By Billie Eder
Seven years ago, only five per cent of players at All Saints Toongabbie Tigers rugby league club were female.
Today, female participation comprises a whopping 43 per cent of the club’s registrations and is indicative of a wider trend across NSW, in which more women and girls are taking up the sport every year.
The Toongabbie Tigers have seen an explosion of female participants the past few years.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
General manager of junior league at the Parramatta Eels, Adam Fairley, said the Toongabbie Tigers had led the charge in female football in the Parramatta area, which has 946 registered female players in 2023 – an increase of 303 in one season.
“It is just sort of evolving [female game], the trend setters have been All Saints Toongabbie Tigers, they’re the club that really took the bull by the horns and progressed female football, and they have continued to build,” Fairley said.
In NSW, the women’s game has increased in popularity since the launch of the NRLW competition in 2018, and in the past three years registration numbers across the state have consistently topped 20,000.
More than 26,300 females are registered to play for the 2023 season in NSW, a 14 per cent increase on last year.
Fairley said the formation of the Eels’ NRLW team in 2021 had been a driving force behind the growth of the junior girls’ game, specifically in greater western Sydney.
“The female game is embryonic – and it’s heading in leaps and bounds in a very fast way,” Fairley said.
“While it’s always been there, now it’s in the media, it’s televised, there’s high promotion, female players are well-known stars in their own right, and quite obviously females want to be like them.”
“That [NRLW] provides the initial awareness, and there’s now a pathway for female athletes to play NRLW, and it’s there for all to see.”
The Eels NRLW team made the grand final in 2022.Credit: Getty
Toongabbie secretary Tim Moggridge said the focus on female participation also had positive effects on their male registrations.
“We had a number of girls coming through the ranks [back in 2014], and we identified that there was an opportunity there. So, we implemented some strategies around it, and it’s just paid off tenfold,” Moggridge said.
“Bringing girls and open women’s into our game has actually brought along the boys’ numbers at times – the sisters, the brothers, the whole family.”
Toongabbie Tigers players (L-R) Kalisi Mahe, Leilani Wichman, and Kyelah Moran.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
Jess Wichman, whose five-year-old daughter Leilani is playing her first year with the Tigers’ under-6s, said league had taken over in their household since Leilani started playing.
“We went to the trial and train and ever since that day she asks every day, when is Thursday footy training? When is it my game?” Wichman said.
“She’s a massive Parramatta Eels fan, so she thinks it’s the best thing that she plays in the Parramatta league. We gave her the option of what would you like to do, and because all of her uncles have played, and we watch footy on the weekend, she just said she wanted to play footy.”
Watch every NRLW game Live and Free on Channel 9 and 9Now.
Sports news, results and expert commentary. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.