Outside chance: Outgoing Bulldogs chief executive Raelene Castle may be a candidate for the role of ARU chief. Credit:Michele Mossop "I was talking to 'Arko' at the [Manly-Canterbury] game last Friday night and I asked him if 'Bullfrog' would have approved of the club having a female CEO," Castle said. "Arko said: 'Of course he would'. 'Bullfrog' believed that whoever was the best person for a job should be the one doing it." In the NRL that is increasingly becoming a woman's game and most clubs now have a female member in their executive team, with Gold Coast (Rebecca Frizelle) and Wests Tigers (Marina Go) both chaired by women. A mentoring program established by departing NRL chief operating officer Suzanne Young is set to see those numbers increase, with Young, Castle and NRL legal counsel Elini North among 15 mentors working with young women already in the game for the past 12 months. Their graduation coincided with International Women's Day on Tuesday.

"There were about 15 of us who gave up our time to be mentors to young aspiring women inside the game, right across the spectrum from club land to NRL Central, to the Country Rugby League and NSWRL," Castle said. "Suzanne was the driving force behind it and we had the graduation yesterday. The stories that we heard from those young women about the experience that they have gained from having someone who could help them navigate some really challenging situations, like what their next career step would be or how to go about it, were great. "Some people have made some monumental career changes off the back of that mentoring program. I mentored Ellen Beale, who was in HR and during the time I was mentoring her she made a career move inside the NRL to the community team and from the community team she got promoted to a general manager community role." With more than 25 per cent of staff at clubs being female, Castle said women were an integral part of the NRL and her only criticism was that the game needed to celebrate the involvement of women more. "I have to pay huge tribute to the rugby league because it has been a fantastic experience and everyone has been welcoming, and supportive and completely engaged, in helping me in the sport and I have not had anything said to me derogatory or disrespectfully," she said.

"But I think what we haven't done a good enough job of is celebrating the women we do have in our sport because 28 per cent of our staff here at the Bulldogs are female and when we did a survey across all of the NRL clubs it is well north of 25 per cent, and some clubs are up over 30 per cent of female staff. "I think nearly every club has a female in their executive team so we have actually got a lot of women in senior positions and there is a real equality in rugby league that we should be really proud of. We can always do more, there is no doubt about that, but we should celebrate that."