BARROW RAIDERS coach Amanda Wilkinson would like to see the Women’s Origin series expanded to allow some of her star names the chance to taste some representative action.
For the last two seasons, games between Yorkshire and Lancashire have taken place ahead of England selection, allowing many players to stake their claim for a spot in Stuart Barrow’s international side.
But Wilkinson believes Cumbria is producing its own talented players, and that if that series became a three-team event, not only would her team will feel the benefit, more international stars of the future could be discovered.
“When it comes to recruitment and getting interest in what we do, I do feel strongly that there needs to be some way for players to gain representative action,” said Wilkinson.
“Whether that’s with games against Yorkshire or Lancashire or just that Cumbria gets looked at for other representative games I don’t know, but if we had that it would help a lot.
“Huddersfield have now got a couple of players on that international pathway and that has encouraged others players to see that club as an environment they can join and still have a chance of getting picked.
“I just don’t want Barrow to become excluded. We’re never going to be the same sort of brand that Wigan and Saints are for example, so if we want to bring in players from other clubs, we have to be able to give them some chance of some representative action, because with the travel involved it would be a big commitment from them to join us without that.
“I have coached lots of representative games across Yorkshire, Lancashire, Serbia and England, so I understand what’s needed at that level and I know we’ve got girls who can achieve that. They need it and we need it to start attracting other players.
“Initially a Cumbria side might just be Barrow girls, but they’ll be some players from Workington that could step up and there are already a couple of Cumbrian girls playing elsewhere in Super League who could choose between Cumbria or Lancashire.
“I don’t know what will happen going forward, I just feel the girls up here need to be considered more for some of the international pathways stuff.”