'We want to break the record': Dogs aiming high in debut season

After hosting the two biggest regular season crowds in premiership history, Canterbury officials are now aiming to create a new NRLW attendance record when their team enters the expanded 12-team competition this season.

The Bulldogs drew 65,305 fans to the annual Easter Friday clash with South Sydney at Accor Stadium and 59,878 for the Kings Birthday weekend match against Parramatta – the largest attendances for a stand-alone regular season fixture since 1908.

Now the Bulldogs also want to claim the record for the best supported NRLW team and are planning to draw the biggest crowd to a stand-alone regular season match when they host Canberra on August 23.

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Canterbury CEO Aaron Warburton said the match was likely to be the last at Belmore until the construction of a Centre of Excellence is completed.

“Our men’s team has broken the all-time regular season crowd record twice this year and we are setting out to break the record for a standalone regular season NRLW game when we play at Belmore against the Raiders in August,” Warburton said.

“That is definitely the aim and the online feedback we are receiving whenever we make an announcement, or we have a new signing, is met with a very high level of engagement.

“We are going to put a heap of effort into the match at Belmore to make it as big as possible, because it could be the last game at Belmore Sports Ground for a couple of years with the Centre of Excellence development taking place.”

The entry of a Bulldogs team into the NRLW has been several years in the making, with the club falling short when the competition expanded to 10 teams in 2023, with the introduction of the Cowboys, Raiders, Sharks and Tigers.

The reaction to the setback from supporters, sponsors and players reaffirmed the club’s determination to join the world’s best female contact sporting competition and they strengthened their bid for the next round of NRLW expansion.

“The second time around we knew we had to get everything in order and put a really strong submission forward,” Warburton said.

“Not only were we ready but we were refurbing all of our change rooms to ensure they were female friendly, we were investing in our COE, which gets underway this year, and our fans were ready.

We had a lot of feedback when we weren’t successful the first time around and we knew they wanted a team.

“The NRLW has always been a quality competition, and it is getting noticeably better year-on-year, so the time is right for us to jump in now and take advantage of the home-grown talent we have in our squad, complimented by some seasoned veterans from other teams.”

Among the homecoming stars are inaugural co-captains Tayla Preston and Angelina Teakaraanga-Katoa, who played with the Sharks and Dragons respectively while waiting for the Bulldogs to get an NRLW licence.

Preston and Teakaraanga-Katoa were members of Canterbury team that made the grand final of the 2023 Harvey Norman NSW Women’s Premiership before it was moved to run parallel to the NRLW as a feeder competition.

“There's about eight of us that played in that team who are now in our NRW team, so for us it's pretty special,” Preston said.

We were itching to have an NRLW team that year and if we'd had one, pretty much all of us would have been playing for the Bulldogs.

“To be back here now is kind of a full circle moment for us. We know the proud history of the club, and what it takes to be a Bulldog and to represent this great club.”

The Bulldogs make their NRLW debut against the Knights at Accor Stadium on Friday night in a double-header with the NRL team’s clash with the Broncos.

New coach Brayden WiIiame - a Fiji international who had stints with the Eels, Sea Eagles, Dragons and Warriors, where he began coaching - has only had one chance to see the team play in a pre-season trial against Parramatta but is impressed by what he has seen so far.

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“One thing that was obvious, the physical battle in the middle, we're more than ready for,” Wiliame said.

“It's my job now to get the inexperienced girls up to speed because, in reality, a lot of our edges are rugby converts, while still challenging the rest of the girls.

“If we keep building, from what I saw there's a team that could definitely make a play for the finals but we’ve got to make sure that we keep working hard day to day, stay hungry and be willing to learn each session.”

Among the NRLW stars recruited for the Bulldogs are:

Preston, who was halfback in Cronulla’s 2024 grand final side;

Teakaraanga-Katoa, one of three Kiwi Ferns representatives along with five-eighth Ash Quinlan and lock Alexis Tauaneai;

Former Jillaroos forward Holli Wheeler;

Tongan forwards Tegan Dymock and Kalosipani Hopoate, who have connections to Canterbury through Dymock's father, Jim, and Hopoate's brother, Will, and;

Ex-Wests Tigers hooker Ebony Prior.

“Me and my family have always been Bulldog supporters, my parents grew up in the area, so I know the proud history of the club and the amazing people we've had on and off the field,” Preston said.

“To now be part of the club in its 90th year, and in our inaugural year as well, is super special for me and I'm super fortunate that I get to play and represent this great club, and to be co-captain as well.

“It's a huge honour and a privilege, and the other day we were around the gym and just looking up on the wall of all the past players, and the past captains as well, kind of gave me goosebumps.

“To look up there think that we’re now etching ourselves in the history books, as well, and I guess building that legacy in the women's space for the Bulldogs is pretty special.”

The support from the club's corporate partners has also been strong, with the NRLW team boasting a full suite of jersey and shorts sponsors.

Among them are Wattyl, whose name will be on the front of the jerseys, and Jaycar, who sponsored the Bulldogs for a decade from 2009 and have reunited with the club as a backer of the NRLW team.

"We knew there was corporate support but to have the likes of Jaycar return after a number of years to support the women’s program and Wattyl paints to be on the front of the jersey, with MTC on the sternum, is really rewarding," Warburton said.

"Jaycar were our major sponsor when Gary Johnston was alive and now [Johnston's wife] Kerry-Anne has picked up the legacy and is reinventing it through our women’s program.

“Wattyl came on board as our men's sleeve sponsor this year and we had a panel recently with Holli Wheeler, Tayla Preston, Lauren Milner [female football operations manager] and myself, and presented to the Wattyl staff.

"Straight after that all of their employees were that invested that the next step for them was to take the front of shirt for the women, so they are pretty much sponsoring both programs across our club."

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