NRLW round 4: Latest news, teams, six Vickery sisters inspire Tigers to 27 successive wins
The Matildas’ World Cup run has captivated the Australian public and now these six sisters are helping set remarkable new records in rugby league.
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These are the six sisters helping set remarkable new records in bush footy.
The Matildas have captivated Australia but maybe they could share just a little of their limelight with these fellow sporting stars.
Meet the Vickery sisters – Shanae, 21, Breony, 23, Tory, 22, Paige, 19, Dakota, 17 and Monique, 27 – all members of the Tingha Tigers’ group 19 women’s rugby league side.
The Tigers have won 27 successive matches and remain unbeaten over the past two years. They have accumulated a for-and-against of 964-58. That’s an average winning score of 36-2.
So far this season, the sisters’ team has won 14 straight games and play Warialda Wombats in Sunday’s league tag major semi-final in Guyra in a rematch of the 2022 grand final.
And their on-field achievements are matched by their off-field accomplishments with all six working together in their family-run tourist park Green Valley Farm, located 11km east of Tingha.
“Playing with my five sisters is such an incredible feeling. To be training and playing together, team dinners together, turning up to the game together you just feel proud,” said Monique, the team captain.
“Giving talks pre-game, and looking around the team circle, and seeing all my sisters there, is really amazing.
“When we won the grand final last year, to have shared that with all the girls, it hit me that I had done it alongside all my sisters.
“You have to rely on each other a lot to do as well as we are so to be doing it with my sisters is really great. But at the same time, when we run onto the field, you don’t think that they’re your sisters, it’s the whole team.”
On-field and off, the sisters remain tight.
The Green Valley Farm, dubbed The Bush Oasis, is a sheep property that offers the public swimming pools, slides, water slides, camping, jumping rides, seesaws, putt putt golf and gardens while also home to monkeys, emus, kangaroos, an ostrich and a wombat.
“Paige and Dakota work in the shop area, Tory also helps out in the shop, Shanae takes care of the water slide and pools, Breony does the animal side, we have a zoo area and run sheep on the property as well, and I do the accommodation and book work,” Monique said.
“It’s a family-run tourist park where we were born and raised. It’s got man-made attraction rides and accommodation. There is a lot of laughing and we have a lot of fun. Playing and working together, touch wood, we have never become sick of each other.
“We are able to take criticism from one another as well, which is probably a benefit on the field also. It’s probably why the business runs so well.”
The group 19 rugby league tag competition comprises 10 sides – Tingha, which has 19 registered players, Warialda, Bingara Bullets, Glen Innes Magpies, Inverell Hawks, Walcha/Uralla Jillaroos, Guyra Super Spuds, Narwan Eels, Moree Boomerangs and Armidale Rams.
The competition is played under rugby league rules with four points for a try and two points for a conversion.
There are 11 players on the field at the one time – the Vickery sisters taking up more than half the side.
“We have an incredible defensive side this season, as we did last year,” Monique said.
The sisters’ brother, Brayden, is Tingha men’s club captain.
Tingha has a rich rugby league history with former champions Nathan Blacklock, Owen Craigie, Bevan French and Preston Campbell all coming from the small NSW northern tablelands town.
Tigers president James Sheather was full of praise for the Vickery sisters.
“We’ve got the whole Vickery clan,” said Sheather. “These girls train twice as hard as the guys. They are all really dedicated.”
‘Crazy’ move which reignited gold medallist’s passion
—Pamela Whaley
Three games into her rugby league career and Tyla Nathan-Wong feels like a brand new athlete.
The New Zealand Olympic gold medallist joined St George Illawarra’s NRLW side this year looking for a change to bring a spark back to her life after almost 13 years playing rugby sevens.
And under coach Jamie Soward she’s rediscovered the joys of learning a new code on the run, through the rigours of week-to-week football in a young team.
“I’m absolutely loving it, it’s the refresher and change that I needed,” she says.
“I’ve been in my craft for 13 years or so now, so to go back to being a learner and being the one to ask questions and absorbing all the new knowledge and not being afraid to fail … I’m thriving with that.”
SOWARD THE MENTOR
Premiership-winning Dragons halfback Soward has been the ideal mentor for the 29-year-old as she rapidly learns a new game in the key position of five-eighth.
“Some would say it’s crazy but I was ready for that challenge,” she says.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better coach to help speed up the learning process of this game.
“Being a pretty gun half in his time as well, just his general experience and knowledge in the game is really helpful.
“He’s a straight-up coach. There’s no beating around the bush, you don’t have to second guess yourself and you know where you stand.
“He’s passionate and he wants the best out of you.”
A partnership with Dally M Medallist Raecene McGregor has also fast-tracked her education, and from three games she’s scored two tries and set up another two.
But more than the game itself is the physical and mental fatigue of learning, which she expected and is loving.
“Everything is different. Sevens is ad-lib footy — more go with the flow — but with league there’s a lot more structure to it. You’ve got to be a bit more organised and it’s a lot more planned,” she says.
“And then just general contact of it all. Trying to slow down the play-the-ball instead of going for the chop tackle at the legs and trying to get over the ball and steal it.”
NRLW ROLLERCOASTER
It’s been a crash course of rugby league for not only Nathan-Wong, but for the Dragons’ young group of up-and-coming players.
Heading into round 4, they’ve won just one game against Parramatta this season and are coming off a 30-0 loss to the Roosters last Thursday.
They face Canberra in Wollongong on Saturday and the long break has helped them refocus.
“We didn’t play our best footy at all against the Roosters, but we did what we needed to do over the break and we came back on Monday pretty connected and there was a good vibe around the place,” she says.
“We’re such a young team who haven’t been in this position before, 18 and 19 year olds who haven’t been through the ups and downs of sport at this level. But they’ve handled it very well.
“You can’t dwell on stuff too long.”
The Dragons, Sharks, Broncos and Cowboys all have just one win for the season so far, while the injury-hit Eels are yet to get off the starters’ block.
The Titans are the only undefeated team so far, and they’ll face premiers Newcastle on Sunday, while the Broncos, Eels, Cowboys and Wests Tigers play a women’s double-header at Totally Workwear Stadium (formerly Langlands Park) in Brisbane on Saturday.
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Originally published as NRLW round 4: Latest news, teams, six Vickery sisters inspire Tigers to 27 successive wins
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