The Canberra Raiders will reopen plans to add another female member to the club's board, and directors have asked management to use their US study trip to find ways to better cater for women in the game.
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Raiders chairman Allan Hawke revealed the NRL club would restart a push to find a second female board member after Channel Nine blocked a move to recruit reporter Erin Molan two years ago.
Hawke wants the Raiders to be an NRL leader in embracing females in rugby league, including fans and the WAGs – wives and girlfriends – of players.
The Raiders have sent chief executive Don Furner, coach Ricky Stuart, football manager John Bonasera and commercial and marketing manager Jason Mathie on a fact-finding mission on sports teams in the US.
One aspect Hawke wants them to report back on is the way NFL and Major League Soccer teams work with players and their partners to create a welcoming environment.
It's just one of areas the Raiders hope to learn from after visiting American sports, with management to present their findings to the board in the coming weeks.
The role of Australian cricket's WAGs created controversy at the Ashes debacle in Britain earlier this year, with some former players questioning whether their presence was a distraction.
But Hawke hopes the findings in the US can help attract more females to rugby league in Canberra as well as recognising those already involved.
"We look forward to hearing what they found out on their trip to the US. We sent them with certain things in mind," Hawke said.
"We wanted to see what those clubs over there do in way of their high performance centre, what they do with membership and how do they look after women in membership and as well as the wives and girlfriends.
"We are trying to do a bit of work in that area as well, and looking at player welfare and the big picture stuff. They're all important parts of an NRL team."
Hawke has been a long-time supporter of women in senior roles and was pivotal in the appointment of Raiders Group chief financial officer Yvonne Gillett to the club's board.
He said the club would start talks next year about increasing the female input on the board as they searched for a second member.
"We're very happy with the board structure. We were working to have an additional woman on the board and for particular reasons that didn't work out. But we will revisit that next year," Hawke said.
The Raiders have all but locked in coach Stuart to a contract extension beyond the end of 2016.
It is likely an extension of either two or three seasons will be finalised when Stuart returns to Australia with an announcement expected in the coming weeks.
Stuart and the Raiders' contingent in the US visited the Oakland Raiders on the weekend before watching the Pac 12 championship game between University of Southern California and Stanford.
Raiders boss Don Furner has been blown away by NFL, soccer and university teams, including the Seattle Seahawks and Oregon Ducks, throwing their doors open to the Canberra officials.
They spent four hours with their American namesake – the Oakland Raiders – visiting their facilities and learning about their membership structures.
"They haven't had great on-field success, but they've made some changes to their membership department and they've gone from 19,000 to 42,000," Furner said.
"Hearing all of that and their story ... it's on a larger scale and big money, but they face the same challenges as we all do.
"It's been really, really good. We couldn't have asked for better access from them all."
