Postponed NRLW to kick off 2022 rugby league calendar

The elite women's premiership was due to be played through October and November following the NRL grand final.

With four of the six teams based in NSW - and with St George Illawarra, Parramatta and the Roosters having been subject to the ongoing Greater Sydney lockdown since the end of June - teams have been unable to adequately prepare for a season.

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It's prompted the NRL to shift the competition to next year to ensure it can be contested without interruption and with a full preparation.

"The rescheduling provides us with an opportunity to create a full 12-month calendar for women's rugby league in 2022 and importantly means our athletes will not have to relocate,'' NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo said.

"Next year there will be two NRLW competitions, a World Cup, an Origin series and state competitions - that's never happened before.

"This presents an opportunity to build the profile of the women's game next year and we are looking forward to making the most of that opportunity."

Abdo said circumstances have changed dramatically since the commission pencilled in an October start to the competition, with the infection rate in NSW more than 10 times greater per day than it was when the men's competition was relocated to Queensland.

"We explored all avenues, but it is simply not possible," he said.

"When the men's competition was relocated to Queensland, there were 77 cases in NSW on that day.

"There are now consistently more than 1000 cases a day and restrictions around border closures are much tighter than they were in the middle of the year.

"We also acknowledge that nearly all our NRLW athletes are not full-time athletes. They have careers off the field that limit the ability to be able to relocate for a long period of time and that's something we also considered carefully."

The NRL will also be working with players dealing with quarantine measures, in particular players who've relocated from New Zealand to take part in the competition who face uncertainty over when and how they can return home.

Dates and the draw for the expanded 2021 NRLW competition will be released later in the year.

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