After the pain of relegation and the uncertainty caused by the club’s off-field struggles, Featherstone Rovers captain Charley Blackburn believes her side are tougher, wiser and ready to prove they belong in Super League.

“WE don’t ever want to feel that feeling again.”

There was a definite air of determination oozing from Featherstone Rovers captain Charley Blackburn as the West Yorkshire side prepared to make their return to Super League after a year away from the top flight.

Featherstone were once the leading lights of the women’s game, but have so far failed to reach such highs again since the launch of the first full Super League season in 2018 and the emergence of teams such as St Helens, Wigan Warriors, Leeds Rhinos and York Valkyrie.

Having spent a couple of seasons out of the top flight, when Super League was split into two divisions for the whole season, Rovers finally returned to the big time when a dramatic final day of 2023 saw them jump from third place to finish top and secure an automatic place in an expanded eight-team, single-division Super League, joined by play-off winners Barrow Raiders.

While Barrow went on to finish fifth the next season, the year wasn’t quite so successful for Featherstone as they failed to pick up a single victory all year and found themselves at the bottom of the league, facing a promotion/relegation play-off against Championship winners Leigh Leopards.

While the Leopards went on to celebrate a 34-16 win, Featherstone were left to contemplate life in the Championship.

But now they are back, thanks to a 20-10 Grand Final win over London Broncos, and, according to Blackburn, stronger for the experience of witnessing Super League from afar.

“The last time we were in Super League really hurt us,” said Blackburn, who admits tough lessons have been learned following their relegation at the end of 2024.

“But having that year in the Championship has given us a chance to build a bit of confidence back and remind ourselves that we can play rugby.

“It also gave us a clear image of how we want to perform in the Super League. We know it’s always hard to perform against the top four clubs when there’s such a big bridge between us, but we have got other teams to aim for, and that’s definitely what we’re going to do, because we don’t want to be last again.

“Last year, we learned a lot of things about ourselves in terms of togetherness and teamwork. It really brought us together, and we celebrated everyone else’s little wins and the things that they might not have been able to express in the Super League.

“We were able to shine and express ourselves a bit more in the Championship, so we know that we’ve got that spark in us, and we know that we can play some really good rugby.

“Now it’s just about bringing it out of us again this year.

“We always kept an eye on what was happening in Super League, and because of that, we know where we need to be and what we need to do this season.

“Our intensity needs to go up tenfold. We can already tell from the Challenge Cup games we played against Wigan and Cardiff that the intensity of games has gone up by leaps and bounds compared to the last time we were in Super League.

“So we have to be better at everything – pass percentage, completion percentage – everything.

“We can’t just go through the motions and think that we’re going to be okay because that’s probably what we did the year we were relegated.

“The great thing at the moment is that everyone is so on the same page here, and we are a tight unit.

“When we got relegated, we only lost two players, and we’ve only lost one more this year, so as well as a couple of new players, we have a core group of girls who have been through relegation and promotion together.

“We all know how awful that felt when that final hooter went against Leigh, and we were relegated to the Championship. We were all there, we all participated in that, so we know that feeling, and we don’t ever want to feel that feeling again.

“We’ve seen what it’s like at both ends, and we know which end we don’t want to be on at the end of the season.”

While personnel may not have changed that much around the Millennium Stadium since their last foray in Super League, the league structure itself has.

For the first time since 2021, the competition will see the league split in two mid-way through the campaign.

Once every club has played each other once – home or away – the top four and the bottom four will then compete only against each other – playing each other home and away to create a 13-round season.

The change has been introduced to make the season much more competitive, and therefore allow the England players much tougher and more useful preparations ahead of the World Cup in Australia in the autumn.

But it’s not just the top-end clubs that will benefit. Blackburn believes teams like Featherstone will also reap the rewards when it comes to their own confidence levels and competitive action.

“We’ve done a top four and a bottom four split in Super League before, and that was so much better for us,” admitted Blackburn, who is somewhat realistic about what half of the season Rovers will take part in.

“You don’t really like to talk about Super League as a top four and a bottom four, but realistically, at the minute, that’s what it is, and those teams at the top are pretty untouchable for the others. So the split does help remind teams like us that although we can’t yet compete with those top four teams, we’re still worthy of being in the Super League because we can compete with the others and offer some really good games.

“This season is definitely going to work better for those teams that can’t compete with the top four because you don’t learn very much from games where you’re losing by 60 or 70 points.

“When we played Wigan in the Challenge Cup earlier this year and lost 78-6, we spent more time behind the sticks than actually running around on the pitch. It’s much better when you’re in those washing-machine games, where you’re going neck and neck, the action is end-to-end, and there’s a real intensity to what you are doing.

“I would much rather play in those games where it might come down to there being two points in it. That’s when it’s exciting, it gets the adrenaline going, and you can take far more out of those games that are a lot closer as well.

“The bottom four clubs, and their confidence levels, will really benefit from the split, and that’s how they, and the game, will progress.”

As if Featherstone’s challenge of being the new team on the block wasn’t already difficult enough, an unsettled pre-season that questioned their participation has given them an even bigger battle to face.

Of the eight teams that make up this year’s Super League competition, Featherstone find themselves in a fairly unique, if potentially difficult, situation.

Six – Huddersfield Giants, Leeds Rhinos, Leigh Leopards, St Helens, Wigan Warriors and York Valkyrie – have the backing of their respective Super League clubs, while Barrow Raiders’ men’s side have so far proved themselves to be one of London Broncos’ nearest competitors in a strong Championship competition.

But Featherstone are having to ‘go it alone’ after years of financial struggle at the club saw them voluntarily enter administration over the winter. The only interested party in bringing the club out of that were not deemed suitable by the game’s governing body, and therefore the men’s team were not granted RFL membership for 2026.

That decision immediately raised questions over Featherstone’s participation in the women’s competition, but given that they are largely supported by the club’s foundation, as well as their own fundraising efforts, they can continue.

That immediate uncertainty did affect pre-season initially, but the resilience the team have already shown to get to this point has once again shone through as they look to put that early disruption to bed and make the most of their return to the top flight.

“It has been really hard because there were points where we simply just didn’t know if what was happening elsewhere at the club was going to affect our promotion,” added Blackburn.

“We’d worked so hard last year to get back into Super League, and we were sitting in a grey area, not knowing if it had all been for nothing or not.

“We know we’re really lucky that we’re still continuing and are able to play in Super League again, but it is an eerie atmosphere around the club not having the men there too.

“But we’ve got a really good coaching team behind us, and Marie (Colley – head coach) works endlessly behind the scenes to make sure everything is in place for us and nothing that is going on elsewhere is affecting us.

“So it has been a strange way to start the season, but we’re just focusing on what we’re driving forward to do this year.

“No matter what else is going on behind the scenes, we will keep pushing for our end goal – staying in Super League and avoiding that play-off game.

“We’ve not really got much at the club at the minute, so if we’re able to compete with clubs like Huddersfield, Leigh and Barrow, that are in a much better position club-wise than we are, that feels like a win for us anyway.

“If we can walk away from any of those games with some wins and end up safe at the end of the year, that’s huge for us. That’s what we’re aiming for, and hopefully that’s what we’ll achieve.”

First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 521 (June 2026)