Wagga Touch Association president Marc Lawrence is looking forward to the start of another exciting premier league competition

Following a couple of interrupted seasons, WTA has launched a couple of new initiatives which they hope will add some extra excitement to this seasons competition.

"We are really excited by a few concepts that we've got planned for this year," Lawrence said.

"Especially the women's competition will be really good, we've got some of our older girls that are quite experienced and elite level players that are mixing up with a lot of your younger girls coming through.

"So that is one thing that we are really excited about.

"But also the prize money as well that we are throwing at both the men's and women's competition to draw out the best talent and hopefully that translates across to the on field play."

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There is over $10,000 on offer across the two competitions this season with Lawrence admitting it has been something that had been on the cards over the past couple of years.

"It is something that we have been thinking about for a little bit," he said.

"It's good that we are able to see it through to fruition this year and hopefully that will translate to some good competition on the field."

Four teams will comprise both competitions with Lawrence predicting a fantastic season with all teams equally matched on paper.

"We have selected the women's teams and placed the girls into four teams across the competition," he said.

"On paper they seem like they are fairly evenly matched and across the men's there is a follow on from last years competition.

"We lost one team unfortunately, but again they seem like they are fairly evenly matched."

One of the exciting new initiatives that WTA has introduced is the RSM Chest which is worth $1000 across both competitions.

Inspired by the Challenge Cup which was very successful in Group Nine this year, Lawrence is hoping that the introduction of the Chest will add some interest to the weekly games.

"RSM who are one of our good sponsors that have been around for a long time are throwing $1000 at both the men's and women's competitions," he said.

"Basically it is a challenge each week and there will be the holders of the chest in round one.

"Each team will be allocated three challenges per year and they can challenge the owners of the chest each week.

"It adds an extra layer of incentive for players to turn up and play the best touch they can."

Although there has been a wetter start to Spring than usual, Lawrence is hoping that the pleasant conditions over the weekend will help improve the conditions at Jubilee Park.

"The grounds are a little bit soft and damp at the moment," he said.

"But hopefully some good weather can continue on for a little bit and we can see the grounds start to dry up.

"It will be a challenge for the next few weeks until the rain passes."

The competition will consist of nine rounds plus three weeks of finals and is expected to finish up just before Christmas.

With a number of NSW and Australian squad members playing in the two competitions, Lawrence was looking forward to the season ahead.

"We've got Nicole Absolum and Maddison Dunn who both represented NSW in the state of origin series last month," he said.

"Then Darren Reynoldson who has been in the NSW teams for quite a number of years.

"Some of our younger girls as well that have developed into quite strong touch players through our junior programs and that translated this year into selection into Australian squads."

The Victoria Hotel hosted the season launch last week, and have come on board as the competition sponsor for the 2022 season.

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