Women’s rugby league is on the up, but for one of its proudest proponents, the downs are still impossible to avoid. Chelsea Lenarduzzi, the Brisbane and Queensland forward, has felt disappointment for her state and club in the past 12 months.
However, the longtime Bronco knows there’s nothing to do but get back on the horse. “If you don’t make a team, the sun rises the next day and you should still go to work,” she says ahead of Brisbane’s season opener against the Tigers on Saturday. “Our work is that sometimes you go to training, and sometimes you go to a recovery centre the next day after bad news.”
Left out for the first match of the State of Origin series, the 29-year-old was recalled for the second, but unable to prevent the Blues from winning the shield. It followed the pain of last season, and ignominious exit of Brisbane – three-time premiers but without a title since 2020 – in the first week of the NRLW finals.
“I think we obviously had a lot of early success as a team but that feeling of wanting to win has never really gone away, no matter where we finish in the competition,” Lenarduzzi says. “Winning is the number one goal every year, it’s burnt me every year that we haven’t won.”
The minor premiers entered the semi-final against Cronulla – a club in just their second NRLW season – on a seven-match winning streak. But in the NRLW’s old two-week finals series there were no second chances, and the highly fancied Broncos outfit led by captain Ali Brigginshaw lost 14-0 to the Sharks.
Lenarduzzi says it continues to leave a bitter taste before the 2025 NRLW season, which began on Thursday night. “We’ve got pretty high goals and high expectations for ourselves after the disappointing finish to last season,” she says.
The off-season has only increased the pressure. The club has brought back fullback Tamika Upton – a player Lenarduzzi considers the best in the world – after three seasons in Newcastle. “Now we have literally no excuse,” she says. “The only thing that’s going to stop us not performing well enough is us.”
But in the dynamic world of women’s rugby league, improvement is everywhere. The premiership-winning Roosters welcome back five-eighth Corban Baxter after she missed last season due to a knee injury. Beaten grand finalists Cronulla have recruited former New Zealand sevens player Tyla King and forward Caitlan Johnston-Green, although both will miss the start of the season.
Even the expansion sides are expected to be competitive. Canterbury recorded a win in pre-season against Parramatta, and the other new team, New Zealand Warriors – taking the competition to 12 sides – were a foundation side but withdrew during the pandemic.
But Lenarduzzi’s Broncos – coached by former NRL premiership winner Scott Prince – enter the season heavily backed, and had eight players in the Maroons’ latest State of Origin side.
Despite the pain of last year, Lenarduzzi says she tries not to let disappointment dwell. “Whenever there’s a setback or anything, while it’s frustrating for me, because I am a bit experienced and I have gone through ups and downs in my career, I just keep doing the process.”
After winning her place back in the Maroons side she helped turn the tide against a powerful Blues pack, and scored the winning try in the third match to prevent a whitewash. Last week she re-signed with the Broncos for two more years, which will make it 10 seasons as a Bronco.
The prop forward is also a director for the Rugby League Players Association, and is already preparing to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement which will come into force in 2028.
She says the priorities in NRLW are to increase the squad sizes from 24 to at least 30 to cover injuries and provide a platform for future expansion, increasing resources for club staff to improve the professional environment, and pushing Origin back in the calendar so that it falls during or after the NRLW season. “This year, the quality of the [State of Origin] games were really good, but imagine how good they’d be if everyone was in top condition,” she says.
Lenarduzzi – who describes the NRLW as “the best or one of the best” women’s sporting competitions in the world – also wants a revolution in the rhetoric that surrounds women’s rugby league. “What’s always been a frustration as a female athlete, is that there’s this perception that you need to be nice, ‘everyone’s your friend’, ‘we’re just here to grow the game.’ In reality the elite players want to win the comp,” she says.
The prop wants more debate from commentators and fans about the skills of the players, their agility, and their kicking games, and less about their personality and life off the field. And she wants respect for female athletes who prioritise athletic success. “When fans of sport talk about like Michael Jordan, they talk about how ruthless and aggressive and competitive he is, which is great, right?” she says.
“But another personal idol of mine is Serena Williams, and she’s copped so much shit throughout her career for being ruthless and aggressive and competitive. The difference is that she’s not expected to be like that, because she’s female.”
