Jess Skinner will act as an assistant coach for the Newcastle Knights NRLW side

Newcastle will be one of three new sides to join the NRLW this season along with the Paramatta Eels and Gold Coast Titans while the New Zealand Warriors will no longer take part in the competition.

"Last year I was the coach of the First Nations Gems at the Nationals in QLD and we were pretty successful there," Skinner said.

"After that campaign, I got invited to a community chat with the Knights, they were looking at having a women's team join.

"They just wanted to talk to some female coaches opinions and get there about how to set a good culture and what that would look like at Knights.

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"I just attended online with a lot of people in the room, I impressed Blake Green who was the head coach at the time for the first season when it got postponed. He gave me a call after that and offered me the assistant coaching role."

The 2021 NRLW season was cancelled late last year but the Knights will not have to wait long until their season gets under way with players to start their pre-season on January 10.

Skinner will be replaced as Rams coach by Andrew Pulley who will mentor the Western women's side.

For Skinner now, she is focused on helping the Knights during their inaugural season.

"I relocated last year and it got postponed," she said.

"I'm back this week and we have our pre-season kicks off on the 10th so our girls are flying in over the next few days and are trying to dodge COVID."

The NRLW season will start for the Knights on February 27 when they host Paramatta in a triple-header at McDonald Jones Stadium.

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