Canberra Raiders on hunt for female NRLW coach

Raiders director Katrina Fanning said they were already in talks with a couple of candidates to be their inaugural head coach when they enter the NRLW in 2023.

Fanning said the Raiders' patience had been rewarded when they were announced as one of four NRLW expansion teams on Wednesday. But now the hard work began.

The North Queensland Cowboys, Wests Tigers and Cronulla Sharks were the other three teams as the NRLW grew to a 10-team competition next year.

Initially it was only going to expand from six to eight teams in 2023 and then add two more teams the following season, but the NRL decided to do it in one hit.

Fanning said while they would look to sign some top-quality marquee players, the focus would be on developing as much local talent as possible to play in the NRLW side.

They were also looking for a female coach, with discussions already under way with a couple of candidates.

Titans NRLW coach Karyn Murphy's currently the only female head coach in the women's league.

While the Raiders' women's strategy was called the Valkyrie Plan, they'll play as the Raiders in the NRLW.

They'll play as many double headers with the NRL side at Canberra Stadium as they can, but will upgrade West Belconnen's home ground at Holt as another option - with training at Raiders HQ.

"We certainly want some good marquee players - obviously you'd want them in spine roles if you can - but we're just as focused on looking as locally as we can on who we can develop and provide those opportunities," Fanning said.

"Also really keen on getting the coach locked in - we've got a couple of candidates we're talking to. Hopefully that will be a female coach as well."

Fanning said the decision to focus on growing women's rugby league in the region first before applying for an NRLW licence had paid off.

The Katrina Fanning Shield, named after the woman who was part of the first Australian Jillaroos team, has expanded to nine teams this year.

She'll spend the next few days speaking to some of the trailblazers in Canberra women's rugby league to thank them for everything they've done.

They included Maree Bush, Cath Welch and Jillaroo Steph Payne, as well as coaches Graham Willard and John Taylor.

"For the Raiders they were pretty deliberate to not go in the first round because there was lots of things they wanted to do to strengthen the local comp and the [Under 19s] Tarsha Gale Cup and those sort of things so it's just good to see that patience rewarded," Fanning said.

"The support from the ACT government, [and] businesses when they heard we were putting in a bid saying, 'Let us know once you're successful we want to be part of the sponsorship group'.

"Even talking to some of the players about what they potentially means, both girls that are here, but girls that have had to leave the region - not just Canberra, but the South Coast and the Riverina - to get their opportunities who would've just loved to have been that much closer to home."

Raiders chief executive Don Furner said it was an exciting moment to add an NRLW team in the 40^th anniversary of the men's addition to the NSWRL back in 1982.

He'll start recruiting coaches, staff and players as they prepared to be part of next year's competition.

"It's very exciting. We celebrated our 40^th year this year for the men's team and it's amazing to be the pioneers of the very first women's team," Furner said.

"It's exciting starting anything new. It'll be an exciting opportunity for girls in this region and country area to be in the inaugural team."

ACT Sports Minister Yvette Berry said the government would support the Raiders NRLW team financially, just as they did the men.

"We have some amazing female players in Canberra and an NRLW team will provide young rugby league players an opportunity to aspire to compete from grassroots through to elite level competition," she said.

NRL ROUND 15

Sunday: Canberra Raiders v Newcastle Knights at Canberra Stadium, 2pm.

Raiders squad: 1. Xavier Savage, 2. Nick Cotric, 3. Matt Timoko, 4. Sebastian Kris, 5. Jordan Rapana, 6. Jack Wighton, 7. Jamal Fogarty, 8. Josh Papalii, 9. Zac Woolford, 10. Joe Tapine, 11. Hudson Young, 12. Elliott Whitehead (c), 13. Adam Elliott. Reserves: 14. Tom Starling, 15. Ryan Sutton, 16. Corey Harawira-Naera, 17. Corey Horsburgh, 18. Brad Schneider, 19. James Schiller, 20. Trey Mooney, 21. Semi Valemei, 22. Adrian Trevilyan.

Knights squad: 1. Kalyn Ponga, 2. Edrick Lee, 3. Dane Gagai, 4. Enari Tuala, 5. Dominic Young, 6. Anthony Milford, 7. Jake Clifford, 8. David Klemmer, 9. Chris Randall, 10. Jacob Saifiti, 11. Tyson Frizell, 12. Mitchell Barnett, 13. Kurt Mann. Interchange: 14. Simi Sasagi, 15. Leo Thompson, 16. Mathew Croker, 17. Pasami Saulo. Reserves: 18. Phoenix Crossland, 19. Tex Hoy, 20. Lachlan Fitzgibbon, 21. Adam Clune, 22. Hymel Hunt.

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