The 50 Best British Female Players

[Richard de la Riviere]

Here are the first ten names on our list of the 50 best British players. We’ll release ten a day between now and Friday. 

https://womensrl.com/?p=119

 

[Richard de la Riviere]

Ten more! https://womensrl.com/?p=126

[Sports Prophet]

Finally, a thread I can’t comment on.

[BroncoFan]

Good to see Izzy Rowe from Wigan on the list, what a fantastic prospect she is.

[daz39]

I would hope that Bethan Oates and Amelia Brown from the Giants are on there somewhere, though i would presume the team they are with will cloud any judgement on them.

Both are fantastic players.

[Futtocks]

4 hours ago, BroncoFan said:

Good to see Izzy Rowe from Wigan on the list, what a fantastic prospect she is.

Molly Jones too. Definitely one to watch.

[The Blues Ox]

2 hours ago, daz39 said:

I would hope that Bethan Oates and Amelia Brown from the Giants are on there somewhere, though i would presume the team they are with will cloud any judgement on them.

Both are fantastic players.

Given some of the early players have been picked on their potential then I'm surprised not to see Lois Naidole in there but can't imagine she is going to be in the top 30. I'd imagine Amelia Brown should comfotably make the top 20, she has to be one of the top two or three wingers in SL despite who she is playing for. There is usually a player that is a good guage for how serious things like this have been taken and on this occasion for the womens game I would say its Amy Hardcastle. 3 or 4 seasons back she would be nailed on for top 5 but now it would be a surprise to see her in the top 20 so it's interesting to see where she is in this list.

[daz39]

4 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

Given some of the early players have been picked on their potential then I'm surprised not to see Lois Naidole in there but can't imagine she is going to be in the top 30. I'd imagine Amelia Brown should comfotably make the top 20, she has to be one of the top two or three wingers in SL despite who she is playing for. There is usually a player that is a good guage for how serious things like this have been taken and on this occasion for the womens game I would say its Amy Hardcastle. 3 or 4 seasons back she would be nailed on for top 5 but now it would be a surprise to see her in the top 20 so it's interesting to see where she is in this list.

Lois is indeed a good prospect but Amelia and Beth have both been selected for England squads already so as you say should be in a top 50 easily.

[BroncoFan]

Haven’t seen much of Lois Naidole this season, has she been injured ?

I notice Amelia Brown hasn’t played for a while yet either so hope she is ok too. Outstanding talent.

[Richard de la Riviere]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Here are the players from 30 to 21: https://womensrl.com/?p=130

[The Blues Ox]

10 hours ago, BroncoFan said:

Haven’t seen much of Lois Naidole this season, has she been injured ?

I notice Amelia Brown hasn’t played for a while yet either so hope she is ok too. Outstanding talent.

Yeah she has missed a big chunk of the early season, I believe it were a knee injury, but returned this past weekend. Certainly should add a bit of desperatly needed to steel to the Hudds team at the moment. 

[BroncoFan]

Haven’t seen Amelia Brown yet so surely that means she will be in the top 20.

That would be great recognition for her and well deserved.

[N2022]

On 28/05/2024 at 11:55, daz39 said:

I would hope that Bethan Oates and Amelia Brown from the Giants are on there somewhere, though i would presume the team they are with will cloud any judgement on them.

Both are fantastic players.

Well, sounds like Brown will rate top 20. Few views yet on Oates. 

It might cloud judgment in the sense of visibility / chance to shine depending on team strength. But, to.play devil's advocate, your comment could apply to your own judgment too, as you'll possibly favour them over comparable rivals...?

 

[Richard de la Riviere]

Players 20 to 11  

https://womensrl.com/?p=132
 

[The Blues Ox]

9 hours ago, BroncoFan said:

Haven’t seen Amelia Brown yet so surely that means she will be in the top 20.

That would be great recognition for her and well deserved.

Thought she might have gotten in higher than 20 but no surprise to see her recognised in that top 20. To answer my earlier question about how serious this is, I think Hardcastle not been in the top 15 shows a lot of thought has gone in to it as she could easily have been a very lazy pick in the top 10. Good work.

[daz39]

12 hours ago, N2022 said:

Well, sounds like Brown will rate top 20. Few views yet on Oates. 

It might cloud judgment in the sense of visibility / chance to shine depending on team strength. But, to.play devil's advocate, your comment could apply to your own judgment too, as you'll possibly favour them over comparable rivals...?

 

From what i have seen personally and the list i can't argue against any so far, all seem deserving.

Glad to see Amelia in at number 20, recognition for her and the Giants women's team for the hard work they all put in.

[daz39]

3 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

Thought she might have gotten in higher than 20 but no surprise to see her recognised in that top 20. To answer my earlier question about how serious this is, I think Hardcastle not been in the top 15 shows a lot of thought has gone in to it as she could easily have been a very lazy pick in the top 10. Good work.

Correct, it's nice to see actual research gone in rather than just a pick by name list.

[Richard de la Riviere]

3 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

Thought she might have gotten in higher than 20 but no surprise to see her recognised in that top 20. To answer my earlier question about how serious this is, I think Hardcastle not been in the top 15 shows a lot of thought has gone in to it as she could easily have been a very lazy pick in the top 10. Good work.

Thanks for the feedback. Jason and I have loved compiling this list, and we’ve put a hell of a lot of work into it. It was initially done in the off season, but it’s had to be held back for reasons I won’t bore you with. As a result, we’ve had to make changes as the season has progressed for obvious reasons, but we’ve tried not to overreact as well. From now on, we’ll do them every off season.

Yesterday a couple of people suggested a couple of the higher-profile names in the list were too low, but as you’ve acknowledged, it’s based on how we see them right now. 

As for Amy, some may think no17 is too low but we only have two centres above her (one tomorrow - can you guess who?!), and one of those, Carrie Roberts, is only one place above her. 

One thing we wanted to do was not be guided by England selections, which have been very puzzling since 2018 to say the least. It would have been a dull list if we’d been guided by that. Of whom we think are the best two centres, one is played elsewhere and one isn’t in the squad at all. Same with our second rowers - of our top 3, two aren’t even in the squad. 

And we can’t believe how long it took Amelia Brown to get a call up, especially when one of the incumbents is being played out of position and the other missed most of last year. She’s an exceptional player. 

[BroncoFan]

So Georgia Roche was number one and Caitlin Beevers number 2.

Hard to argue with that.

[Richard de la Riviere]

A day late, but here’s the top ten players:

https://womensrl.com/?p=134
 

Very keen to hear any opinions! 

[unapologetic pedant]

6 hours ago, BroncoFan said:

So Georgia Roche was number one and Caitlin Beevers number 2.

Hard to argue with that.

Slightly complacent.

Some posters thought their view of deliberate knock-ons was hard to argue with.

[corvusxiii]

On 27/05/2024 at 12:16, Richard de la Riviere said:

Here are the first ten names on our list of the 50 best British players. We’ll release ten a day between now and Friday. 

https://womensrl.com/?p=119

 

My fave comes in at No. 50. Time stops for no man but but back in 2018 and there abouts she was just so entertaining in a RL way. She was like an old style Loose Forward, strong, clever, with moments of magic. She could do anything. Think of abig sister of Thomas Bosch. Tbf she's still useful now! 

[Dunbar]

17 hours ago, Richard de la Riviere said:

A day late, but here’s the top ten players:

https://womensrl.com/?p=134
 

Very keen to hear any opinions! 

Great list.  As with all these lists, I think the top 10 could be rearranged but that is only because they are all quality.  My thoughts:

I thought both Fran Goldthorp and Hollie Mae Dodd showed up better than Georgia Roche in the NRLW last year.  While Roche was decent, I felt she was off the pace a little and will be better in her following seasons.  On the other hand, I thought both Goldthorp and Dodd adapted physically very well.

I agree that Caitlin Beevers is a very good athlete and would also go well down under but I personally think that Tara Jane Stanley is the best all round player in the UK and should be above Cunningham and Beevers in the list at this point.

All personal opinions of course and, as I say, the list is very good.

Edited June 2 by Dunbar

[StandOffHalf]

A fun project and and reveal.

TJS is the face of women's RL in Britain. A fairly obvious choice for #1, her defensive issues aside.

[Richard de la Riviere]

Thanks again for the feedback. Discussion went on for several months (!) and at some point, we considered each of the top four for top place but we did both agree on Georgia Roche quite quickly.