The Wests Tigers have made several key appointments to their NRLW and Women’s Pathway Programs ahead of the 2026 season.
The appointment of Craig Sandercock as the Club’s new NRLW Head Coach in September, coincided with a structural review undertaken by Head of Women’s Football, Charmain Steventon following her appointment to the newly created role in July.
The review looked holistically at the Club’s women’s program, aiming to identify the best organisational structure, as well as required resources and expertise to meet the Wests Tigers vision of becoming a highly successful, location of choice for the game’s best athletes.
The Club is pleased to confirm the appointment of Richmond Saliba as Head of High Performance – Women’s Football. Saliba arrives at Concord with an extensive background in elite sport, having previously held strength and conditioning and sports science roles at the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and Rugby Australia, as well as working with a range of individual athletes across combat sports.
David Fauonuku will also join the Women’s Program for 2026, as the Club’s Female Pathways Coordinator. Fauonuku returns to Concord having previously worked in development, as well as serving as Head Coach in the Tarsha Gale Cup. More recently, Fauonuku has spent time with the New Zealand Warriors and Auckland Rugby League in various coaching and development roles, complementing his representative coaching experience with both Tonga and New South Wales women’s programs.
Steventon welcomed the two latest appointments within the newly finalised structure.
“We’re really happy to have Richmond and David with us for 2026, they bring such a vast amount of experience from across the game and will be valuable additions to the program,” Steventon said
With Craig now officially in the building, it’s an exciting time for us to lay the foundations for a successful 2026 across all our women’s programs, which will be the cornerstone for our ongoing growth and ultimately, getting our Club to where we want it to be.
Charmain Steventon Head of Women's Football
With Criag Sandercock officially commencing his role as NRLW Head Coach at the beginning of November, work is still underway to finalise his assistant coaching group, with updates to be shared in the coming weeks.
The Club can confirm that 2025 NRLW Assistant Coach, Greg Inglis will not be returning next season.
“We’d like to thank Greg for his contribution to our Club, he’s been a wonderful mentor to the playing group. We appreciate his work throughout this year and wish him all the best for the future,” Steventon added.
“We still have some positions to fill within the new structure, which we’ll be finalising prior to the end of this year to support our coaches that are already confirmed for 2026,” Steventon concluded.
Wests Tigers Women’s Pathway Coaching Staff 2026:
Lisa Fialoa Cup (U17)
Latu Fifita – Head Coach
Raymond Brown and Kristen Cawthorne – Assistant Coaches
Tarsha Gale Cup (U19)
Taiana Waddell-Scanlan – Head Coach
David Fifita and Sarah Sogatuki – Assistant Coaches
Local Development Coaches
Daniel Arregui, Tangata Paruta, Heather Mannion
