Sunshine Coast rugby league talent Georgia Bartlett earns development contract with Brisbane Broncos

A Sunshine Coast rugby league talent has risen from local footy to signing with the Brisbane Broncos in just six months as she now turns her attention to cracking into the elite level. See what she and NRLW head coach Scott Prince had to say.

SunshineCoast female rugby league talent Georgia Bartlett who has just signed with the Brisbane Broncos NRLW side. Picture: Patrick Woods.

Sunshine Coast sporting talent Georgia Bartlett says she’s still in complete shock after signing a development contract with the Brisbane Broncos just six months after her first game of rugby league.

The Maroochydore Swans outside back was a standout player in the SCGRL 2024 open women’s competition as well as earning representative selection for the Sunshine Coast 47th Battalion side, where she was crowned player of the tournament and later playing fullback for Queensland Country.

The 21-year-old grew up with a strong resume in touch football, representing Queensland as a 12 and 15-year-old before relocating to the Sunshine Coast at the end of 2021.

Georgia Bartlett was part of Queensland's successful under-15 team which won the national championships.

“I’ve grown up in a league household so I was always interested in it but I never pulled the trigger until one of my older brothers Hayden joined Maroochydore and practically forced me to join the women’s team as they were low on numbers,” Bartlett said.

Bartlett had just a week of training before pulling on the Swans jersey where she was labelled a ‘rising star’ at the Sunshine Coast 9’s pre-season tournament.

“I’d only had a few training sessions so the day before the nines Hayden took me down to the fields and we did our own little training session so I was more comfortable with the contact side of things,” Bartlett said.

“A lot of the girls were new to footy last season but everyone was so supportive and our coach Rob Brough was everyone’s number one fan.

“The nines gave me heaps of confidence and I felt I was getting better each week thanks to my teammates, Rob and the wider Swans club.”

Georgia Bartlett after the Sunshine Coast were crowned champions and she was awarded player of the tournament at the 2024 at 47th Battalion Carnival.

Bartlett, who was born in Chinchilla before growing up in Toowoomba, works as a support worker and said the past six months had been a ‘complete whirlwind’.

“My footy career has been pretty short so I would’ve never imagined I would be in the position I’m in and have done so much already,” she said.

“I’m still speechless to think about the amount of progress I’ve made in that short period of time, especially because my mindset was to just play local footy for as long as I could and just have some fun.”

After training with Brisbane’s emerging squad throughout 2024, Bartlett was later approached by the Broncos head of NRLW and Game Development officer Paul Dyer and head coach Scott Prince with an offer to sign as a development player.

“We had a good chat after our semi-final loss where I later had a tour of Red Hill, spoke about footy and was offered a contract,” she said.

“Most of the information after the contract was presented was in one ear and out the other so I was very lucky to have my dad with me because I was just so overwhelmed, speechless and full of emotion.”

Sunshine Coast female rugby league talent Georgia Bartlett who has just signed with the Brisbane Broncos NRLW side. Picture: Patrick Woods.

Bartlett will train alongside the Broncos top 24 NRLW squad and most likely feature for the Sunshine Coast Falcons in the Queensland BMD Premiership competition.

“Just based on my first year of footy anything can happen so I don’t want to pressure myself in reaching a certain point by a certain time,” she said.

“I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to be a part of it, learn the game further, soak it all in and see where it takes me.”

Prince said he had already been impressed by Bartlett’s pre-season efforts.

“We had a few recruitment officers report back to us after she caught their attention and she’s such an exciting prospect in the fact she hasn’t played a whole heap of footy,” Prince said.

“She’s already shown through pre-season she’s very open to learning, has so much upside at this point in her career and without putting too much pressure on her everyone is really excited to have her on board.

“Georgia will be a beneficiary of the new BMD structure in terms of training with us during the week and then coming back and representing the Falcons.

“That’ll be key in seeing what she’s learnt both physically and mentally and how she applies those skills.”

Bartlett thanked the efforts and support of her family, coaches, teammates, friends and the Maroochydore Swans rugby league club.