GERRINGONG-product Ruan Sims recently became the first women’s player to sign a rugby league contract, when she signed on with the Cronulla Sharks.
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The 34-year-old’s contract secures the Australian Jillaroos and NSW Blues captain’s services for the Sharks for the 2017 season.
“The Sharks have been working towards this for a good 12 months now, ever since they created a women’s pathway,” Sims said.
“Thanks to the hard work of Cronulla Sharks head of engagement and pathways Tim Thorne, Cronulla Sharks head of women’s football Jason Stanton and others, this idea has actually come to fruition.
“Obviously this is only a stepping stone to one day getting a women’s NRL competition up and running. Hopefully we can get that going within the next couple of years and get formalised games occurring, so we can be part of the usual match days along with the NYC and NRL competitions.
“But at this stage, we have a couple of exhibition games organised for next year, which is exciting and will continue to develop the talent we have her at the Sharks.”
While Sims is stoked to be part of history, she looks at the milestone achievement as part of the larger picture.
“While I’m very happy to be able to sign this deal, to me this deal means that the future of the sport can see an actual career pathway in the sport,” she said.
“This should enable us to keep those girls in the sport we love. I know growing up on the South Coast, we didn’t have these pathways but now girls can clearly see a representative pathway from juniors all the way up to Jillaroos.
“Hopefully we can get enough interest from the other clubs, because now girls who say they want to ‘play for the Sharks’ when they grow up, actually have that opportunity.”
Sims was in the Sharks squad for their recent exhibition match against the St George Illawarra Dragons, which included Bomaderry Swamprats’ Talia Atfield and Jessica Little.
“The best part of the match against the Dragons, which I was only told recently was, at the start of the match, all the fans were like these girls can play footy,” Sims said.
“But by the end of the match, all they heard at the end of the match, was fans cheering ‘go Sharks’ or ‘go Dragons’. To see those barriers broken down in just one match is amazing.
“It’s so inspiring and motivating for me because people looked at us as football players and enjoyed the spectacle for what it was.”
On the back of this successful exhibition match, Sims said there were more matches in the works for 2017.
“If there are any women’s NRL squads that want to have a game, we will play them,” she said.
“We want to play between six and 10 games next year, in the first half of the season, with a lot of us having representative commitments towards the end of the season.”