NSWRL has spoken to the coaches of last year's premiership-winning teams in Junior Reps girls competitions to see how they are shaping up ahead of Round One to kick off the 2025 season.
Westpac Tarsha Gale Cup - Under 19s
The success of the Illawarra Steelers in 2024 is coming back to bite them in 2025 with two of their biggest stars – halfback Kasey Rey and centre Indie Bostock – unavailable for the early rounds.
Both girls are still eligible for the Under 19s but their success last year has led them to contracts with St George Illawarra’s NRLW side.
Bostock scored two tries in the 24-12 win over the Newcastle Knights in last April’s Tarsha Gale Cup Grand Final to pick up Player of the Match, while Reh was named Player of the Series. Two months later both girls were selected in the Westpac NSW Women’s State of Origin Under 19s side.
“They may be available towards the back end of the season but I’m not expecting them for the opening few rounds,” said Steelers U19s coach Courtney Crawford.
“It’s definitely created opportunities for some of the young girls coming through.”
Crawford is into her third year as Tarsha Gale Cup head coach and has had her squad back training since the first week of November.
She has been able to retain nine players from 2024 giving her a solid platform to be a finals force once again.
“Definitely. They are working hard to have another successful year, not sitting back on what they did in 2024,” she said.
“A lot of the girls weren’t part of the squad last year, they’ve come up from Lisa Fiaola (Under 17s), so they know they’ve got a reputation and a standard to carry on with.
“It’s a new season; new players; new challenges.”
The Steelers will still be aiming for that open running game, which was their trademark in 2024.
“Pretty similar style to last year,” Crawford said. “We want to play fast and we’ve been working hard to do that by making sure we’re fit. We want to move the footy around.”
Be warned St George Dragons – who are the Illawarra Steelers’ Round One opponents in the local derby at Collegians Sporting Complex in Wollongong on Saturday 1 February.
Westpac Lisa Fiaola Cup (metropolitan) – Under 17s
Smart planning by the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs should translate to another strong team taking the field in 2025 to defend their Westpac Lisa Fiaola Cup premiership.
The Bulldogs were supreme scoring eight tries in their 36-0 win over Wests Tigers last April, with the bulk of the squad going around again.
“We actually have eight, we’ve retained with 14 girls moving up to Tarsha Gale (Under 19s),” said Lauren Milner, Female Football Operations Manager at the Bulldogs.
“So we’ve pretty much got the majority of our players again.
“Fortunately we also carried five development players last year and they now have come up into our Lisa Fiaola squad. They trained with us all last year so that’s essentially 13 returning for 2025.”

Among them are two of the grand final stars in winger Asha Taumoepeau-Williams, who scored four tries, and five-eighth Evelyn Roberts, who crossed twice.
“Asha is still with us as she was one of the youngest players in the competition not turning 16 until late November,” Milner said.
“Another is one of our halves Evelyn Roberts. She has great leadership qualities and her ability to create something out of nothing is incredible. She has a very high footy IQ.”
Another solid footy brain in True Blue Vanessa Foliaki, who was part of the 2019 Origin Shield-winning side, will be coach. She plays for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in NRLW.
“Having not only a female coach but one who is currently active in the NRLW just brings tremendous skills in being able to relate to our young players,” Milner said.
“They can see where these pathways can lead to.”
The Bulldogs finished second on the Tarsha Gale Cup ladder last year, fifth in the Harvey Norman NSW Women’s Premiership, and in 2025 the famous Belmore club makes its NRLW debut completing the female pathway.
Milner said the Lisa Fiaola title would bring further benefits to the club.
“It’s great for our recruitment but in saying that we’ve got good academies in Queensland and New Zealand so to be honest we haven’t had to bring too many in from outside our district or those academies,” she said.
“We have a really good culture, and of course we have extremely talented players, but I think one of the keys to our success last year was our culture. The girls are very connected with each other and put 100 percent in at training.”
The Bulldogs take on the North Sydney Bears in Round One on Saturday 1 February.
Westpac Lisa Fiaola Cup (regional) - Under 17s
The Western Rams have a new coach in Martin Lyden, who has relished the chance to work more with the emerging female Rugby League talent in central western NSW.
For the past two years Lyden has been involved with the Rams in the SLE Laurie Daley Cup (Under 18s boys) as a sports trainer. But he has extensive coaching experience with the Orange Vipers.

“I’ve been coaching female tackle for five or six years with the Vipers. It’s only a short comp out here but I just love the direction the women’s Rugby League is headed,” Lyden said.
“We’ve got some real talent out this way and I thought I could add a bit to the program and help take it to the next level. That’s what I’m trying to achieve.”
The Western Rams already have the inaugural Lisa Fiaola Cup Regional trophy in their cabinet after a 22-8 win over the Northern Tigers last year.
Now into the second year of the Under 17s competition, Lyden is ready to spread his knowledge and reap some more rewards.
“The girls listen well and I also like the fact they like you to break down things – what are we doing, why are we doing it, how do we do it,” he said.
“They get right down into it and they take direction really well.
“Our (club) comp is only six or seven games and we have a lot of players travelling two hours to training. The girls have minimal game time but yet they are developing so well.”
And this year there is a Junior Reps premiership to defend.
Round One on Saturday 8 February brings a grand final rematch between the Western Rams and Northern Tigers at Tamworth’s Scully Park.
“I’ve only got about five continuing from last year but we’re not thinking about what we did back then,” Lyden said of the 2024 triumph.
“We certainly want to win again and we’ve got the squad to do it. But I’m more about showing these girls what the next levels are that they should be reaching and what the expectations are.
“We want to see our program as one of the best development programs outside of Sydney.”
All Junior Reps games in 2025 will be streamed live on NSWRL TV following a strategic alliance with media and production company, BarTV Sports.
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