It comes as two of the top four sides - the Goulburn City Bulldogs and Queanbeyan Blues - prepare to battle it out at Canberra Stadium before Sunday's NRL game.

Goulburn second-rower Elly Hazelton said the opportunity to play before the top men's side in the region, and at such a big venue, was "pretty surreal".

But she wanted to make one thing clear as talks about the Raiders NRLW heat up, the Katrina Fanning Shield had the talent to fill the inaugural squad next year.

"Hopefully we get a chance to do Canberra proud and it's local girls getting selected," she said.

"I'm really looking forward to seeing what they're going to bring in, what they're going to do to support us that have been the benchmark for Canberra football for the last four or five years.

"I reckon I could select a Raiders team off our local girls, our comp is that strong and we are that good. I have faith that we could hold it to the other teams.

"We know that they're good enough and we just hope the Raiders can see that we are good enough to be able to uphold the standards of the NRLW."

The Bulldogs sit two points ahead of their opponents on the ladder, but the Blues have already experienced the surface at the Bruce venue this season to provide a slight advantage on what to expect.

The competition remains a tight race in the run into finals, with the Yass Magpies six points clear in first but just two points separating second-placed Woden Valley Rams, third-placed Goulburn and the fourth-placed Blues.

Queanbeyan's halfback Eilish Winbank said the quality in the competition this year was to reason for such a tight race at the top of the ladder, while the announcement of the region's NRLW side next year had spurred even more interest.

"The numbers have increased so much since the announcement of the Raiders team next year," she said.

"The talent too, people are coming from everywhere to play. I know some girls are traveling from Albury, which is like four hours away, that's a long way to travel just to get some exposure.

"The comp has been building over the past few years, like to have nine teams in the comp this year is amazing compared to where we started.

"So it's just gone from strength to strength, and hopefully we can get some girls in the green."

Prior to the Raiders NRLW announcement, the options for representative female pathways in the region had been limited to one-off yearly representative tournaments or the under 18s Tarsha Gale Cup.

Katrina Fanning Shield

Saturday:

Sunday:

Canberra Raiders Cup

Saturday: