The fourth NRLW season starts today, but as we've become accustomed to in COVID times, it's not that simple.
Here's everything you need to know about the upcoming women's premiership season.
Who's playing?
For the first three years of the NRLW competition there were only four teams in the league — Brisbane Broncos, Sydney Roosters, St George Illawarra and the Warriors.
That has now been expanded to six, although we have unfortunately lost the New Zealand side.
This year's competition includes Brisbane, St George Illawarra and the Roosters, with the Gold Coast Titans, Newcastle Knights and Parramatta Eels joining the league.
Who is the NRLW premiership favourite?
The Broncos have won all three women's premierships from 2018 to 2020, beating the Roosters twice and the Dragons once in grand finals.
Brisbane will be favourites again after re-signing the core of their champion team, including captain and Dally M player of the year Ali Brigginshaw, star fullback Tamika Upton, playmaker Tarryn Aiken, and enforcers like Millie Boyle and Chelsea Lenarduzzi up front, as well as adding All Stars Kaitlyn Phillips and Roxy Murdoch from the Roosters along with a host of others.
Parramatta, under inaugural coach Dean Widders, has perhaps recruited the best of the new teams, picking up stars like Bo Vette-Welsh and Kennedy Cherrington from the Roosters, and Rikeya Horne and Maddie Studdon from the Dragons.
The Roosters, meanwhile, farewelled rugby sevens star Charlotte Caslick, but bolstered their 2020 runner-up squad with the signing of 2019 Dally M winner Jessica Sergis and Isabelle Kelly from the Dragons.
What else is on the schedule for 2022?
The season starting today is technically the 2021 season.
Traditionally played alongside the men's finals in September and October, the women's season was sensationally postponed at the last second when many players had already entered pre-season camps, including players flying over from New Zealand to Australia.
The first day of play is today's triple-header — Dragons vs Titans, Roosters vs Broncos and Knights vs Eels in Newcastle — with four more rounds to follow, leading into one week of semi-finals and then a grand final on April 10.
The February-April competition will be the first of two NRLW seasons this year, with the second expected to be played in its usual slot so that the 2022 season's grand final falls of the same day as the men's decider, October 2.
There will also be a standalone women's State of Origin game on Friday, June 24, with the location still unconfirmed.
From October 15 to November 19, another postponed 2021 competition will take place — the men's and women's Rugby League World Cup in England.
