‘All players should be making enough so they don’t need a second job’: NRLW stars call for pay equality with men

Kennedy Cherrington, Botille Vette-Welsh and Jada Taylor, three rising stars of the NRLW, are calling for better pay, conditions, and respect for the women’s league.

Seven years ago, there wasn’t a national rugby league competition for women. When the NRLW arrived a year later, in 2018, only four teams participated.

Next month, when the new season of the NRLW kicks off, there will be 10 female teams competing.

The growth comes off the back of this year’s historic women’s State of Origin, in which the NSW and Queensland teams will play an inaugural third match, just as their male counterparts do. The first two games took place in front of record crowds and the highest television audiences ever for NRL women’s matches.

“To see the steps we’ve taken since 2018 is historic – we’re literally writing history as we speak,” says Parramatta Eels captain Kennedy Cherrington, 25, who joins fellow NRLW players Botille Vette-Welsh and Jada Taylor for a shoot with Stellar.

“So imagine what we could do in another five years.”

’We’ve worked so hard to be here!’ Kennedy Cherrington, Botille Vette-Welsh and Jada Taylor of the NRLW. Picture: Holly Ward for Stellar

That’s not to say it has been easy. Just ask Wests Tigers captain Vette-Welsh, 27, who is originally from New Zealand and started playing rugby union in Australia in an effort to make friends here, before switching to league. As she recalls of the lead-up to the competition, “Someone got pregnant, and I got pulled into the team. That is literally how I started playing.”

Still, it wasn’t enough to pay the bills. “I worked in a factory because it was from 7am to 3pm and I could then train from 4pm to 8pm,” Vette-Welsh tells Stellar, adding that she still maintains another job in order to supplement her NRLW income.

Under the recently negotiated players’ collective bargaining agreement, the minimum female NRL player wage in 2024 is $34,000. That will jump to $50,600 in 2027. The men’s current minimum sits at $130,000.

Like Vette-Walsh, many of the women who play in the NRLW also work another job, as do some of the coaching staff and physiotherapists.

Picture: Holly Ward for Stellar

There’s an argument that they aren’t paid as much because the NRLW teams don’t play as many games as their male counterparts (the men’s competition is made up of 17 teams), but that isn’t by choice. Ask them, and they will tell you they’re desperate to be on the field more.

“All players should be making enough so they don’t need a second job because then you can invest all your time in making sure you’re a better athlete,” Vette-Walsh points out. “If we do everything like the NRL boys, then our product would be even better.”

And while the men’s teams dominate the headlines – often as much for their behaviour off the field as for how they play on it – these women don’t take their position as role models lightly.

“We know what’s at stake here,” explains Cherrington, 25. “We’ve worked so hard to be here. We’ve worked multiple jobs and we’re aware of what’s on the line. I can’t speak for those [male] players but we have all these resources available that there shouldn’t be an excuse. We see with the fans who rock up and how they idolise us – that responsibility on our shoulders is something we regard highly.”

‘We’ve worked multiple jobs and we’re aware of what’s on the line.’ In action, Kennedy Cherrington. Picture: News Corp Australia

Botille Vette-Welsh of the Eels runs with the ball during the round two NRLW match between the St George Illawarra Dragons and the Parramatta Eels in 2022. Picture: Getty Images

Jada Taylor, of the Sharks. Picture: Getty Images

There’s no doubt the Matildas’ success at the FIFA World Cup last year was game changing for women’s sport, but the spark had already been ignited, says 20-year-old Cronulla Sharks fullback Taylor – who went viral in 2022 when she caught the attention of actor and professional wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for her 109-metre run to score in the Under 19s Origin match. She says it was the Australian Women’s Rugby Sevens gold-medal winning performance at the Rio Olympics in 2016 that caused “a massive shift for all of us. There was a boom in girls playing some sort of footy.”

Picture: Christopher Ferguson for Stellar

All three sports stars say they see it as their responsibility to continue to fight for equality. “We have a common goal, which is not to win a premiership, but to build our game for our nieces and daughters coming through,” says Cherrington.

And they’re making gains on that front. As Taylor says, “When people come up to me and say they love the women’s game, I’ve noticed a lot of [them] are older males. They tell me they like it because it’s like how they used to play the game. We don’t need that for validation, but it’s about respect.”

Adds Vette-Walsh, “When I go out to schools and ask kids who their favourite player is, they ask ‘In the NRL or NRLW?’ – both little boys and girls. They have their favourite men’s player and women’s player. That’s a cool conversation to have.”

The 2024 NRLW season starts on July 25. See the full shoot with the NRLW stars in Stellar, and for more from Stellar, click here or listen to Something To Talk About below: