Premiership-winning glow to youthful Illawarra Steelers women's squad

In a year of seismic shifts for the NSW Women's Premiership, the state's premier women's competition will run parallel to the NRLW season this year.

It makes for a July season kickoff and decidedly youthful squads given the game's elite will be occupied by top level footy.

It presents a challenging juggle for coaches, but Szczcerbanik will be drawing on an overflowing well of talent as eight members of the Steelers all-conquering Tarsha Gale Cup squad graduate to the women's ranks.

That number will no doubt grow should the likes of Ella Koster, Kasey Reh, Charlotte Basham, Bronte Wilson and Indie Bostock - all of whom featured in a 24-12 grand-final win over Newcastle a fortnight ago - filter back from the Dragons NRLW squad.

For a first-time women's coach, Szczcerbanik knows having such depth of talent at his disposal is a pretty decent head start.

"It was really exciting to be able to take my [Harold Matthews] coaches' hat off at the end of the [junior rep] season and just watch their football," Szczcerbanik,

"Seeing the natural talent and the skill within that Tarsha Gale group, you could just sit back and really enjoy it.

"That core group of girls that will come up have got that connection there already, and they've got their standards that they've set, but the older girls in the squad are all local girls as well.

"They've all worn a Steelers jersey before and they know what it means, not just to the club but to the community. They take personal pride in the jersey as well.

"The Tasha Gale girls won the comp, they're going to be flying high, and everyone's going to be out to get us a little bit.

"[Rivals] know there's some quality girls there and they're going to come hunting for us, but I want us to be the hunters every week, go out and grab the game by the scruff of the neck.

"We've been training for a week, but you can just see the attitude that they've turned up with. I can't fault them."

Brielle Luccitti, Evie McGrath, Hope Millard, Maria Paseka, Herewaka Pohatu, Mia-Rose Walsh and Sienna and Rhian Yeo have all made the leap up to Szczcerbanik's squad, while Kiara Kostovski, Tahlia O'Brien and Tori Shipton also feature having starred as part of the club's Lisa Fiaola Cup (U17s) squad.

It's a talent-stacked arsenal, but it's also a group not flush with open-age experience, with the leap to genuine women's footy sure to offer a stern test.

"Age group football to open age football, it's totally different," Szczcerbanik said.

"These girls have been doing it their way every week, but there's going to be times where they're going to have their backs up against the wall and how do they fight themselves out of that position?

"We'll alter preseason so the girls do develop that sense of not everything's going to go your way and you're going to have to grind to a result.

"It's yet to be seen, but our preseason will have some of those sessions based around finding a bit of character when under pressure.

"The exciting thing about it is that, yes we will get some NRLW girls come back, but the team's not going to be flooded with them. They're going to be the next crop of girls coming through.

"You don't have the high-profile Origin players playing Harvey Norman this year because it aligns with NRLW, but there could be five or six girls in this squad that are going to be NRLW and State of Origin players in the next couple of years."

It's common knowledge that, in any NRL system, there's no tougher gig than that of the reserve grade coach.

The same can now easily be said for the Women's Premiership coach, but it's a challenge Szczcerbanik is well attuned to.

"It's not something I'm unfamiliar with," he said.

"In previous coaching roles I've dealt with it. You might get the Friday before you know what your squad's going to look like, you just make the most of it.

"It's just about staying in contact with (NRLW coach) Jamie Soward throughout the week, seeing who's available, who's not available, who's under an injury cloud or whatever it may be. I could check my phone now, I think I've spoken to Sowie 20 times this week alone.

"As far as coaching philosophies, we're pretty similar. He delivers it a bit differently to what I do, but overall we've got the same beliefs and the same expectations.

"I've been bouncing heaps of ideas off him, he's always touching base making sure every stone's been turned and, wherever I need help, he's there to help me.

"I might need to have team A, B and C ready to go but, as long as we've got that open dialogue, we'll be OK."