Luke Taylor says it's an exciting time for rugby league in the North West as the first-ever NIAS girls rugby league squad kicked off training for the season.
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Taylor, an NRL game development officer, will coach the Northern Inland Academy of Sport squad with Richard Ingram to assistant coach alongside him.
Mick Schmiedel, Amy Barraclough, Marion Frendin and Brianna Trickett will also help mentor the squad throughout the year.
Taylor said the introduction of the squad would help make sure the area doesn't get left behind in terms of development of the women's game.
"The girls game in the NRL is growing and I think it's probably going to grow fairly rapidly over the next three to five years," Taylor said.
"We want to get on the front foot and not get left behind. We're already a little bit behind the eight-ball compared to other areas and we need to get on our bike and start doing a bit."
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Taylor also said: "It'd be good to start getting these girls through to the senior ladies and maybe we can push through and have some local [rugby league] competitions as well but this is a starting point."
The girls and boys squad had their first training sessions on Sunday at Jack Woolaston Oval.
Taylor said there was "plenty of talent" within the girls squad which was chosen following a trial about a month ago.
He said they had a good attitude and were "pretty keen" out on the paddock.
"The girls from Group 21 have played a bit of rugby league and in our central north area, we have a few that play a lot of rugby union or league tag. The talent's definitely there, it's just about getting them playing our code," Taylor said.
The squads will meet up a number of times over the coming months for training sessions.
The next session will be this Sunday at Jack Woolaston Oval from 9.30am until 12.30pm.
NIAS 2021 Tamworth Services Club Rugby League Program Squads
Girls squad: Bridie Bridge (Dungowan), Lily Cubillo (Muswellbrook), Acacia Duxbury (Moonbi), Charlotte Eather (Gunnedah), Zoe Eather (Gunnedah), Elizabeth Ferries (Muswellbrook), Katie-Lee Jerrard (Inverell), Kyah Johnston (Gungal), Evie Jones (Muswellbrook), Jamelia Kelly (Armidale), Tyanna Kerr (Appleby), Kyiesha Landsborough (Guyra), Lilly McNamara (Singleton), Matilda Mitchell (Tenterfield), Atareta Monika (Tamworth), Leah Ollerton (Wingen), Shauna Pritchard (Muswellbrook), Maddison Riley (Tenterfield), Georgia Smith (Scone), Tobey Stewart (Muswellbrook), Ashlyn Tape (Moree), Jaminey Weatherall (Armidale) and Anita Weatherall (Armidale).
Boys squad: Braydon Allan (Westdale), Jacob Antzakles (Hillvue), Oscar Atkin (Guyra), Coben Battle (Piallamore), Taj Bone (Calala), Brodi Campbell (Guyra), Sam Carr (Scone), Callum Cocking (Manilla), Bayley Davidson (Scone), Archie Darryl Dowden (Guyra), Nicholas Driscoll (Hillvue), Owen Duxbury (Moonbi), Tamati Edwards (Singleton), Paris Forbes (Singleton) and Jordan Hamlin (Tamworth), Keandre Johnson-Vale (Armidale), Ryan Jurkans (Singleton), Dylan Keane (Merriwa), Dallas Kelly (Armidale), Luke Marco (Muswellbrook), Tyler Mears (Muswellbrook), Cooper Meldrum (Singleton), Campbell Munn (Scone), Ethan Newman (Singleton), Benjamin Perrin (Little Plain), Heath Pittman (Scone), Logan Quigley (Quirindi), Jackson Smith (Scone), Jai Tanna (Tamworth) and Harrison Thrift (Tamworth).