Brisbane will celebrate the contribution of women to Rugby League at a lunch featuring some of Queensland’s most famous families on Thursday, June 11, at Customs House.
The lunch is the third Women in League function to be held in the lead up to this weekend’s annual Harvey Norman Women in League Round, which acknowledges the many women involved in the game and encourages them to develop professional careers in Rugby League.
League legends Gorden Tallis and Steve Walters will feature in panel discussions with their mums at the Brisbane event, which will focus on the role of mothers in the game.
“Raising five boys who all played Rugby League, Mum knows a thing or two about the game,” Steve Walters said.
“Conversation around the dinner table was always interesting with things getting a bit competitive between us brothers.
“Mum played a huge role in our football careers – every weekend was spent going from sideline to sideline watching us play and she was always reassuring us if we’d had a bad game.”
Titans second rower Mark Minichiello and his mother Teresa will join Tallis and Walters at the event, along with NRL Chief Operating Officer Graham Annesley and 180 women involved in the game from grassroots volunteers and employees through to Telstra Premiership support staff and senior executives.
The fourth and final Harvey Norman Women in League lunch will feature the NSW Aussie Blues at the Central Coast on June 17.
All NRL clubs will acknowledge and celebrate the role of women in the game during the Harvey Norman Women in League Round with initiatives including:
- The Panthers wearing pink on-field kit and the Dragons’ traditional red V going pink. The clubs will auction every jersey for the National Breast Cancer Foundation and the Joanne MacKay Breast Cancer Foundation respectively.
- Pink match balls in every match except the Panthers v Sea Eagles (the colour of the jerseys on the day makes their use impractical);
- The pink footballs will be signed by each team and auctioned off by the NRL, with all funds raised going to the National Breast Cancer Foundation; and
- The video referee’s board featuring pink LED themed images.
Click here to find out more about the Women in League Round