation needed]}

In 1976, a Women's Rugby League team from Manurewa in Auckland, New Zealand toured Australia. The Manurewa club had earlier received junior boys teams from Goulburn and Lalor Park, Sydney and these two clubs offered to host a visit from Manurewa's ladies team. A women's team was formed in Goulburn to play against the tourists. They played two matches, one in Goulburn and another at Endeavour Field in Cronulla. The Lalor Park team had played and won four local matches prior to their match against Manurewa.^[31][32]

In the early part of the 1990s Women's Rugby League competitions were run in Sydney, the Illawarra and the Australian Capital Territory. Some of the clubs from those regions participated in an annual knock-out competition.^[33] The East Canberra club won this knock-out tournament in three consecutive years: 1991, 1992 and 1993. Other participating clubs included the Albion Park Outlaws, Calwell Colts, North Sydney, Northern Districts Illawarra, Warilla Warriors, Woden Valley and the Wollongong Wildcats.^[34][35] In the final of the 1994 tournament, Picton defected Bulli.^[36]

Competition rules for the 1995 Sydney Women's Rugby League season had modifications to team size. On-field teams were between seven (minimum) and ten (maximum) players, with the number for a match being determined by the availability of players on the day. Including players starting on the bench, teams were limited to fourteen players. The number of interchanges been on-field and bench was unlimited. Scrums were three players per team in a front row formation. Game time was two thirty minute halves.^[37]

In 1995, Australia hosted a tour by the New Zealand national team. This was the inaugural series of Test Matches for both countries in Women's Rugby League. Tour matches were played in Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane.^[38][39]

In 1996, Australia hosted a seven match, three Test tour by the Great Britain women's national rugby league team. Australia claimed their inaugural international win in the First Test in Canberra.^[40] Great Britain, however, won the Second Test in Brisbane and the Third Test at Redfern Oval in Sydney to claim a series victory.^[41]

The Australian national team toured New Zealand in 1997 (both matches lost) and Fiji in 1998 (both matches won).^[42][43] Hosting duties for a Test Match series in 1999 were shared with New Zealand with games played at Leichhardt Oval and Penrith Stadium in Sydney and the third and final match played in Auckland. Australia beat New Zealand for the first time in the Second Test at Penrith, but the Kiwi Ferns won the series, 2–1.^{[44][45][46][47][48]}

The women's game in Queensland expanded from Brisbane and Ipswich in 1998 when a competition commenced in Mackay. Souths beat the previously undefeated Norths in the Grand Final.^[49]

During the later years of the 1990s National Championships were conducted with representative, rather than club, teams participating. In 1997, Illawarra beat Brisbane in the final. The 1998 tournament was held at Pizzey Park, Burleigh Heads and included teams from Sydney, Canberra, Illawarra, Brisbane, Ipswich and for the first time Western Australia.^[50] The 1999 tournament was reconfigured to have four state/territory teams. New South Wales beat Queensland in the final, ahead of Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.^[51]

The year 1999 saw the introduction of an interstate series between Queensland and New South Wales. The teams play for the Nellie Doherty Cup. Although this ongoing series was occasionally referred to in the media as the Women's State of Origin the respective teams were selected on a residential basis until 2017. Queensland won this augural match, 16–14.^[52]

Australia participated in the inaugural Women's Rugby League World Cup in November 2000, playing two matches each against Great Britain & Ireland and New Zealand. The Australian squad comprised players from the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia.^[53][54]

National Championships were held at Belmont, Western Australia in 2000, Rooty Hill, New South Wales in 2001, Ipswich, Queensland in 2002, West Belconnen, Australian Capital Territory in 2003, Runaway Bay, Queensland in 2005, and Queanbeyan, New South Wales in 2006. Queensland won the tournament in 2000 and 2001. In 2003, Queensland Whites defeated Queensland Maroons in the final, ahead of ACT and NSW teams. The tournament was not held in 2004. In 2005, South East Queensland beat a Queensland Barbarians team in the final, ahead of NSW City and NSW Country teams. in 2006, Brisbane beat Sydney Metro in the final, ahead of NSW Country Monaro and NSW Country Southern Division teams.^[55][56][57]

The 2008 Women's Rugby League World Cup was the first held in Australia from 26 October, culminating in the final between Australian Jillaroos and the Kiwi Ferns on 22 November. It was held at Stockland Park alongside the Police World Cup. Eight teams took part including defending champions New Zealand.

The 2011 All Stars match included the first Women's All Stars exhibition match which was won by the NRL Women's All Stars 22–6.

In 2016 the first local derby by NRL clubs was played Cronulla Sharks and St. George Illawarra Dragons had a Women's rugby league nines match at Southern Cross Group Stadium which aired on Fox Sports it was a curtain-raiser for the main game Sharks won 16–12.^{[58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67]}

The New South Wales Rugby League announced the creation of a nine-a-side under-18s women's league for 2017 Named the Tarsha Gale Nines after the former Australian Jillaroos and NSW captain of the 1990s.^{[68][69][70][71][72][73][74]}

For the first time in the sport's history the 2017 Women's Rugby League World Cup was held concurrently with the men's tournament.^[75][76]

On 14 May 2017 the first Women's City vs Country Origin game was played.^[77][78]

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The Women's Rugby League Australian National Championships have continually evolved since their establishment in the early 1990s. The tournament was initially for club sides, with the ability of the players to self-fund their travel to the tournament being a factor in the number of teams participating. 1994 saw a change to regional representative teams. In 2018 and 2019 the tournament featured the best Australian-based players in the women's game. With the advent and success of the NRL Women's Premiership NRLW, the tournament was revised to have a development focus on emerging talent.

Year	Winner	Score	Runner up	Date of Final	Host Location	Other Competing Teams	Ref
1991	East Canberra
1992	East Canberra	18 – 6	North Sydney	11 Oct 1992	Rugby League Park	Albion Park Outlaws, Wollongong Wildcats, Warilla Warriors, Woden Valley and Calwell Colts	[34]
1993	East Canberra	24 – 0	Northern Districts Illawarra	25 Jul 1993	O'Connor Oval		[35]
1994	Picton	32 – 0	Bulli Eagles	12 Jun 1994	Kippax Oval, Canberra		[36]
1995	Illawarra	26 – 0	Canberra	11 Jun 1995		Hunter, Riverina, Sydney	[79]
1996	Sydney						[80]
1997	Illawarra	12 – 10	Brisbane				CM
1998	Brisbane		Sydney	6 Jun 1998	Pizzey Park, Burleigh Heads	Sydney, Canberra, Illawarra, Brisbane, Ipswich, Western Australia (debut)
1999	NSW	12 – 8	Queensland	13 Jun 1999	West Belconnen Leagues Club	ACT, WA
2000	Queensland		NSW	11 Jun 2000	Belmont, WA	WA, ?	AR
2001	Queensland	12 – 6	NSW		Rooy Hill RSL		AR
2002	Queensland A	32 – 10	NSW		Ipswich
2003	Queensland Whites	20 – 12	Queensland Maroons		West Belconnen; Canberra	ACT, NSW
2004	Not held						AR
2005	South East Queensland		Queensland Barbarians		Runaway Bay; Gold Coast	NSW City; NSW Country	AR
2006	Brisbane	18 – 10	Sydney Metro	11 Jun 2006	Seiffert Oval, Queanbeyan	NSW Country Monaro, NSW Country Southern Division	CT
2007	Brisbane	12 – 6	Sydney Metro		Kougari Oval' Wynnum	Cairns (debut); Central Queensland (debut); NSW Country National Barbarians	AR
2008	South East Queensland	14 – 4	Sydney City		Sydney	NSW Country, North Queensland, Barbarians	AR
2009	Brisbane		NSW City		Runaway Bay; Gold Coast	NSW Residents; North Queensland North; North Queensland South	AR
2010	to 2017. Unknown. In some years only State Championships were held.
2018	NSW Country	16 – 12	NSW City	3 Jun 2018	Owen Park	ADF; Combined Affiliated States; Qld City; Qld Country	[81]
2019	NSW City	34 – 4	NSW Country	2 Jun 2019	Pizzey Park, Gold Coast	ADF; Combined Affiliated States; SEQ; Qld Country	[82]
2020	Not held due to lockdown measures in response to Covid-19
2021	Western Australia	10 – 6	First Nation's Gems	23 May 2021	Moreton Daily Stadium, Redcliffe	ADF; NT; SA; Victoria	[83]
2022	NSW Country	24 – 0	Western Australia	12 Jun 2022	Pizzey Park, Gold Coast	ADF; First Nation's Gems; NT; Victoria	[84]

For the 2022 National Championships, a four-team Under 19 tournament was run in addition to the six-team open age tournament. Queensland Rubys (10) defeated NSW City (4) in the final. The other Under 19 teams were NSW Country and the Queensland Sapphires.^[85]

The format of the National Championships was restructured ahead of the 2023 tournament. The NRL announced that to further focus on player development and opportunities for players to be seen by NRLW clubs, there would be no official winner.^[86] Teams were divided into three pools for the first three days of the four-day tournament. On the fourth and final day, teams would be paired off for matches based on earlier results.^[87]
A New Zealand team, named Ahi Ka Aotearoa, entered the 2023 tournament.
Fiji and Papua New Guinea teams entered the 2024 tournament. To accommodate these teams and preserve the twelve team structure, Queensland dropped from two teams to one team and NSW Country (Under 19's) and NSW Emerging Country (Open Age) merged.^[88]

Year	Dates, Location, Grounds	Pool A		Pool B		Pool C		Last Day Match-Ups	Ref
		Team	W	Team	W	Team	W
2023	18–21 May Gold Coast UAA Park	NSW City	3	Queensland Rubys	3	Northern Territory	3	NSW City drew Queensland Rubys
		NSW Emerging Country	2	First Nations Gems	2	ADF	2	First Nations Gems drew NSW Emerging Country
		Western Australia	1	NSW Country	1	Victoria	1	Northern Territory beat Western Australia
		Queensland Sapphires	0	Ahi Ka Aotearoa	0	South Australia	0	ADF beat NSW Country Queensland Sapphires beat Victoria Ahi Ka Aotearoa beat South Australia
2024	21–24 March Gold Coast UAA Park	NSW City	3	Queensland Sapphires	3	NSW Country	3	Queensland Sapphires beat NSW City
		Ahi Ka Aotearoa	2	First Nations Gems	2	Papua New Guinea	2	NSW Country beat Ahi Ka Aotearoa
		Northern Territory	1	Fiji	1	ADF	1	First Nations Gems beat Papua New Guinea
		Western Australia	0	Victoria	0	South Australia	0	Northern Territory beat Fiji ADF beat Western Australia Victoria beat South Australia

As at the end of June 2025, the National Championships had not been staged, nor had dates been announced. Pathway matches involving the following teams had been staged in the first half of 2025:

• Queensland City (Brisbane) played Queensland Country at Totally Workwear Stadium in the Under 17 age group on Wednesday, 16 April 2025.^[89][90]
• New South Wales City (Sydney) played NSW Country at Kogarah (WIN) Jubilee Oval) in Under 19 and Under 17 age groups on Sunday, 18 May 2025.^[91][92]
• A Combined Affiliated States tournament for four women's teams was held in the Melbourne suburb of Seabrook, Victoria on the long weekend on June 6, 7 and 8. Western Australia won their three matches to win the tournament. Victoria and the Northern Territory both defeated South Australia and drew their match together.^[93]
• Australian Defence Force played a Papua New Guinea Blossoming Orchids team in Port Moresby on 15 June 2025.^[94][95]

• NRL Women's Premiership
• Australian Women's Rugby League
• Brisbane and District Women's Rugby League
• Sydney Metropolitan Women's Rugby League