Whilst the 2024 NRLW season may only be a week old, the women’s rugby league calendar rarely finds itself in a lull.
Dragons head coach Jamie Soward and his staff have been busy nurturing the club’s women’s pathways throughout the year with results beginning to be seen on the field.
A quartet of teenagers took to the field for the Red V in their season opener at WIN Stadium along with several other graduates of the club’s pathways pipeline.
The club’s NRLW Academy has this year provided a collection of elite juniors from St George, the Illawarra, and beyond an opportunity to further their rugby league careers and enhance their skills.
“We know that we’ve got a talented junior base at both ends that we can draw from and now it’s about nurturing that talent and making sure we get as many as we can into that NRLW system,” Soward said.
“The NRLW Academy’s been going for eight weeks... It’s been a mix of Lisa Fiaola Cup and Tarsha Gale Cup girls from both the Dragons and Steelers. We’ve picked our top 15 girls, and we’ve educated them on what the systems are at the next level. Most of the girls are contracted to us at the moment, so it’s been nice to be able to get them in and have us share with the next gen what those standards are going to be at the next level.”
The Academy squad last night competed in an opposed session against some of the best talent from Group 7 – a partnership that Soward is appreciative of.
“They’re doing an opposed against Group 7 which is Ashton Sims’ area. It’s been great to have that connection with Group 7,” he said.
“It’s such a huge community of football and great people down there, so having them bring their academy up is great… I think it’s shown that our pathways are strong. We want to keep our best talent and bring that through.”
Soward believes that it is important for the club to be at the forefront of developing the women’s game and is proud to play his part.
“It’s been a work in progress, but we’ve been proud to say that we’ve got an academy,” he said.
“It’s something that I’ve prided myself on since coming to the club being a part of that and running it myself, so it’s great that the club has invested in myself to be full-time and be able to do that… (The women’s game) is still in its infancy with a lot of things. For us, we know that we’ve got a talented junior base at both ends that we can draw from and now it’s about nurturing that talent and making sure we get as many as we can into that NRLW system.”
