Elise Noble grew up playing cricket, but the Wests Tigers fan has always had a passion for rugby league.
“I love the game, I just didn’t really know where I could play, or didn’t really have a pathway into it,” she said.
“I think if it was as big as it is now, then I might’ve taken that career over cricket, to be honest.”
After another exciting season of NRLW, Noble has decided to try some skills sessions this summer, with a focus on safe tackling.
Elise Noble is trying out rugby league for the first time. (ABC Sport: Bindi Bryce)
“[I’m a] bit nervous with the contact,” she said.
“I want to learn proper technique and all the foundations and go from there, see where the sport takes me and have fun along the way.”
Getting comfortable with contact
Most female rugby league players of the current generation have grown up watching the gritty sport, but often started playing full contact much later than their male relatives.
“I have an older brother and I always went to his games,” 20-year-old Tallara Bamblett said.
“The contact, not scared me, but was definitely a challenge for me being a smaller girl.”
As a smaller half-back, Tallara is looking to build her confidence tackling bigger players. (ABC Sport: Bindi Bryce)
The half-back made the change from OzTag and touch football about seven years ago.
“I have bigger players running at me,” she said.
“Just being more confident has allowed me to be better in my defence.”
Rory Muller, who played for Fiji Bulikula in the 2024 Pacific Championships, also took up league in her teen years.
“My journey started with rugby union, doing sevens, and playing with the boys 15-a-side,” she said.
“And then as you get older, you’re not allowed to play with boys anymore. And then I bounced into league.”
Rory Muller is an Eels development player. (ABC Sport: Bindi Bryce)
Coach Rob Vai is excited to see ambitious women and girls from a mix of levels coming through the rugby league heartland in Western Sydney.
“Younger girls are wanting to become NRLW players,” he said.
“I’ve [also] got 37-year olds, 40-year-olds, messaging me saying — I want to play footy.
“Isn’t this great?”
Clubs are growing their programs for girls to develop their skills and tackling from a younger age. (ABC Sport: Bindi Bryce)
Teaching technique
Vai coaches at Mounties in the NRLW feeder competition, the NSWRL Women’s Premiership, and works closely with the Canberra Raiders to develop emerging talent.
He has noticed huge differences between male and female players.
“A lot of the boys grow up with a ball in hand. Not every single girl has that opportunity,” he said.
“Their technical skills in terms of their tackling is still very far behind compared to their male counterparts.”
With players catapulting into rugby league with varying levels of experience, poor tackling technique causing injury or concussion is one of the biggest challenges in the women’s game.
Rob Vai works with players in the NSWRL Women’s Premiership and with NRLW clubs. (ABC Sport: Bindi Bryce)
Roosters premiership-winning coach John Strange has previously warned the NRLW is in the midst of a “hip-drop pandemic” where tacklers leave the ground, putting their full weight on the runners legs.
“A lot of the girls don’t know what a hip-drop tackle is, they don’t know necessarily how to generate and maximise their force, where they’re not causing injury,” Vai said.
“You can either have one end of the spectrum where they’re really hard-nosed and tough, and the other end where they’re still trying to find their confidence.
NRL vs NRLW tackles
Physio and researcher Shreya McLeod was involved in a study of the early seasons of the NRLW and found a head impact event (HIE), involving a head-to-head clash or head contact with a bony body part such as a shoulder, occurs at a rate of once every 30 minutes.
For every 1,000 tackles, roughly 13 result in a HIE, with tacklers and ball carriers equally sustaining hits to the head.
“That’s slightly different from the men’s competition, where we know that tacklers tend to be the ones who are more at risk of head injuries,” Dr McLeod said.
“The women who started playing were often semi-professional players as well. So they were balancing multiple jobs.
“So their exposure to high-quality sports medicine and coaching staff was limited compared to the men.”
Dr Shreya McLeod says there is growing awareness about injury prevention strategies for women. (ABC News: Lucas Hill)
Sport scientists are continuing to investigate the physiological differences between male and female athletes and how it affects injury rates in elite sport, with Dr McLeod specialising in concussion.
“Having smaller neck girths, narrower neck girths … when (women) contact the ground, their head may have a whiplash style effect,” she said.
“All coaches need a fundamental understanding of how men and women differ from a hormonal perspective, from a well-being perspective, and certainly from a breast health or pelvic health perspective as well.”
There’s a push to offer female players more training on tackle fundamentals. (ABC Sport: Bindi Bryce)
‘Explain the why’
Vai is teaching local players the best approach when going in for a big hit.
“He’s taught me to put my body in front and get in the line of defence,” aspiring NRLW player Keiley Dowds said.
“It’s been really good to see the girls, as a real good role model to look up to and see the way they play, so it kind of rubs off on me.”
Keiley, 13, is part of the next generation coming through. (ABC Sport: Bindi Bryce)
Vai, a former Ron Massey Cup player, is using a different approach to the hard-headed coaches he grew up with.
“With the males, they tend to just run at a brick wall if you tell ’em,” Vai said.
“Whereas females will assess, analyse and think before they do.”
Rob Vai is coaching a players across a range of ages, with varying levels of tackling experience. (ABC Sport: Bindi Bryce)
Vai focuses on giving clear instructions, while encouraging his players to reflect and give each other feedback.
“Discussion time needs to be incorporated.”
“If you explain the why, you give them proper purpose and you create the right environment with trust and good connections, then they’re going to do whatever skills you set.”
