Jodie Cunningham's ambition for Women's rugby league

And on the eve of the new Super League season the recently appointed Head of Women’s Pathways & Performance is buzzing with excitement and ambition.

Cunningham is not simply motivated by what she and her Saints team can do on the field, but also what the next steps the women’s game can take.

The Women’s Super League season kicks off with an expanded top-flight following the addition of Featherstone and Barrow, but Saints’ opener on Sunday is a real clash of the titans with the three-in-a-row Challenge Cup holders taking on champions York Valkyrie.

Cunningham welcomes not just the expansion of the league, but the rise in standards at the top end with the long-time rivals Leeds as tough as ever with the trio setting the benchmark for the ambitious Wigan and Warrington sides.

She said: “A competitive league is exactly what we need - and from the top three perspective you can't call it.

"The last two years have been a perfect example with each club taking away a trophy or with different teams getting into finals and beating each other on the day.

“We probably need at least five teams minimum competing long term, not just for us, for the sport because ultimately we want our own broadcast deal.

“We're really lucky we get Challenge Cup games on the BBC and we get some regular Women's Super League games on Sky as well as playoffs and the Grand Final. But how brilliant would it be if we had our own broadcast deal?”

Women’s Super League has gone to an eight-team league with the addition of Barrow and Featherstone, which although potentially creating two leagues within one, Cunningham believes that expansion will have a positive spin-off.

“Every one of those clubs are raising their standards, different clubs are running at different paces.

“But if you watched any women's game now and compared it to women's game five years ago it would be poles apart - so everyone's improving,” she said.

“We just have to make sure we're doing it in the right way and getting everyone there.”

There has been a growing interest in the Women’s game – and it is more visible as a result of matches being televised and especially through showpiece Challenge Cup games becoming part of the double-header package with the men’s competition.

Cunningham recalls the 2022 Challenge Cup Final against Leeds at a noisy Elland Road, which took place ahead of Saints’ semi-final with Wigan, as one game where strong fan support contributed to the win.

“That was one of my first experiences where the crowd made such a difference on the day.

“That game against Leeds was so tight and we were pinned on our own goal line for a while and the crowd just started singing, Oh When the Saints.

“I just remember thinking, ‘there’s no way am I missing a tackle in front of that crowd.’ “And we went pretty much went the length of the field in a set and then scored to win the game.

“We need more people in the stadium, but it's definitely happening.”

Cunningham has seen the Women’s support base grow, and evidence by the number of times she and her teammates are stopped by people wanting photos or autographs when going about their day-to-day lives.

“All that, plus seeing young girls with your names on the back of their shirts – who come watching us home and away - are the obvious signs things that us as players think, ‘wow, that wasn't a thing a couple of years ago’.

“That's what we need – and we need more fans like that.”

Saints as a club have been investing in the team since 2018, with medical support and gym memberships and coaching, but that has now been extended to match payments for players.

Cunningham, who oversees all matters relating to the women’s team, would like to get to the point where they are generating more income through sponsorship, TV deals and ticket sales.

“Part of my job to is get us to that point,” she said.

“Eamonn and Mike Rush and the club have invested in us, investing in the future potential of what having a women's section entails.

“There's going to be more and more opportunities now for us to do women specific things where we can contribute that income directly to the women’s team.

“For example, Village Hotels have come on board to sponsor the women, they're on the back of the shirts and we get access to all the Village facilities. That's a women's only sponsor.

“There are different companies that might want to sponsor women's sport, who wouldn't necessarily be as interested in the men's games.

“So actually we can get our own sponsors that are more specific and hit the demographics that we attract.

“It's thinking about things like that where we can bring in more commercial sponsors and make stars of our individuals as well.

“In that way we have more value, in terms of player sponsorship at the club, and we can keep driving the numbers in the stands so that we do get our own fan base brings in that regular ticket income as well.

“We’ll get there, I'm confident of that.”