Celebrating International Women's day: Hannah Southwell's game-changing role for NRLW

On the field, as a lock, the NRLW star is one of the team's most valuable players.

Hard-working, driving forward while also making critical ball-playing decisions to advance her side.

The Newcastle 24-year-old is determined to have the same game-changing impact off the field.

Southwell holds a pivotal position on the Rugby League Players Association board to help build a strong future for the next generation of female players.

There is no doubt the sport is moving forward for women, but there is plenty of metres still to be gained.

She sees first hand the "hard yakka" her NRLW teammates do.

Elite sportswomen plying their trade in the toughest game of them all. But they are also school teachers, mechanics, mums - among other things.

"It's pretty full on sometimes," Southwell told the Newcastle Herald this week ahead of International Women's Day on Wednesday.

"Last year [with the Newcastle Knights] we were training four nights a week. We trained from whenever you could get here really, after work, but four until eight. Sometimes we wouldn't get out of here until nine. All the girls work and it's hard yakka.

"We had a lot of women who were pretty incredible in our team, and I know it's across the NRLW but it's just the things that people don't see. Because it is tough. I reckon this is the toughest sport in the world. It's full-on contact and you've got mums there that go home and are up until 3am and are breastfeeding and you wonder how they do it.

"So the sooner that the NRL can make our program professional, the better for everyone."

As a multi-sport talent, Southwell had her pick of the codes.

A rugby league junior with the Kotara Bears from five until 11 - when girls had to stop playing - to becoming the Newcastle Jets goalkeeper in W-League and representing Australia in soccer.

A stint in the national rugby sevens program followed before Southwell was able to return to her first love of rugby league when NRLW was launched in 2018.

It is not surprising the NSW and Australian rugby league player was also a representative cricketer in her youth.

Like many, Southwell is blown away to see the amount of money being invested in women's sport today.

Last month, Australian cricketer Ash Gardner pocketed $558,000 as the highest-paid player for the inaugural Women's Premier League T20 competition in India.

Matildas captain Sam Kerr has become one of the world's top-earning sportswomen, joining Chelsea in 2019 on a deal reportedly worth $600,000 a season.

Investment is slowly coming for women's rugby league as well, but it pales in comparison to the dollars being spent on men.

A landmark Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) for the NRLW has been agreed on in principle but is yet to be formalised. There will be a minimum wage of $30,000 for a 20-week commitment this year as the league expands from six to 10 teams, increasing to $50,600 by 2027.

Key terms of the proposed CBA include policies relating to pregnancy and parental arrangements incorporating support for pregnant players and leave provisions.

Other aspects include an allowance for private health insurance, 12-month deals and the opportunity for players to sign multi-year contracts.

"When I started I was on a $4000 contract and because we are working you get taxed on that as it's your second job, so you don't even get all of it," Southwell said.

"But to see where it's come from to now the minimum being $30,000, it's a huge jump. We didn't have a CBA back then. We do have a lot of work to do and I would like see in two to three years a full-time program.

"I could be pushing it a bit there. But if the sport is serious about the women's game, which it should be - it has the biggest growth in all of Australia - we need to make it full-time and we need to make sure we take care of the female players."

Southwell played one season at the Dragons before three with the Sydney Roosters.

Last year, she returned home to play alongside younger sister Jesse, 18, as co-captain of the Newcastle Knights.

Having access to the Knights' state-of-the-art Centre of Excellence at Broadmeadow, and being treated equal to their male counterparts by the club, proved a tipping point for the move.

"That was a big thing when Jesse and I agreed to come home, they had this facility," Southwwell said.

"We were able to use the recovery centre and the fields and everything the boys could use. But the biggest thing that got us was that they actually had the same size changeroom for the females as the men's. And I'd never ever seen that anywhere in any code."

Her Knights career did not get off on the best foot with Southwell rupturing the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee in their season-opener at McDonald Jones Stadium in August.

She watched from the sidelines as Newcastle made history, winning the club's first ever NRLW premiership.

They also delivered a product that was raw, no nonsense, gritty, full of passion, entertaining and well-received by fans.

No 2023 NRLW contracts can be signed until the CBA is finalised but Southwell is on track to make her playing return this campaign.

Off the field, she works in the property industry as well as part-time for the Knights as a community and development officer, mainly focusing in the female pathways space.

Southwell is the assistant coach for the Tarsha Gale squad (under 19s) and is developing the under 17s Academy.

Being visible to the next generation is important.

"There wasn't a lot of women on the TV when I was coming through in what I was doing," Southwell said.

"I watched the NRL boys play and loved watching Joey [Andrew Johns] play, loved watching Matty [Johns] play, the Chief [Paul Harragon], and I thought that could be me one day, but obviously you're a female.

"We are very conscious of that and we know the type of position that we are in and I actually get to coach our Lisa Fiaola Cup team here, under 17s, and that's something really special.

"They just want to learn and absorb everything. To be put in that position of people looking up to us is a bit daunting sometimes, but, on the other hand, they've got someone to look up to and I didn't have that.

"So hopefully Jesse and I do a good enough job and make sure they want to be women's rugby league players when they grow up."

Whether she sees the full rewards of the work current players are doing to push the game to the next level is unknown.

But Southwell is happy to play her part.

"It's more of a legacy for the girls now," she said.

"I think we might miss the boat just. It might be Jesse's era, maybe after her, that really reap the benefits of what we're doing now.

"But that's OK. Girls before us were paying to play ... We don't have to do that now and that's thanks to them, and I think in the future the young girls will reap the benefits of what we're doing and pushing for now."

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