The National Rugby League (NRL) 2014 football season is now well and truly under way.  Canberra’s very own home-grown team, the Canberra Raiders, have a new coach in club legend, Ricky Stuart.

But they also have a brand new cheerleading squad.

The Raiderettes and their pom poms are now gone. A new team with a completely different image has taken over-the Canberra Raiders’ Emeralds.

“The Emeralds are very different from the previous squad in many ways,” insists Emeralds’ owner/manager Melissa Gelonese. “As the name suggests, we have moved away from the previous image of the ‘Raiderettes’, making it more professional. The girls are being branded with their own identity but still supporting the Raiders team. The squad has a brand new image.”

And that brand new image doesn’t embrace the skimpy, midriff-baring tops and tiny skirts that characterised the Raiderettes and that continue to characterise the other cheerleading squads in the NRL.

Cheerleaders don’t have a very flattering image-because unfortunately it’s one that’s loaded with sexual stereotypes. News Limited journalist Richard Hinds wrote earlier this year that the presence of cheerleaders “leaves the NRL in the stone age.” He cites the example of the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs having a female chief executive, “yet the most visible symbol of female participation is a buxom teenager jiggling away in her underwear.”

But change seems to be in the air. The South Sydney Rabbitohs gave their scantily clad cheerleaders the flick in 2007 and replaced them with male and female drummers; last year the Bulldogs announced that they were getting rid of their knee-high-boot-and-short-skirt-wearing cheer girls; and this year, the Canberra Raiders have replaced the Raiderettes with the more ‘professional’ Emeralds.

According to Melissa Gelonese, the Emeralds’ ‘professionalism’ is clearly visible in their costuming. “We have a completely different style of performance costuming, and we have also introduced a corporate uniform for the girls to wear when they arrive at the games and at the corporate events they attend for the Raiders and their sponsors,” she says.

The Emeralds in corporate uniform.

“We have also adopted a new style in our guard of honour for the players (where the players run onto the field) reflected in additional costuming, including a marching band hat and gorgeous Emerald marching jacket. The cheerleaders take on marching band characters, almost militant in style.”

But it’s not just in what they wear that makes the Emeralds different from the former Raiderettes and other NRL cheerleading teams. “We interact with the fans far more than most squads,” Melissa explains.

“We are there on game day greeting fans and members on arrival, we perform dance routines throughout the game, we cheer in the crowd, get photos taken, and we assist with game-day give away promotions. The girls still perform the featured half-time dance routine, with the first home game routine (on March 23 against the Gold Coast Titans at GIO Stadium) receiving a massive cheer from the audience. Our dance routines are far more refined, tightly choreographed and extremely well rehearsed.”

The Emeralds in action!

After the Easter break, the Emeralds will be introducing their junior Emeralds cheer squad to the games. “This will really encourage the family friendly atmosphere,” Melissa says. “Junior cheerleaders from ages 5-17 will perform and be involved in sideline cheering. We are currently taking enrolments for juniors wishing to be involved in this!”

The Emeralds also have a major sponsor in MacDonald’s and Ronald MacDonald House. “One of our aims is to become more involved with charitable organisations,” Melissa says, “And make a difference. We are really looking forward to doing this with Ronald MacDonald House.”

Melissa is passionate about her work with the Emeralds, and through them she hopes to breathe fresh life into cheerleading, break down the stereotypes, and change peoples’ perceptions of cheerleading and who cheerleaders are.

“This isn’t just a job, it’s a passion,” Melissa says. “Dancing is a creative art and a set of skills which takes years of practice to refine. The girls in our squad are part of many other professional productions, and they are using the same skill base in cheerleading which they have worked hard at and been incredibly disciplined with for most of their lives. They are fit, healthy, exciting ladies who clearly work very hard to achieve goals, and they do fantastic work for the community. What is not role-model worthy about this?”

The Emeralds cheerleaders are a hardworking and diverse bunch indeed, with varied backgrounds in the public service, teaching, childcare, psychology, and musical theatre. “All have major professional careers and lives in their chosen vocations,” Melissa says. “All the ladies are extremely disciplined in personality. This is reflected in both their game day prep and all aspects of their lives.” For example, one Emerald, Sarah, trained for eight years with Cirque de Soleil. And another Emerald, Bronwen, is a writer for our very own Her Canberra!

Melissa herself was originally a primary school teacher in NSW. She was a targeted graduate (that is, in the top 10% of NSW), completing a Bachelor of Teaching at the University of Western Sydney. Whilst teaching full time, she also danced professionally, including for the Cronulla Mermaids cheerleaders. “It was around this time I decided to open my own business in dance, entertainment and events,” she says. “The business got so busy, and I loved what I was doing, but didn’t have time for all of it as teaching was very demanding, and to top it all off I’d been involved in a triple-fatality head-on car accident and needed a lot of medical treatment. I then made the decision at 24 to resign from teaching and concentrate on my business.”

After she left teaching, Melissa obtained the contract to run the Parramatta Eels cheerleading squad for four years. In 2003, she met Canberra-based singer (and now husband) Vince Gelonese when she choreographed, supplied the dancers and performed in a Sydney show of his at Star City. Melissa performed in Las Vegas in 2005, and she and her husband returned there in 2006 where they performed professionally for an entire year. They came back to Australia in 2007 and settled in Vince’s home town of Canberra. Melissa owned a boutique in Manuka for a couple of years, and in 2009, she gave birth to a daughter, Eva.  Today both Melissa and Vince continue to produce shows, choreograph, organise entertainment and perform for events and in the corporate sector in Canberra and throughout Australia.

But the Emeralds also form a very important part of Melissa’s work today. After having been the co-ordinator of the Parramatta Eels cheer squad and leaving it behind to perform in Las Vegas, “I felt that I wanted another opportunity at this. Moving to Canberra made the Raiders the most viable option. To be honest, I have attempted to obtain this contract for a couple of years since being in Canberra, as I have a major vision for the squad and I know what I am capable of creating in conjunction with a great group of talented dancers, and a great NRL club!”

Melissa encourages everyone to give cheerleading a go. “Life is about exploration, trying new things,” she says. “It’s exciting! And for the little ones, nothing will increase confidence, improve co-ordination, and allow them to make friends and have fun more than cheerleading!”

You can catch the Emeralds in action at the next Canberra Raiders home game against the Newcastle Knights at GIO Stadium (formerly Bruce Stadium) on Saturday, April 12. Kick off at 3pm.  For tickets and other home game information, go to Ticketek.

If your little one is interested in cheerleading, the Emeralds Junior squad lessons will take place after the Easter holidays. Rehearsals are a minimum once a week, and the juniors will have the exciting opportunity of performing at the day time Raiders’ home games from May. To register, please contact Melissa on 0405 380 015.