Exciting Queensland youngsters to keep in mind when watching NRLW this season
NRLW countdown: Who were the exciting Queensland rugby league young guns ready to take off this season? We reveal top talents ready for action – and those who loom on the horizon.
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Queensland rugby league legend Karyn Murphy and her mates started the ball rolling in the 1990s, Ali Brigginshaw, and co carried it on, and now the NRLW is awash for elite Queensland rookies.
The NRLW starts on Saturday, a bigger, better tournament featuring 10 clubs. Saturday:
Titans v Cowboys
Knights v Dragons
Broncos v Roosters
Sunday
Sharks v Raiders
Eels v Wests Tigers
QUEENSLAND UNDER 19 WOMENS TEAM NAMED
HARVEY NORMAN UNDER 19S, CONNELL CHALLENGE PLAYERS OF THE YEAR
QUEENSLAND’S TOP 40 TEEN TALENTS IN MAROONS
Queensland have some of the best young and old talent in the competition, and below we give you an insight into a few established stars, but mostly rookies on the rise you can expect to see this season or next.
QUEENSLANDERS TO WATCH IN NRLW
GOLD COAST TITANS
CHANTAY KIRIA-RATU
From the fertile rugby league pastures of Keebra Park State High School on the Gold Coast, 18-year-old halfback Chantay Kiria-Ratu makes up an exciting crop of young Titans NRLW players.
Along with Destiny Mino-Sinapati, Rilee Jorgensen and Sienna Lofipo, the Cook Islands product who finished school just last year will be a thrill-a-minute talent who has long been a superstar in the making with the Burleigh Bears.
Destiny Mino-Sinapati
Glimpsed at Marsden State High School last year then in this year’s Harvey Norman Under 19s competition and BMD Premiership with Wynnum-Manly, Mino-Sinapati’s rise to the NRLW should come as no surprise.
Once a budding basketballer, outside back Sinapati will be a great utility who can play various backline positions for the Titans this season.
She will start on the wing this Saturday.
Rilee Jorgensen
The Under 19s State of Origin Player of the Match, Jorgensen was not too long ago learning from the best, Veronica White, at Ipswich State High.
A terrific prop forward, Jorgensen finished her schooling at Keebra Park, and played BMD Premiership with premiers Burleigh earlier in the year.
Sienna Lofipo
Not unlike 2022 Marsden SHS classmate Mino-Sinapati, Lofipo’s rapid ascension into NRLW footy comes as no surprise to those who saw her in school and playing for the Wynnum-Manly Seagulls.
A halfback from Marsden SHS, she is brimming with potential. Watch for Lofipo to be both a leader and playmaker.
Dannii Perese
Dannii Perese plays middle but is athletic enough to start on an edge. She is a all-in-one prop, robust, mobile who covers the ground with the ball, while also plugging inside passes around the ruck.
Sienna Laing
The Gold Coast Titans NRLW prospect is a fleet-a-foot winger with an A+ pedigree. Her dad Aseri played ARL for the Wests Magpies. She has been named on an extended bench for round 1.
Laing comes out of the high class Palm Beach Currumbin SHS system and is in the Top 24.
Also watch for Keebra Park SHS past students Laikha Clarke (2019) and Hailee-Jay Ormond-Maunsell (2021).
Titans Future Young Guns
Lily-Rose Kolc
Kolc is a part of the Burleigh Bears star power. A half or hooker Lily-Rose Kolc, she expertly brings her forwards onto the ball and is a strong defender for her size.
Malaela Sua
A No. 13, Su’a can play middle, left or right edge or anywhere you like – so versatile is she. Strongly built, and having grown up playing rugby league and union against boys, Su’a is tough and strong.
The 2023 Australian schoolgirl select is in school and not 18-years-old yet so we may not see her in NRLW this year, but once she turns 18 she will be straight in the mix because she is that good.
Sunny Gerrard
Watch for his Keebra Park SHS rookie on the rise to bubble to the surfaces later this decade. She plays edge, but could go one wider to centre or plug a hole in the middle third.
Another rookie includes:
Nadia Windleborn (Merrimac State High School) who grew up following the Warriors but who now a supporter of the Titans. She is a Robina Raptors junior.
BRISBANE BRONCOS
Hannah Larsson
A Wests Panthers under 19 and BHP player, she is an edge player who is a great communicator and lets her actions speak for themselves.
From Ferny Grove State High, Larsson is embarking on her second NRLW season with the Brisbane Broncos.
Hooker and half India Seeto (Marsden State High School) who is a Beenleigh Lions junior now with the Demons, was also a name for the little black book.
Skyla Adams
From the Nerang Roosters via Keebra Park SHS, Adams is a glorious young talent with time and plenty of it. She is a lovely ball playing halve who puts players into gaps, while also challenging the line with her own fleet-a-foot forays. Played fullback for the premiership winning Bond University side that won the Queensland Premier Women rugby competition last year, and is not far off this level.
Destiny Brill
Destiny Brill is a young veteran who many would be surprised to learn is aged just 20. She has been a Super W player, A BMD premiership winner, and Queensland State of Origin match winner. The Marsden SHS product who plays dummy half has packed so much into such a brief career.
Jada Ferguson
From the Darling Downs, Ferguson was a schoolgirl touch football ace who also played under 17 rugby union for the Reds, but has found her feet in rugby league.
Future Broncos young guns include
Outside back Montoya Hudson hails from Townsville Brothers although she went to rugby league finishing school at Marsden SHS. She is a class prospect.
Prop Alice Shannon (Mabel Park State High School) is the 2023 Queensland and Australian schoolgirls prop from the Waterford Demons.
Winger Mercedez Taluelei-Siala (Marsden State High School) was a Rolls Royce player for the Queensland schoolgirls this month.
Lennice Wright (Deception Bay SHS) is from the Caboolture Snakes and is a powerful middle forward.
Ipswich Brothers junior Fleur Ginn from Stretton State College missed the nationals due to injury but is a part of the Broncos Academy.
From Pine Central country, Aspen Nakao is a high skill level outside back, a Miss Natural.
CANBERRA RAIDERS
Emma Barnes
Emma Barnes was certainly one of the best players in the Harvey Norman Under 19s junior league competition in Queensland. A dummy half from Beenleigh SHS, she was a tremendous tackler and darted her Wynnum-Manly Seagulls onto the front foot.
She also has a good passing game and this is a great pick-up from the Raiders.
Zahara Temara
Another Keebra Park SHS past student who is at the Raiders after initially playing halfback for the Sydney Roosters in the NRL Women’s Premiership and the Burleigh Bears in the QRL Women’s Premiership. She is an Australian and Queensland representative, who also played for the Queensland Reds in the Super W.
Chantay Temara
Chantay Temara
Broncos in 2020 and being in the Roosters squad in 2021 and 2022, Keebra Park SHS past student is ready to roll at the Raiders this year.
NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS
Jayde Herdegen
Herdegen had long been on the Brisbane Broncos radar as a development contracted player but the Knights have done a great job to land her.
She has vast representative experience, including for the Queensland Under-17 Country in 2021 when she scored the match winning try against City.
Originally from Banksia Beach, next to Bribie Island, Jayde first learned her craft at the Beachmere Junior Rugby League Club and has been an elite player in her age groups ever since.
Was a halves specialist alongside Sienna Lofipo (see above) in the Harvey 19s competition.
NORTH QUEENSLAND
Shaylee Joseph
The sister of Jillaroo Keilee, Joseph is a mobile middle forward who grew up playing at Waterford Demons, a hot bed of junior talent in Logan City. A fan of Penrith growing up, Joseph does the simple things to perfection, often finding her stomach in a tackle and smothering ball carriers in defence. The Mabel Park SHS product, she had been improving her skills playing in the Open Women’s NSW Cup this season alongside her representative sister Keilee, and has since earned a top 24 contract with North Queensland.
Tiana Raftstrand-Smith
Rugby is in Raftstrand-Smith blood, with the eldest Tiana, and the younger Ebony and Sky all terrific talents.
Tiana, 19, made her debut for the Gold Coast Titans in the 2021 NRLW season, and in the same year, the then 18-year-old made her State of Origin Debut for Queensland.
A talented lock, Tiana has the brightest of futures.
Exciting outside back Ebony, a 2023 Australian Schoolgirl, will join the top squad in 2024.
Jasmine Peters
From the famous Mackay region – a hotbed of rugby league talent – Peters was initially a promising soccer player who also played club league for Norths Mackay. She was originally identified by Canterbury, but it was with the Titans whom she made her NRLW debut. A regular in Indigenous All Stars matches since 2021, Petrs has moved to her home club, the North Queensland Cowboys, which is kind of nice for a kid from Mackay.
McKenzie Whele
Cowboys’ fans, watch out for Whele. She is coming off playing for the Queensland under 19s and will play No.13 in the NRLW. Whele was originally with Newcastle but is a Queensland girl who will suit the north hands down.
April Ngatunpuna
Originally from New Zealand, April Ngatunpuna learned her rugby league craft mighty quickly playing at Marsden SHS in the 2020 Titans Cup. A prop, she grew up in Wellington playing rugby league but wanted to try her hand at league, hence her switch to Marsden SHS.
ROOSTERS
Keilee Joseph
Queensland girls have a lot to thank Joseph for. A Mabel Park SHS past student, Joseph was a pioneer when it came to trying to break into the NRLW with a Sydney club.
Each weekend during her school she would fly to Sydney to play for the Roosters juniors, with no certainty of a contract. Now she is a Roosters grand final player, a Queensland Origin representative and a Jillaroo. She is a living example that with hard work, and both personal sacrifice and support from family, that dreams can come true.
Tavarna Papalii
A long striding No. 13 from Keebra Park SHS, Papalii was one of the first players chosen in the Australian Schoolgirls team this year and would have played NRLW this year.
After a blistering ASSRL 18 years National Championships showcase, the mobile Papalii proved with ease that she’d fit right into the NRLW and was named in their final squad.
But she did sustain a knee injury in Queensland’s grand final game at the school nationals this month which will dull her progress this season, but she will be back even better in 2024 when we expect her to make her NRLW debut.
ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA
Roxy Murdoch
Murdoch will play prop for the Dragons after cutting her teeth at the Broncos and then playing Test football for New Zealand. She attended Keebra Park SHS on the Gold Coast.
AUSTRALIAN SCHOOLGIRLS
Queensland was well represented in the 2023 Australian Schoolgirls with Raftstrand-Smith, Taulelei-Siala, Su‘a, Armani-Lea Auvae, Papalii, Seeto, Shannon and Reegan hicks all earning selection in the side.
In this bunch, Year 11 student Reegan Hicks was a top prospect. Tall, mobile, and fast, the second rower from Australian Christian College Moreton had tremendous upside. Her Redcliffe Harvey 19s teammate Armani-Lea Auvae also put her best foot forward at the recent ASSRL 18 years National Championships.
Shannon, prop, was one of the discovering players of that carnival. Brought into the Queensland side late, Shannon was too good not to be selected.
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