NRLW 2023: Dragons ditch white shorts in game-changing playing kit swap

For the first time in NRLW history, the Dragons will wear a playing kit suited specifically for women, ditching white shorts to ease anxiety for players around menstruation.

The Dragons have switched to red shorts in 2023 to help ease anxiety for players around menstruation and wearing white. Picture: Getty Images.

White shorts have been banished.

And it’s about time.

For the first time in NRLW history, St George Illawarra have changed their playing kit to suit the bodies of their female athletes by introducing red shorts and a form-fitting jersey.

The 2023 kit, with the support of Classic, marks the first time the Dragons players have been able to wear a jersey that isn’t a smaller template of a men’s jersey.

And the red shorts, which now have a wider waistband and less fabric in the front, will reduce anxiety levels for athletes around menstruation and having to wear white.

Dragons NRLW recruit Bobbi Law shows off the Dragons new NRLW kit for 2023, overhauled to better suit the bodies of female athletes. Picture: NRL Photos.

“Having the red shorts is a lot better, it just reduces the anxiety around if we are on our period during a game, so we’re not thinking about that,” says Dragons centre Bobbi Law.

“We can be comfortable.

“To move away from the white shorts is going to make the girls more comfortable and allow the girls to actually focus on our performance and not what we look like.”

Law won the NRLW premiership with Newcastle last year, and has also played at the Roosters during her career.

Three clubs, including the Titans, have used white shorts in the past. But this season every NRLW club has moved away from them to ease anxiety on their elite athletes.

The Dragons have switched to red shorts in 2023 to help ease anxiety for players around menstruation and wearing white. Picture: Getty Images.

It’s a movement that has swept across women’s sport all over the world, including Wimbledon, which relaxed its all-white uniform last year to allow women to wear coloured undershorts.

“Last year at Newcastle we had white shorts and they were actually see through, you could see our underwear through it, so we had to wear shorts underneath or our budgies, but you could see them,” she says.

“And that’s not what our game’s about, we’re here to play footy, not focus on what we look like and what people will say about us.

“Last year before we’d play we were always stressing about it, you don’t want to feel like that going into a game, you want to be focused on your performance and to have that in the back of your mind is not ideal.”

Bobbi Law was part of the Knights' NRLW premiership last year. Credit: NRL Images.

As well as the colour of the shorts, having a well-fitting kit that considers the differences in a woman’s shape around the hips, shoulders and chest, will make athletes more comfortable.

Amazingly, this is the first year of NRLW that players at all clubs will have that luxury.

“It makes a huge difference to have a jersey that fits us, it’s not loose, it’s built to our body shape, it’s wider hips and stuff like that, and having shorts that actually fit the crotch area,” Law says.

“[When they don’t fit] you’re definitely fiddling around with it, you’re not focused on the game, you’re thinking about if your shorts are riding up or if they’re falling down.

“It takes that thought away so you can focus on the game properly.”

Originally published as NRLW 2023: Dragons ditch white shorts in game-changing playing kit swap