QRL Women's Premiership


The QRL Women's Premiership, known as the BHP Premiership due to sponsorship from BHP, is the top level of women's rugby league football in Queensland, Australia. Run by the Queensland Rugby League, the competition is Queensland's first statewide open age women's competition. The inaugural season will feature eight teams and begin in March 2020.

History

Prior to the foundation of the statewide QRL Women's Premiership competition, the strongest competition in the state was the Southeast Queensland Women's Division 1. The competition only featured sides from the southeast corner of the state, which forced players from central and northern Queensland to travel hours each week to take part or participate in weaker competitions.
On 21 November 2019, the Queensland Rugby League confirmed that they had begun taking expressions of interest from clubs wishing to participate in a statewide women's competition in 2020. On the same day, the Burleigh Bears, who won four straight SEQ Women's Division 1 premierships from 2015 to 2018, confirmed that they would take part in the competition.
On 17 December 2019, the QRL Women's Premiership competition was announced to begin in 2020. The nine-week competition will feature eight teams, six from southeast Queensland's Division 1 competition – Burleigh, Easts Tigers, Brothers Ipswich, Souths Logan Magpies, Tweed Heads Seagulls and the West Brisbane Panthers, and two from regional Queensland – the North Queensland Gold Stars and Central Queensland Capras.
On 6 March 2020, the QRL announced that the competition would be sponsored by BHP, with the competition to be known as the BHP Premiership.

Teams

The QRL Women's Premiership consists of eight teams, five from South East Queensland and one each from North Queensland, Central Queensland and Northern New South Wales. The league operates on a single group system, with no divisions or conferences and no relegation and promotion from other leagues.