The Raiders board member has seen how much the contribution and appreciation of women in rugby league has evolved.

"It's the realisation of what we always believed the game could and should be - it's achieving it," Fanning told The Canberra Times.

"The round started off trying to thank the people who helped the blokes play, and now women belong everywhere rugby league has roles to fill.

"I don't think people realise that Australian women's rugby league fundamentally started from some Canberra people. They really got international football for women on the radar, we then had a pretty good comp for quite some time.

"Canberra's had a big part to play for decades, not just the last few years."

Rugby league used be very different for women in the game. It was only about 15 years ago that Fanning and her Jillaroos teammates were guests of The Footy Show and were mocked with crude jokes about their breasts.

"The questions a bloke asked us on live TV, they'd be crucified for asking now," Fanning said. "That was me they were asking about taping up boobs.

"That first time I told people I was going to be on TV, but I never did it again because I was so embarrassed. Now it's a totally different world."

Fast forward to today and things have come a long way. More girls than ever before are taking up rugby league, the ACT has one of the fastest-growing regions for grassroots footy and the Raiders will soon be part of the NRLW next season when the competition expands from six teams to 10.

Unfortunately the week which was meant to recognise, celebrate and support women across all levels of the game with the theme 'Play Your Part to Change the Story', instead was hijacked by an ugly national debate that put the LGBTQI+ community in the firing line.

The 'Manly Seven' refused to wear the Sea Eagles' subtly rainbow-themed jersey, citing religious and cultural reasons and stood themselves down. For Fanning, the impact was personal.

"It's no secret in Canberra my connections to rugby league, and at our kids' school that they've got two mums. So they've copped it all week," Fanning said.

"It's not about those seven young men and how they felt, it's about 1000 young people today who are less likely to talk about their sexuality and their fears and their insecurities because of how that game was portrayed.

"It was an initiative meant to say - here's a place where you are welcomed and you are valued."

Fanning admitted it "wasn't great" that the pride jersey coincided with Women in League Round however suggested it was possible that Manly decided on the jersey for this week long before the fixture and its theme was known.

Fanning also said players rarely get consulted about their jerseys because they are essentially a billboard for sponsors.

"We sell the space," she said. "If our major sponsor Toyota Forklifts said for all of next year they want their brand to be in pride colours, well, that's what you'd have to do."

Despite the controversy, Fanning believes overall the week has allowed a positive platform for women in the game to have a greater voice on important issues, including pay and maternity leave considerations, and while the NRL was not perfect, it had done a lot of catching up.

"It's no longer a place where it's lagging and in fact, in some ways, it's pushing the envelope," she said.

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