Cheerleaders will not return to perform for Canberra Raiders fans in 2017, with the club to invite local dance schools onto the field instead.
The decision makes the club only the second in rugby league to drop its cheerleading squad, after the South Sydney Rabbitohs in 2007.
"This is not about the cheerleaders ... it's about a point of difference," Raiders' commercial and marketing manager Jason Mathie said.
Driving the change, he said, was the club wanting to create more opportunities for women, and men and children, to get involved.
"The critical thing for us was trying to expose our match day to a greater number of people, and the dance competition [gives] 20 - 50 people each week the opportunity to perform on field."
Dance schools can apply online for the chance to perform.
Mr Mathie denied the change was due to negative perceptions around cheerleading, or that the decision had anything to do with the performance of the squad, whose contract had ended this year.
It has been three seasons since the Raiders controversially outsourced its long-term cheerleading squad the Raiderettes to Rogue Dolls Australia, a dance troupe managed by Melissa Gelonese.
A new-look squad was unveiled in 2014, rebranded as the Emeralds.
Ms Gelonese said she was in full support of the Raiders' new direction in 2017, but also saw a gap left by the departing cheerleaders, who she said did a lot of charity work in Canberra and were "corporate ambassadors" for the club out in the community and at games.
She said Australia still had a long way to go to change what she said were unfair and inaccurate perceptions about cheerleaders.
She also hoped other NRL clubs would not follow the Raiders' suit.
"It's quite sad. [Cheerleading] needs backing to be professional, and it's a sport and an art. It's both, and it needs to be seen as such."
The Raiders are only the second NRL team to lose its cheerleaders.
In 2007, the South Sydney Rabbitohs swapped cheerleaders for a co-ed drumming band. Owner Russell Crowe reportedly said at the time the club felt cheerleaders made fans uncomfortable.
Mr Mathie said that was not the attitude of the Raiders.
He added that he did not know how fans would react, but said the club knew its membership skewed towards men, and the club would be keeping an eye on whether more women and children were coming to the Raiders' home games in 2017.
Catharine Lumby, a professor at Macquarie University who has advised the NRL on cultural change and gender issues for more than a decade, welcomed as a great idea the Raiders' plan to use a dance competition to better connect with fans and the public.
But that was not to condemn cheerleaders, who she said can get a bad rap "when in fact when you meet these women, a lot of them are doing university degrees, they see themselves as performers.
"They train very hard, and they see it as a sport in it's own right."
Fans aired their disappointment on the Emeralds' Facebook page.
"To disband the raiderettes, a long standing part of the club history and replace them with a squad that only lasts a couple of years is insulting to the members!!!" Conrad wrote.
"What an absolute shame ... and what a shame for all the charities that the Emerald's supported and worked for. What's going to happen to them? Are the dance schools going to do the same charity work? How is this "better" for the community?" said Nikki.
Details for the Raiders 2017 dance competition are available here.
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