Sunshine Coast Falcons to enter into women’s BMD Premiership

The Sunshine Coast Falcons have been given the green light to compete in the QRL’s BMD Premiership competition. Discover the local stars and new recruits on the radar.

The Falcons celebrate after winning the final. Picture: Amanda Pearce/QRL

The Sunshine Coast Falcons have been given the green light to join the BMB Premiership competition after the QRL announced an expansion for the 2024 season.

The Falcons showed interest last season but the QRL and NRL decided against an expansion for the 2023 BMD season.

The Queensland Rugby League announced on Thursday that they have committed to a three-year expansion model approving the Falcons and the Western Clydesdales in the state’s elite women’s competition.

They join the Brisbane Tigers, Burleigh Bears, Central Queensland Capras, Mackay Cutters, Norths Devils, Souths Logan Magpies, Tweed Seagulls and Wynnum Manly Seagulls in a 10-team BMD Premiership.

“We were ready to go last year but once it wasn’t approved we handed it over to the local SCGRL and Jodi Price who continued running the women’s academy which was great,” Sunshine Coast Falcons CEO Chris Flannery said.

“It kept plenty of players interested and it’s really been a culmination of a few years to get to this point and be given the green light.”

The Falcons 47th Battalion team celebrate after winning the final. Picture: Amanda Pearce/QRL

The Falcons were crowned champions of the 2023 47th Battalion carnival in Emerald and Sunshine Coast Gympie Rugby League president Jodie Price said that victory was a major confidence boost.

“Our women’s academy program led to us winning the 47th Battalion carnival which was a really big feather in the cap for the girls,” she said.

“It gave them confidence to see that what we’re doing is working well and progressing towards where we wanted to be.

“We’ve got a lot of local girls that will be high contenders for the BMD team and then along with our recruits we’ll also work closely with South Burnett and the Wide Bay Region to see if we can engage some of those girls into our program.”

The victorious team. Picture: Jodi Price

Flannery said the side would be coached by Steve Belsham and hoped they could bring in a host of key players for their inaugural season.

“Steve has been involved in the whole process so we’re hopeful of securing him and building those assistant coaches and support staff around him,” he said.

“There’s plenty of local players that we’ll be looking at, we’ll certainly have to bring in some other quality players and there’s obviously the likes of Annette Brander and Hayley Maddock who are from the Sunshine Coast that we hope to get back.

“We’ve got a few recruitment targets on the radar and we’re certainly going to throw everything at this BMD side.

“We want to be able to compete with the best but we also know it’s a tough and high quality competition so we certainly want to hit the ground running.”

The Falcons U19s women's team in action. Picture: Kyliesfootyphotos

The Falcons will also feature in the new QRL under 17s women’s competition alongside the existing under 19s female division.

Price said any changes or plans to restructure the local Sunshine Coast senior women's competition will be decided in the coming weeks.

“Now that we know we’re in the BMD competition we’ll look at dates and structure of the season based around that,” she said.

“The BMD season is early on in the year, it finishes in June generally so we can look at that with numbers and interest and decide what the best process would be.

“The other outcome could be it even bolsters the local competition due to the fact that more players want to come and play at that representative level or even start from a younger age and climb through the pathways.”

Players looking to register their interest can do so via the SC Falcons website.

Originally published as Sunshine Coast Falcons to enter into women’s BMD Premiership