The Australian Rugby League Commission (ARLC) has announced plans to expand the National Rugby League Women’s Premiership (NRLW) following a huge increase in viewership.
Peter V’landys, ARLC Chairman, said that the league will continue to expand past the growth it has already seen this year. Two new teams joined the NRLW in 2025, the women’s team of the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and the New Zealand Warriors.
The latter team, the only NRL/NRLW member from New Zealand while the remainder are based in Australia, had previously joined the women’s league in 2018. However, the team was placed in recess between 2020 and 2024, and will region the competition this year.
Rugby league is a hugely popular sport in Australia which is one of its heartland territories alongside Papua New Guinea, Northern England and parts of Southern France. The NRL has long been one of Australia’s most viewed tournaments, both in terms of TV and in-person attendance, and this is now crossing over to the NRLW.
Viewership stood at eight million in total during last year’s NRLW. The ARWC adds that a further three million tuned in to watch the three Women’s State of origin fixtures – the Commission clearly sees this growing demand as providing a solid foundation for further growth.
“We’re very keen to expand the game,” V’landys said. “We have to consult with our two state authorities to make sure there are sufficient players coming through the pathways and we don’t rush it.
“It’s always been our plan to go to 18 teams, to have as many women’s teams as men’s teams and we think we can do it sooner rather than later.”
The ARLC added that it does not want to expand the league too quickly, however, but stated that it eventually wants to see every NRL’s 18 teams field both a men’s and women’s team, as noted by V’landys.
He continued: “There’s some analysis to be done and naturally we have to work with the two state authorities, we don’t want to destroy their competitions but there’s another sport I think called union or something. They’ve got a lot of players so maybe we can source some of them from there.”
Expansion of the NRLW would of course bring about more commercial opportunities for the league in the form of broadcasting and media rights revenue, sponsorships, marketing, ticketing and hospitality, and perhaps even data rights.
Some companies have been active in sponsoring both men’s and women’s rugby league in Australia in the past including Westpac, one of the country’s largest banks. An industry which will likely be excluded from any sponsorship activity is betting though – the NRL has been withdrawing betting sponsorships over the past few years amid public concerns about the extent of problem gambling in Australia.
