Vossy's two bold ideas to grow NRLW

With the NRLW looking for ways to get more eyeballs on games, Andrew Voss has proposed two bold ideas to help the competition expand its growth.

Since its first season in 2018, the NRLW has grown significantly, having tripled the number of teams in the competition.

But with the season running alongside the NRL, the competition has traditionally struggled to find clear air, with matches often being used as doubleheaders with their male counterparts.

And with the NRL set to have an extra timeslot following the addition of the Perth Bears next season, it makes it that extra little bit harder for the NRLW to find clear air.

As a result, Voss has proposed that the competition consider shifting when matches are played to allow more people to watch.

“I'm big on this,” Voss said on SEN’s Front Office with Vossy.

“I believe going forward the NRLW weekend needs to be Saturday to Tuesday.

“The men's (matches) is Thursday to Sunday (and) the women's is Saturday to Tuesday.

“(So) when you're looking for clean broadcast air, Monday night, 7:45pm kick-off, Tuesday night, 7:45pm kick-off live.

“Now it's a made-for-television product; I'll be totally transparent there, am I expecting crowds, that's gonna be a big stretch.

“But (its) to get more eyeballs on the product, because at the moment, it's bloody hard to find a time slot, and going forward it's only gonna get tougher for the NRLW.”

Voss also believes the 12-team competition should also look at changing the structure of the matches.

Currently, the NRLW play two halves of 35 minutes.

But in a push to generate more revenue for the competition to help professionalise it, the respected broadcaster suggested turning the game into four quarters.  

“I would say and explain to the players, we are trying to move you towards full-time professionals,” Voss explained.

“To do that, we generate revenue. One of those revenue streams is television broadcasting, that involves commercials.

“I would play four quarter football. So, four quarter football means that you have an ad break before kick-off, you have an ad break at quarter time, you have two (ad breaks) at halftime, you have one at three-quarter time.

"And then you say, OK, well that game has brought in X amount of dollars.”

Round 4 of the NRLW continues on Saturday with the Raiders hosting the Sharks at GIO Stadium on Saturday afternoon.