This week in Round 22 of the NRL, we celebrate the Women in League Round, now in its 15th year.
The round puts a focus on not just the role of women within rugby league but also the gender inequality gap in wider society.
Female participation in Rugby League represents the fastest-growing segment of the game with 15% growth over the past few years.
Here at the Canberra Raiders, we are focused on entering an NRLW team in the near future. While our goal is to have our very own NRLW team, it’s also very much about what we can do as a Club to assist young women to develop and grow individually and to hopefully achieve their dream of playing NRLW.
Unfortunately, there will be some that don’t make it, but if we can make a difference in their lives and provide them with support through health and wellbeing programs, specialised coaching, and mentoring programs then our community will benefit as these young women will be our leaders of the future.
We have had some wonderful talent playing with our Tarsha Gale Cup side this year and we want to ensure they have a pathway to play NRLW.
One such talent is Teliya Hetaraka who is 18 years of age, in her last year at Erindale College in the ACT.
Teliya started playing rugby league at age four for local Club, Tuggeranong Buffaloes Junior RLFC until the age 12 – there were no higher girls age groups than this at the time, so she started playing Open Women’s at age 13. At age 14, she moved to Adelaide with her family and played in their Open Women’s competition for 4 years. In Adelaide, she was her Club team captain in 2020 and also the South Australia (SA) State Team co-captain in 2019. She was also part of the Adelaide Uni’s AON Rugby 7’s team in 2019.
Teliya moved back to Canberra on her own at the start of this year and lives by herself (at age 18!!) She comes from an athletic background with her mum competing in netball and swimming and enjoys heading off-road.
This year, even through injury she was the recipient of the “Player of the Year Award” at the 2021 Tarsha Gale team presentation night, she is highly ambitious and committed to finding the strongest pathway available for her future.
To achieve our goal of entering a team in the NRLW competition we need to raise in excess of $300,000, so that is why money raised from the Raiders Foundation Major Raffle in 2021 will go towards securing a future NRLW team.
We have three fantastic prizes to be won including;
- First prize a Toyota Corolla Hatch valued at $32,040, thanks to Canberra Toyota
- Second prize is two gold tickets on the Ghan Expedition from Darwin to Adelaide valued at $7,730, thanks to Jamison Travel
- Third prize is two tickets on the 2022 Raiders Sponsor’s trip
Tickets are great value at $25 each with only 7,000 tickets available. The raffle closes on Wednesday, 1 September 2021 with the draw taking place at 11am on Thursday, 2 September 2021.
While the money raised through this raffle will assist us in entering an NRLW team, it will also make a difference to the young women who will be a part of the Raiders NRLW development program.
Purchase tickets today and play your part in this journey with the Canberra Raiders to grow the opportunities and pathways for females across our game.
