Canberra rugby league officials are preparing to build a pathway for female players to pursue their national ambitions by creating a women's competition in the capital.
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The boom of women's sport has sparked rugby league interest with more than 100 expressions of interests as the transition from the league tag competition to full tackle begins.
Almost 50 women aged 13 and up bashed and crashed into each other at a come and try day at Northborne Oval on Sunday.
It comes as the Canberra Raiders prepare to begin their pre-season training campaign at Bruce on Monday morning, with Ricky Stuart's men determined to build on their best season in 20 years.
The NRL is building its profile with female athletes and the Cronulla Sharks are leading the push for a women's NRL competition and have signed Ruan Sims as the first female professional.
Canberra Region Rugby League boss Mark Vergano believes Canberra women can benefit from an established pathway and he is keen to expand the game.
"We want to generate interest in the game and we've had a lot of girls put in expressions of interest," Vergano said.
"The come and try day was to expose new players to open tackle and we've had at least 20 completely new players being introduced to the game.
"We're being pretty ambitious with it. Hopefully we can get multiple competitions going and create that representative pathway to get into the Sydney or NRL standard competitions."
The NRL is still weighing up how it will approach the prospect of expanding its women's competition.
Women's sport is enjoying a massive increase in interest off the back of the Australian rugby sevens gold medal at the Rio Olympic Games and the start of a women's AFL competition.
There has also been increased exposure for Australia's top rugby league players and the women's open tackle competition will be played on Friday nights in Canberra next year.
The Canberra women's under-18s competition grew to six teams this year, while there was also a league tag competition with five Canberra Raiders Cup teams.
Emily Cheyne was one of the players at the come and try day testing her skills after swapping hockey and athletics for rugby league.
"I played league tag but looking to change over to tackle, it's been pretty great so far," Cheyne said.
"I come from a hockey and running background, but I started playing league tag and it's great that Canberra's finally getting a tackle competition.
"I'm originally from Western Australia so I didn't know anything about rugby league, but as soon as I moved to Canberra I fell in love with it."
