For Jamie Feeney, the NRL’s elite female pathways manager, the answer is simple.

“I think it’s getting exposed to playing more and more tackle footy,” Feeney said during a juniors to Jillaroos clinic at Wade Park on Tuesday.

“There was a six-week comp plus semi-finals for opens and 18s this year (in western).

“If we can break that down, offer more teams and expose more girls to playing for longer than just six weeks, the more they’re going to learn and better they’re going to be.”

Feeney highlighted the rise of ex-Orange Hawks star Vanessa Foliaki, who is now a regular with the Australian women’s side and played for NSW in the first State of Origin match, as a perfect example of how far the women’s game can take its players.

“She’s form Orange … there’s nothing stopping others from out here. There’s more opportunities here now than she had,” Feeney said.

“That’s why we’re here and hopefully we see a few in Bathurst.”

Feeney will lead a talent identification day at Bathurst on Wednesday, one the entire Western women’s side has been invited to attend, along with a few other hand-picked players.

On the line is spots in the NRL’s national development squad, a group the game’s governing body is hopeful will help develop the next group of women’s rugby league stars.

“I know the Western Division girls did really well in the country championships, they beat some of the stronger divisional comps that have had competitions for a long time, like Illawarra, to beat them is a massive achievement and we’re hopefully going to try and get a few of the girls there and bring them into the national program, develop them and move them on to the green and gold one day,” Feeney added.

He’s confident the talent is there in this region and an ID day like Wednesday’s will help uncover that potential.

“The women’s NRL competition is going to build in capacity, and we need girls ready to fill those spots,” he said.

The western talent ID day is at Jack Arrow Oval, Bathurst, from 4.30pm until 7.30pm on Wednesday.