Jack Wighton's daughters swept up in NRLW fever around new Canberra Raiders team

It's been a slow build-up since the Raiders were announced as one of four new expansion teams in the competition back in June last year.

Now it's so close you can almost taste the lime milk, with round one kicking off on July 22.

Canberra's NRLW coach Darrin Borthwick made his first official signing announcements last week, with Simaima Taufa, Zahara Temara, Monalisa Soliola, Ash Quinlan and Sophie Holyman named in their inaugural squad, and more signings are expected early this week.

There's been a lot of ground-work done at the club that led to this point.

In addition to staffing a women's football department led by operations manager Stephanie Backer, finding sponsors, recruiting a whole new squad, and even reviewing the Raiders' logo, Borthwick was kept busy on a talent search throughout Canberra and surrounding regions.

He travelled to Narooma, Griffith, Wagga Wagga and Young running NRLW talent ID clinics, and closer to home launched the first Katrina Fanning Academy which saw local players undergo a six-week program to develop their skills and get their foot in the door at the Raiders.

The coach got just a glimpse of the extraordinary pipeline of untapped talent at his doorstep and was blown away by what he saw from 13-year-olds to women in their late-20s.

As Raiders chief executive Don Furner and Borthwick have preached from day one, the club's arrival in the NRLW will be a game-changer for rugby league in the region, with a rapidly-growing women's game set to benefit as much as the players.

And you don't have to look far to see how excited everyone is about the newest NRLW team.

Even Jack Wighton's daughters are in his ear about following in their dad's footsteps.

"I'm getting some really tough questions off my eldest girl to be honest," Wighton said.

"She just finished her league tag season and made a grand final and lost and the second she came off, she was asking, 'Can I play rugby league?'

"I don't think I want my little baby girls playing rugby league, but I think it's one of those things, it's going to be unstoppable. She keeps asking me every night if she can play rugby league.

"So it's really great to see the game growing for the ladies and you never know what the future holds."

Borthwick heard and saw similar stories while on the road in the regions.

Girls who had previously played Oz-Tag or touch footy were now keen to get into rugby league knowing there was an NRLW team nearby.

If they hadn't tackled before, girls were enthusiastic to learn, and seeing that at a grassroots level made Borthwick upbeat about the Raiders' ability to keep a strong talent pool funnelling into the club for years to come.

"It's good to hear that about Jack's daughters. That's the opportunities that we provide now," Borthwick said.

"These young girls can aspire to be like their heroes.

"We will be talking about that a lot when we get the squad here, on the next generation they're inspiring."

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