Southwell’s move to Brisbane exposes NRLW’s parity problem

When Jesse Southwell signed with the Brisbane Broncos just 24 hours after they were crowned NRLW premiers, it felt like more than a simple transfer.

It was a tremor that shook the very foundations of the women’s game.

The Newcastle Knights’ golden girl, a marquee talent and the face of their back-to-back premiership era, in which she lifted the trophy as a boom teenager with comparisons made between her and the Eighth Immortal Andrew Johns, now joins a champion outfit that already boasts the deepest roster in the competition.

NRLW player Jesse Southwell. Photo: Newcastle Knights

For all the celebration around the NRLW’s growth, this move may have crystallised an uncomfortable truth: the league’s competitive balance is slipping.

And, an almost harsher one in that the standard of the co