Super W title would cap incredible week for Millie Boyle’s family
Their footy-mad household will have spawned a Super W grand final win and a new NRL contract with Manly if Queensland ace Millie Boyle gets her way.
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Their footy-mad household on the Gold Coast will have spawned a Super W grand final win as well as a new NRL contract with Manly if Millie Boyle gets her way.
Millie got as little warning as Gold Coast Titans fans when brother and prop Morgan sprung a surprise switch to the Sea Eagles recently.
The Boyle kids may have started life in hand-me-down lime green jerseys from dad David’s Canberra Raiders days but their big breaks are now all maroon.
“For a Melbourne Storm fan like me, Manly is a hard team to have time for but I can still be happy for Morgan,” Boyle said with a smile.
“Morgs and I shared a place at Miami on the Coast, he phoned and said he was going to Manly and two days later he’s down in Sydney wearing a maroon jersey.
“It was a bit of a shock to start with but that’s sport and how quickly life can change.”
For both, it’s a long way from Cobargo, in the Bega valley of NSW, where it all started.
“I was the next best thing to a brother for Morgs to play footy with and I’d wear headgear in those early junior teams to stop my hair getting pulled,” Millie said.
The one change Boyle, 20, wants to be part of on Sunday is for the Queensland women’s rugby team to wrestle bragging rights from NSW at Sydney’s Leichhardt Oval.
You can talk all you like about the Queensland girls being pipped in extra time in last year’s grand final but the ledger is a clear-cut 0-3 against NSW in two seasons of Super W.
Hype up the 12 tries that wingers Ivania Wong and Alana Elisaia have scored between them on the end of the Reds’ hot backline and it ignores where the battle must first be won.
“We do have an awesome backline but it all comes down to the forwards doing their job first,” Boyle said.
“Keep the ball, keep our cool ... that’s the No.1 priority with making sure our discipline is spot on (after a spate of yellow cards).
“My family background in league means it’s NSW at State of Origin times but my ties are definitely maroon in rugby with this group of girls.”
The young lock is a powerhouse with her ball-running and the kind of jolting defence that the Wallaroos selectors are certain to swoop on later in the season.
“This grand final will be another showcase of how women’s sport is growing and all the girls are super-excited for it,” Boyle said.
QUEENSLAND SUPER W TEAM: Toa Filimoehala, Averyl Mitchell, Christina Sekona, Alisha Hewitt, Millie Boyle, Shannon Mato, Eilidh Sinclair, Kiri Lingman (c), Cobie-Jane Morgan, Lavinia Gould, Alana Elisaia, Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea, Cecilia Smith, Ivania Wong, Lori Cramer. Reserves: Ivy Kaleta, Ana Fotu, Hana Ngaha, Vetekina Aho-Fangaloka, Saxon Campbell, Ayane Hirata, Amy Turner, Georgie Friedrichs.
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