I am embarrassed to be a Bulldogs fan, fam. The fact it is now the year 2023 and we still don't have a women's NRL team is staggering. With all the talk of Gus being a great future planner, I ask you this - where is the planning for our expansion into the women's competition?
Now, I'm sure many of you knuckle dragging cavemen will be reading this thinking 'who cares, women don't belong on a footy field'. Bu that is an outdated and extremely limited way of thinking, my friends. The reality is, the women's game is the future.
I have a bold prediction - the women's game will have eclipsed the men's game in terms of popularity by 2070. How do I reach this conclusion? Simple mathematics. Over half the Australian population is female. Does it not stand to reason that eventually the women's game will become more popular than the men's game?
Butttt.... WoMeN aReN't As GoOd At SpOrTs!! The knuckle draggers will say. Nonsense. While men may be physically stronger, women are unquestionably smarter and more skillful... making for a more appealing product which is less about speed and brute strength and more about skill, strategy and nuance.
Furthermore, women are not complete animals. They are much less likely to bring the game into disrepute by committing sexual assault, beating up their spouses, taking dumps in hallways and stabbing church leaders. Less controversy makes for more sponsorship opportunities, greater sponsorship means more coverage and more coverage means greater popularity. It's just basic logic, la familars.
People have an unquenchable thirst for women's sports at the moment. Go down to your local watering hole and you're much more likely to hear punters discussing whether Lauren Jackson can lead the Albury Wodonga Bandits to glory than whether Lebron can do it one more time for the Lakers; more likely to hear people talking excitedly about Meg Lanning's comeback and Elyse Perry's return to form than about how much longer Warner or Smithy will keep going round; more likely to hear unnecessarily aggressive drunks debating whether Ali Brigginshaw can lead the Broncos back to the top than whether Cleary and Luai can help the Panthers threepeat.
As much as the lumbering misogynistic dinosaurs may loathe to admit it, women's sports are the future, baby! Trust me, as a current NRL player, I would jump at the opportunity to defect to the women's comp if regulations allowed it.
Trust me fam, when I say it is absolutely IMPERATIVE that members rally together and demand Gus explain to us how he plans to make our expansion into this veritable goldmine of a market a reality... before we get well and truly left behind.
There is an added bonus to us getting an NRLW team - it increases our chances of getting Millie Boyle to the club. While I think she would go very well in our men's NRL team and would out perform players like TPJ, the reality is the NRL is unlikely to sign off on Millie playing in the men's comp, so a women's team is the best way to entice the best prop in the game to our club. If we can get Millie to the club, we can also get Adam Elliott back - and we all know letting him go was a huge mistake. With a salary of a little under 500k, has developed into the best value for money lock in the game.
In summary, let's band together to make sure we get a women's team and attract league's biggest power couple since Wayne Bennett and Darius Boyd to the club, Together we can make it happen, baby!