2022 NRLWahine Season Preview
NRLWahine footy is back for another season this year with a trio of Kiwi-NRLWahine helping Roosters defend their championship, plus Gayle Broughton is primed to takeover. Brougton is named to start at fullback for Eels in her first NRLW game after shifting from Sevens rugby and they open the season against Leianne Tufuga, Raecene McGregor, Mya Hill-Moana and their Roosters.
Broughton has been playing for Mounties in the NSW Women's Premiership where she scored six tries in eight games. Mounties finished second before losing to Sharks (featuring Tufuga) in the semi-final and as Eels lack the Aotearoa vibes, Broughton's provides ample reason to track Eels closely.
Expect Broughton to be a kick-return menace. Her Sevens background aligns nicely with the fullback role, especially if Broughton is consistently pushing up in support of her comrades. Broughton is likely to be a running threat and if she can also shine distributing the footy, whether short subtle touches or cut-out passes, then Broughton will be even more influential. That would also put Broughton higher up the Kiwi Ferns depth chart ahead of a World Cup.
Roosters are Kiwi-NRL leaders for blokes and wahine. There is plenty of Roosters coverage through the Kiwi-NRL archives, including yarns about their championship earlier this year. Dragons only have Page McGregor and she is a small, rugged centre who is fun to watch. Dragons face Titans and Madison Bartlett will line up against her former team after leaving Dragons for the kiwi flavour at Titans.
Titans recruited Bartlett, Apii Nicholls, Rona Peters and Roxy Murdoch for this season. They join Georgia Hale, Kimiora Breayley-Nati and Hailee-Jay Maunsell (not named to play). Tiana Raftstrand-Smith is a notable youngster from Auckland who has represented Queensland and seems likely to opt for Australia moving forward, yet there's a chance she joins Kiwi Ferns.
There is a thread of experience through the Titans whaea. Nicholls returns to NRLWahine, re-uniting with Bartlett and Hale. Breayley-Nati continues a low key fantastic NRLWahine career and Peters, well the Peters whanau epitomise mana. Titans will be eager for improvements and those improvements could come thanks to adding some of the best players from Aotearoa.
Nicholls starts at fullback, joining Broughton as NRLWahine fullbacks. It was Autumn-Rain Stephens-Daly who started at fullback for Kiwi Ferns this year though and she is starting on the wing for Knights who play Broncos. Kiana Takairangi has played for Kiwi Ferns previously and she starts on the other wing, while Knights shuffled most of their NRLWahine crew from last season out.
Knights had nine NRLWahine playing last season and unfortunately Knights went 0-5. As all the Knights NRLWahine are Kiwi Ferns (cross-code wizards too) and The Niche Cache is all about Aotearoa, no blame is directed at these players. Knights don't seem like a winning organisation and the whole process of recruiting almost half a team of NRLWahine felt a bit wonky.
The Auckland women's final could feature a bunch of players who were with Knights a few months ago. Maitua Feterika, Krystal Rota, Ngatokotoru Arakua and Kararaina Wira-Koohu are part of the Manurewa team and they face Pt Chevalier who could have Katelyn Vaha'akolo and Charlotte Scanlan. Charntay Poko was back playing in Canterbury and Annetta Nu'uausala has joined Broncos.
Broncos have also recruited Nita Maynard and Crystal Tamarua who join Broncos veterans Amy Turner and Amber Hall. Hall is one of the best edge forwards in NRLW and was a major factor in multiple Broncos championships. Broncos sit behind Roosters as the best NRLWahine teams and if you're eager for a team to support, start with these two. Titans are next in line as they have NRLWahine quality and quantity, plus Broughton deserves attention with Eels.
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