Jet set your way into a real woman’s sport

Since 2005 the Newtown Jetettes women’s rugby league club has tackled its way up the ranks to the finals, but has never taken out the coveted title. But that’s all set to change this year, team captain Sue Curtis said. There’s never been a better time for female league fans to get in the scrum.
Incorporated as part of Rugby League NSW last year, the Jetettes -” sister club to the Newtown Jets -” are a serious team, with serious ambitions and serious prospects for taking out the finals trophy this year, but that doesn’t mean you need to be a homebred pro to get involved. The club has been recruiting players over the past month and is still keen to try out new members before the season starts on April 17.
You go through a bit of a culling process at training. We initially had about 50 girls on paper, but then you find some drop off a few weeks out of competition starting and you register those people, Curtis, who used to represent Australia in women’s rugby league, explained.
We have players who are first season, who just love the game and want to come and play for a renowned club and get out there and have a bit of a go. So we try and invite everybody although all players mightn’t necessarily receive a game. At the end of the day, you want to try and win games so you need to try and put your best team on.
Winning is definitely something the Jetettes know about, having made it to the finals three times before. They’ve never made it to the final, but that’s something Curtis thinks could turn around this year.
We know that Forrestville is going to be a hard team to beat this year. They’re a side that also plays Union together, so they’ve got a lot of experience, a lot of talented players and the NSW women’s coach as their club coach. So they’re up there as one of the teams to beat.
At this point it’s going to be a matter of playing each side first to get an idea of where we stand. But we’ve also got a couple of Forrestville girls who have come over to our side this year, and on paper we’re looking quite good. So I’m confident about our ability this year.