It was the NRL’s 16th Women in League round with a theme of “Play your part”, which is exactly what the Sharks did in celebrating the week and the contribution made by women in the NRL, and throughout the game of rugby league.
Culminating with a big win by the NRL team over Souths, where the players gathered for an appreciation event post-match with the significant women in their lives, the activities hit every touchpoint giving female staff and women in the local community opportunity to engage with the club in a meaningful way.
It began Monday with Unconscious Bias Training course for the Senior Leadership Group, facilitated by Diversity Australia, before later in the day a Mental Health Personal Development Session for female staff led by Sharks Head of Government and Community Jessica Macartney.
Later that night the Mental Health Personal Development workshop for was delivered online for female JRL volunteers.
On Tuesday, female Sharks staff from across the business, including Macartney, Morgan Te Oka, Rachal Allan, Lauren Chester, Julia Tzoukos and players from our Harvey Norman Womens’ team, took part in a Women in League Careers in Sport School Presentation at Endeavour Sports and Our Lady of Mercy College, while also on Tuesday night leading NRL referee Kasey Badger conducted a special Train Like an NRL Referee session at PointsBet Stadium for more than a dozen interested young female referees from the local area.
(CLICK HERE to see Sharks media presentation of the ‘Train like an NRL referee’ night).
Unfortunately, a girls Under 12s to 18s Gala Day, set down to be played at the Ridge Sporting Complex, with Sharks Harvey Norman Women’s Players organised to attend, was cancelled on the Wednesday due to the weather and the state of the grounds.
In addition, the Sharks Women’s Presentation Night was held at Sharks at Kareela on Thursday for the Harvey Norman Premiership and Tarsha Gale teams to acknowledge and recognise their seasons, while rewarding their best players throughout the year, with coach Tony Herman, in recognition of the influence he has had on the success of the Women’s program named the Club’s Women in League Role Model.
(CLICK HERE to see a Sharks website editorial detailing the award winners)
Come game day on Saturday and the activities continued, two junior league demonstration games took place on-field in the lead up, featuring four girls tackle teams, refereed by female referees, the NRL Coin-Toss was carried out by Sharks Tarsha Gale Player of the Year Kirsty Sant, with the Shark Alarm to get the NRL game started sounded by Lesharn Ramien, Mila Tolman, daughters of Sharks stars Jesse Ramien and Aiden Tolman.
A group of the Club’s longest continuous female members were on field and up close to watch NRL warm-up, before a Guard of Honour included the players mothers, partners and daughters in welcoming the team onto the field.
The Aramex Special Delivery was won by a lucky female member and the joint MineSpec Parts Mermaids and All Ages Women mini-dance spectacular at half time was a huge hit with the capacity crowd in attendance.
Media content for the week included a Sport Australia feature article detailing the participation of Sharks staff members Julia and Rachal in the Women Leaders in Sport program, with two outstanding profile stories published on the website relating to HNWP captain Maddie Studdon, and our Stadium Operations Coordinator Lauren Chester.
(CLICK HERE to watch Maddie Studdon profile)
(CLICK HERE to watch Lauren Chester profile)
And an outstanding piece featuring Royce Hunt, his wife Shavaun and baby Wolf ran on Channel 10 news on Friday, providing an example of the sacrifices the wives, mothers and partners often make in enabling their men to chase the NRL dream.
It was a massive week for the Sharks in recognising the role women play at and around the Club, and the sport of rugby league, at every level.
