Rugby League: Group 4 postpones inaugural tackle competition to later in the year

The G4 committee made the call on Tuesday morning to postpone the inaugural Wests Entertainment Group (WEG) women's tackle competition until the end of the season after not enough players signed up.

Hoping for a late push they had extended nominations from originally last Friday to 5pm Monday, but that still didn't yield the numbers they needed to make a 13-a-side competition viable.

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Working on four squads of 20, they were looking at at least 80 players.

"We were hoping for more numbers but that didn't eventuate," Group 4 chairman Terry Psarakis said.

The decision comes as they were preparing to hold a draft to select the four teams this Saturday night.

The competition was then set to kick-off on February 18.

Psarakis said it is disappointing for everyone involved but especially the players that had signed up.

"We could have done it on a very much reduced scale (like 7-a-side) but it wasn't fair for everyone," he said.

The captains and senior players also indicated they wanted to see 13-a-side.

The plan now is to try again for October/November.

"Hopefully the sponsors are willing to do that," Psarakis said.

As well as Wests as the major sponsor they had also secured individual sponsors for the four teams.

The competition was announced late last year on the back of a seeming growing appetite for 13-a-side tackle league. Psarakis said they maybe misinterpreted how much interest there is at this stage.

"We have got nine ladies tag sides, we were probably hoping a lot of those players would want to try tackle," he said.

"At the same time rugby union is quite strong and we were hoping to jump on the back of that with a couple of players."

He wouldn't say how far off the numbers they needed they were but said it's not something that they're "overly concerned about".

"We tried it, hopefully at the end of the season when we try again we'll get a few more numbers," he said.

"I thank the ladies that nominated and hope that it doesn't discourage them from nominating at the end of the season."

He said he understands that tackle "isn't for everybody" and it "is a big change" from tag, but also acknowledged that it is "here to stay" and that as an administrative body they "somewhere along the line have got to fit in tackle".

That is moving forward one of the big quandaries: how do they juggle accommodating the push for tackle, without interfering with the strong ladies league tag competition they have.

Psarakis said tag remains the priority, but they also remain committed to providing opportunities to play tackle. It's just what shape and form that takes.

"It's a bit disappointing that we can't proceed," he said.

"We'll take that on board and concentrate on the season coming up."