New team, new captains, new coach.

It’s a familiar scenario in the NRLW, as the competition continues to expand and players take another step towards becoming full-time athletes.

This year, the addition of the Bulldogs and Warriors will push the number of teams to 12, with the women’s sides out to maintain the momentum of their high-flying men’s counterparts in the NRL.

Tayla Preston has enjoyed playing stints at the Eels and Sharks, but the inaugural Canterbury women’s co-captain has always been a Bulldog.

Her parents grew up in Belmore and she spent much of her childhood attending matches in the blue and white. Now she will lead the team out alongside Angelina Teakaraanga-Katoa when the Bulldogs take their NRLW bow against the Knights in round one next Friday.

“Honestly, I’ve grown up with the club and to now put the colours on, I always kind of get goosebumps walking in here [Belmore] every time I get to train,” Preston says. “For me, it’s my happy place.

“I’ve grown up as a Bulldogs supporter as a young kid and I loved when they used to bang the drums and dance in the crowd, and I used to love cheering the boys on.

“I was fortunate enough to play for the club in the Harvey Norman competition [reserve grade] a couple of years ago. We had such a special squad there, and we actually ended up having about eight players now [from there] that are in our NRLW squad and have come back.”

Teething problems are common when a new team enters the competition. Rapid expansion of the league from six to 12 teams in the past three years has at times left squads exposed due to the smaller player base in the women’s game, and only 24 roster places available at NRLW sides compared to 30 with NRL teams.

But club pathways are starting to bear fruit, and many of the players now moving up into the NRLW have grown up playing rugby league. That was not always the case when the NRLW was established in 2018, when players were recruited from other sports including soccer and rugby union.

Preston knows it is important not to be left behind as a new team, but says the success of the Bulldogs’ under-19s and under-17s sides in 2024 and 2025 has helped the reserve grade and NRLW teams supplement their squads with quality players.

Consequently, Preston doesn’t just think the Bulldogs will hit the ground running in their first year – she believes they have a genuine chance to play finals football.

“We believe we have such a talented bunch of girls, so we kind of see it as why not set the bar [high], and be there at the top and compete for that premiership? We think we’ve got the squad to do so,” she says.

“We obviously want to take each round as it comes, and you take your learnings and lessons from each game, but we want to set that bar high ... and we feel like we’ve got the right balance of youth and experience.

“It’s obviously [important] trying not to get too far ahead of yourselves, but at the same time you want to have that picture in your mind that you’re going to be there on grand final day. And, for us, it would be super cool to do it in our first year.”

The Bulldogs will be coached by former Manly and St George Illawarra utility Brayden Wiliame, who took charge of the NZ Warriors men’s reserve grade team last year after hanging up his boots in 2023.

Wiliame’s transition from player to head coach has been swift, but he says that makes him more relatable.

“I always felt that when you’re getting coached by people, when you know that they’ve been through the hard yards, [it makes you more relatable],” Wiliame says.

“Especially with the game now. It’s changed a lot probably over the last five years, gotten a lot faster, so having gone through that transition as a player, I’d imagine that would help with relating to the players.”

Wiliame had never coached a women’s team before taking charge of the Bulldogs earlier this year and concedes he was tentative at first, but says he and his players are learning together.

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“The reality is, with this being my first experience, I just don’t know what it feels like to be a woman,” he says.

“So I didn’t know what they could handle, whereas with the boys, I can relate with all of them straight away. I’ve been through the hard yards and I know what they can push through.

“Early on in pre-season I was sort of just getting an idea of how hard we need to push, how hard we can push, and the reality is, they’re just footy players as well.”

Michael Chammas and Andrew “Joey” Johns dissect the upcoming NRL round, plus the latest footy news, results and analysis. Sign up for the Sin Bin newsletter.