Female tackle rugby league could be coming to Group 10 juniors in 2024 after expressions of interest were called for.
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Group 10 Junior Rugby League unveiled their new female competition structure on Wednesday, November 29.
League tag will now include a under 10s division to be run as a "development competition" in addition to the existing under 12s, 14s and 16s.
The association has also asked clubs and players to give their feedback regarding a potential tackle competition to be held alongside the existing winter season.
New Group 10 juniors president Peter Morris said the idea was still in a developmental stage but wanted to gauge interest from players.
"It is only an expression of interest," he said.
"We wanted to see if the girls wanted to play during the winter season with all the other winter sports going on.
"There's nothing concrete yet, we've certainly had some interest around it.
"We are just testing the waters you might say."
Morris cited a boom in participation as well as increased brand awareness and star power of NRLW as possible drivers of a dedicated tackle league for winter.
He said he didn't want the competition to interfere with the existing Western Women's Rugby League (WWRL), which held its grand finals across five age groups on Saturday.
WWRL officials are set to meet with NSWRL regarding the competition's future.
"That's the growth in footy," he said.
"More girls are playing because there is NRLW. I could see why a little girl would aspire to be like a Tamika Upton.
"She's a gun player and I'm sure these days young girls watch the footy just like the young boys do. We have to move with the times.
"They (WWRL) have just run a terrific competition and we certainly don't want to take anything away from them because that's a great competition but if there was room to fit a little competition with teams like CYMS and Panthers and Lithgow Storm that would certainly be great."
The Lithgow rugby league stalwart said while league tag remained a popular form of the game, tackle football remained the end goal.
"When league tag was set up I think the progression was to move into the tackle but the league tag is still very popular, especially with the young girls so we are trying to see if we ran them in conjunction how that would work," he said.
"It's at such an early stage it's hard to say whether we would even get teams to run in a competition."
