Rugby League: Mel Howard 'stoked' with chance to play again in NSW competition, NRLW

The 27-year-old high school teacher, now living at Wallsend, welcomed the state government's announcement on Wednesday morning for community sport to comeback from July 1 and confirmation the night before that NRLW would go ahead later in 2020.

"I was pretty stoked," Howard told the Newcastle Herald. "I can't wait to play again."

The halfback played the inaugural NRLW campaign with the St George Illawarra Dragons in 2018 before linking with the Sydney Roosters last year.

Those two clubs will be involved once more along with reigning champions the Brisbane Broncos and the New Zealand Warriors, lining up over four weeks from September.

The national women's competition had been set to expand to six rounds, however, considering the current circumstances with the global coronavirus pandemic, Howard said she was pleased it had simply been given the green light.

"The aim was to go two full rounds this year, but they have stuck to one," she said.

"Something is better than nothing, because nothing would have been a backwards step."

After months of speculation about NRLW, and a fortnight into resuming the men's NRL season, Australian Rugby League chairman Peter V'landys released a statement on Tuesday.

"The women's game is a very important element of rugby league," V'landys said.

"We are very proud of our achievements in the women's game and we should be providing it the significance it deserves.

"I want to thank the clubs for their commitment to women's sport and the players themselves for their understanding as we worked through this process.

"I also want to thank our broadcast partners Channel Nine and Foxtel for their ongoing commitment to the women's game."

Last month a stand-alone women's State of Origin fixture between NSW and Queensland was set down for November 13.

Howard said "it had been hard to keep motivated" since sport was shutdown in mid March and "not knowing when, or if, we would play again this year".

Her "goal" is to rejoin the Roosters, which in 2019 also featured Novocastrians such as Hannah Southwell, Caitlan Johnston and Bobbi Law, but says that "depends on how I play club footy the whole season".

NSW Rugby League revealed on Wednesday that senior competitions, including the NSW Women's Premiership, could be back up and running next month.

"This is another great result for rugby league across the state of NSW and I thank the NSW Government for allowing us to resume," NSWRL chief executive officer David Trodden said.

Howard is now with new outfit Central Coast Roosters after last year's grand final winners CRL Newcastle didn't reform. They are set to train again next week.

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