Welcome to the wahine #KiwiNRL section, where I'm going to do my bestest to offer the same #KiwiNRL coverage with women's rugby league. This will mainly revolve around the new Women's NRL competition that will spark up in a few weeks and we've got plenty of signing news from the Australian clubs, as well as New Zealand Rugby League dropping their marquee list of 20 players.

However, this weekend is an important weekend for women's rugby league as the first Women's State of Origin fixture will take place tomorrow night across the ditch. In a funky twist, there will be three kiwis playing in this game as WSOO hasn't quite fully sussed out their eligibility rules and it's instead based around where you are living/playing your club footy. 

I kinda like it, although how insecure those Aussies are about Origin and I reckon this will be changed pretty soon. That just means that we should relish this rare opportunity to see former Kiwi Fern Rona Peters and current Kiwi Fern Maitua Feterika play for Queensland, against Nita Maynard who has been selected on the bench for New South Wales.

Both Feterika and Maynard played for Aotearoa at the World Cup last year. Feterika is from South Auckland and reps Manurewa Marlins/Otahuhu Leopards, recently moving to Brisbane to play for Brothers Ipswich and Maynard is from Gisborne, now playing for Cronulla Sharks; Maynard also dabbled in rugby union and dabbled in various Australian rugby/sevens teams.

Feterika and Maynard are a nice example of the two pathways that I reckon will emerge for our #KiwiNRL wahine as Feterika recently moved to Australia for rugby league and Maynard apparently crossed the ditch back in 2011. We all know about the migration of kiwis to Australia for work etc, now with greater professional opportunities in Australia for women's rugby league, there will be more players moving to play club footy there. By club footy, I mean in and around Sydney and Brisbane, a level below the NRLW and the women's competitions in either state appear to be a fabulous foundation for the NRLW to grow from.

That leads us into the spree of NRLW signings that have come through in the past week. 

Brisbane Broncos snapped up Player of the Tournament at the World Cup Teuila Fotu-Moala and as both Feterika and Peters play their club footy around Brisbane/Gold Coast, there's a decent chance they will offered contracts as well. Each team has 15 marquee roster spots to fill, from a pool of 40 Australian players and 20 from Aotearoa and Brisbane have so far named nine marquee players, leaving plenty of space for Feterika and Peters.

(Feterika was named by NZRL as a Kiwi marquee, Peters was named as Australian marquee).

Honey Hireme was named by St George Illawara Dragons as one of seven marquee players in the Dragons' first announcement, along with Raecene McGregor.

Sydney Roosters came out the gate, swinging by named a full group of 15 marquee players, including Maynard.

With Fotu-Moala, Hireme, McGregor and Maynard already signed, there are 16 NZRL marquee players in the market. After signing 15 marquee players, each club can then sign seven more players (22-wahine squad) as free agents from outside the pool of marquee players.

Keep in mind that Aotearoa Warriors are yet to announce any signings and I suspect we'll see the bulk of their marquee group come from the NZRL marquee pool; Warriors need 15 players, there are 16 left on the NZRL marquee list.

I'll be back next week and try to keep this rolling on a weekly basis. Hopefully by next week there will be Warriors signings, perhaps a few more signings from the Australian clubs and of course our #KiwiNRL wahine dominating State of Origin.

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Peace and love 27.