Mid North Coast women's tackle competition scheduled to start on April 30

Group 3 rugby league chief executive Mal Drury has formed a steering committee that includes NSWRL East Coast region league and club support officer Daniel Tempest along with Hastings League boss Geoff Connor.

Belinda Anderson, Crystal McGregor and Arlana Cook will form the remainder of the committee which will discuss how the competition will work.

At the moment, Port Macquarie will not field a team with the competition currently scheduled to kick-off on April 30 and will run for about four months.

"We're expecting a team from Coffs Harbour and also one from around the Nambucca region to enter," Drury said.

"We've also got Macleay Valley, Lower Macleay, Kendall and Long Flat. Port City don't have one at this stage, but we've got four or five young girls up there who are keen to play.

"Anybody else who wants to play have just got to let us know and we'll certainly get them in a team. We'd like to think we could eventually get a team from every Group 3 club."

To cut down on travel, the competition is likely to be played at Port Macquarie, Kempsey or Wauchope.

"We're trying to minimise travel because it's an area which covers Group 2, Group 3 and Hastings League which expands from Forster-Tuncurry to Grafton," Drury said.

"We don't expect Forster-Tuncurry people to travel to Grafton to play footy and vice-versa. We'll have it so they can meet in the middle somewhere."

Drury said the competition would provide a much-needed stepping stone to higher honours which currently don't exist.

"We're well on the way to forming a competition this year and that will give the girls a pathway to be noticed," he said.

"The girls are pretty aware now of the pathways available to them so we're here to nurture and if the girls want to go further they certainly can.

"If you look around now, there's a few competitions like the Tarsha Gale Cup for under-19s where some of the girls from around here are also playing in. That's the first stepping stone at the moment."

The competition will run separate to Group 3 senior matches, although occasional women's matches could be slotted in if required.

"We can't run it in conjunction with Group 3 because we've got four games on the one day as it is so we can't have five games on the one day," Drury said.

"It will probably run like the Hastings League and we'll get the odd game in Group 3 where when a team like Macleay Valley don't have a league tag, we could slot a tackle game in there to cover the bye."

Drury would have watched on with interest as the delayed 2021 NRLW season kicked off at the weekend with a number of Mid North Coast products running around for various clubs.

Teagan Berry (Port Macquarie) and Hollie Wheeler (Taree) pulled on the Red V of St George Illawarra, Tayla Predebon (Gloucester) made her debut for Sydney Roosters while Ellie Johnston (Wauchope) and Tommaya Kelly-Sines (Kempsey) represented Parramatta.

Forster-Tuncurry's Kyra Simon didn't get on the field for Newcastle, but she has been named in coach Casey Bromilow's squad for the season and will no doubt play a role in coming weeks.

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