NRLW Grand Final - Dragons v Roosters
BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA - APRIL 10: Yasmin Meakes of the Roosters celebrates with team mates after scoring a try during the NRLW Grand Final match between the St George Illawarra Dragons and the Sydney Roosters at Moreton Daily Stadium, on April 10, 2022, in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)

The Cronulla Sharks and North Queensland Cowboys have become the latest clubs to confirm they will place a bid to become one of the NRLW expansion clubs when the competition next grows in 2023.

The NRL have previously confirmed that the women's competition would go to eight teams in 2023 and ten in 2024, however that process was accelerated so that four new teams will now join in 2023.

It comes after the Sydney Roosters broke the Brisbane Broncos' run of premierships in the most recently completed postponed 2021 edition, which was the first to comprise six teams.

The same six teams - the Newcastle Knights, Gold Coast Titans, Parramatta Eels, St George Illawarra Dragons, Sydney Roosters and Brisbane Broncos - will go around during the 2022 competition, leading into the World Cup, before the competition returns next year in a longer and expanded format.

The announcement that four teams would join at the same time came as part of an expanded vision, with Peter V'Landys wanting to have a 17-team competition up and running to play alongside the men's competition within five years.

“The reason I want to go to 10 teams next year is because there will be four clubs applying for the two spots, so why not just give them all four," V'Landys said at the time.

“Why have two clubs miss out if they feel they can field a team?

“There’s an argument that the depth of players isn’t there and you may injure women if they’re not to the same standard but I think with the two-state authorities running their competitions, I think there probably is enough players.

“There are a number of women’s teams in the New South Wales and Queensland Cup, so there are a lot of women who are playing the game.”

The Sharks and Cowboys bids come on the final day for bids to be submitted - and on the back of both clubs previously indicating they would be interested - and join the Canberra Raiders, South Sydney Rabbitohs and Wests Tigers as teams believed to have placed bids.

The New Zealand Warriors, with borders now reopened between Australia and New Zealand, are also likely to want back into the competition they were one of the foundation clubs of, before being forced to withdraw thanks to coronavirus and uncertainty regarding travel for players.

It means there could be five teams fighting for the four spots on offer, however the push for an expanded vision means it's likely any team who wants in won't be far behind.

The Sharks have been one of the leading lights when it has come to women's pathways, while the Cowboys have developed their own pathways over the past couple of years in Townsville and the north of Queensland.

A timeline on the decision at this stage is unclear, with a 2022 season still to be played and uncertainty regarding the Warriors' position - who the NRL will ultimately want to include for the almost unlimited female pathways options available to the sport in New Zealand.