NRLW on the precipice of massive change as 2024 season kicks off

Newcastle Knights vice-captain Tamika Upton feels the enormous pressure to perform as her side prepares to run out in front of a home crowd for the NRLW season opener.

Newcastle will host the Sydney Roosters at Hunter Stadium on Thursday night as they head into the 2024 season with back-to-back premierships behind them.

"We're just thinking about it game by game — we know what we need to do," Upton says.

The 2023 Dally M medallist says premierships are in the past and the team is focused on what's ahead.

"We've got good game plans, we got really good girls and we've been training hard," she says.

"I think we've got to put last year out of our heads and it's about moving on to this year."

The 2024 marks the seventh NRLW season.

Ten teams will vie for the title: six from New South Wales, three from Queensland and one from the ACT.

In 2023, the line-up went from six teams to 10 — and this time next year, it will have grown to 12, with the return of the New Zealand Warriors and the debut of the Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs.

Women's rugby league isn't new to the Bulldogs; the club has seen success in its junior women's grades.

It won the inaugural Under 17s Lisa Fiaola Cup this year.

Bulldogs coach Blake Cavallaro says he feels like 2025 will be "the right time" to join the top-tier comp.

"With our pathways in the Lisa Fiaola Cup, and our [under 19s] Tarsha Gale Cup being a top-two team over the last two or three years — 2025 … it's building very nicely and the club is so excited," he says.

Bulldogs female football operations coordinator Lauren Milner and head coach Blake Cavallaro.(ABC Newcastle: Bridget Murphy)

Bulldogs female football operations coordinator Lauren Milner says the push towards the NRLW hasn't happened overnight.

"We've been making sure we build from the bottom up, have those younger grades do really well, so that they can continue on," she says.

"Our fans are amazing, the support we get in terms of women's footy here at the Bulldogs is incredible … they're supporting our journey, and it's going to be really emotional to see [an NRLW team] running out at Belmore."

The 12-team top-tier competition and sold out State of Origin games are a different world for Newcastle Knights assistant coach Bec Young.

She recalls playing for New South Wales in an interstate challenge game in 2011 at Brisbane's Lang Park, during which the first half of the match was crowdless because the gates had not been opened yet.

Former Jillaroo and Indigenous All Stars captain Bec Young is now the Knights' assistant coach.(ABC Newcastle: Romy Stephens)

"Our family had to stay outside and were unable to get into the game until half time, so it's changed a lot," she says.

"We used to play on back fields, back paddocks … and they were big, big games for us."

And Young says the competition is ready for more; a sentiment shared by Tamika Upton.

"Previously, the expansion has been pretty hard … but I think it's in a good stead now," she says.

Upton hopes it won't be long before every NRL club has a women's team.

"It's just exciting to see young girls actually have a pathway," she says.

"When they're looking on the TV, they can see women playing."

Although his main goal is a premiership, new Knights coach Ben Jeffries is also concentrating on setting the club up for more success in the coming years.

Newcastle Knights coach Ben Jeffries said clubs must develop local players to maintain a strong talent pool.(ABC Newcastle: Romy Stephens)

"We need young players coming through the pathways to complement the core group [of players in the team]," he says.

"Success [will lead to] players filtering out because other teams want them … we need to make sure we're building within."

The team's stars are busy mentoring the next generation of household names, with Upton taking development player Lilly-Ann White under her wing.

Development outside back player Lilly-Ann White is the apprentice to Dally M medallist Tamika Upton.(ABC Newcastle: Bridget Murphy)

White, 18, says she pinches herself when she arrives at training each week.

"I need to be professional … they are my teammates too, and I am part of the squad, but deep down I'm still fangirling," she says.

White's NRLW debut could be just around the corner and she's trying to learn as much as she can.

"[I'm] just trying to get as much knowledge off [Tamika] and all the girls, all the outside backs especially, just so I can become more versatile and develop my game."