NRLW, New Zealand Warriors, expansion, Nadene Conlon, Andrew McFadden

Six years is a long time in rugby league at the best of times, but in the women’s game right now it’s an eternity.

Just ask the Warriors, who are in the process of rebuilding their NRLW program for re-entry in 2025 amid a landscape that looks completely different to the one they navigated when they were first part of the competition back in 2018. 

At that time they basically had their pick of the incumbent Kiwi Ferns team, which bar a couple of players, was made up of New Zealand based talent who played in the Auckland women’s competition. 

A handful were swept up by the other three foundation clubs that year, but for the most part high-profile players like Kiwi Ferns skipper Laura Mariu, hooker Krystal Rota and fullback Apii Nicholls landed in the Warriors’ lap and became pillars of their first squad. 

Now, seven years on, they face a totally…