Tarsha Gale teen Indie Bostock using speed to stay out of trouble with Illawarra Steelers

When this talented teen started playing footy she wanted to be like her rugby league gun brother. Now she wants to be like the fastest women in the NRLW.

Indie Bostock of the Illawarra Steelers. Picture: Denis Ivaneza

Teenager Indie Bostock’s mum wasn’t overly keen for her daughter to play rugby league at a young age and worried about injury to her athletic daughter.

Now the 17-year-old from the Illawarra Steelers and Shellharbour Stingrays said her mum sees she can handle herself while she has worked out the best way possible to avoid a second broken nose - outrunning the opposition.

“At the start, she was a bit scared. She used to say my face was too pretty,’’ said Bostock who has suffered a fractured cheekbone, torn rib cartilage and broken her nose playing the game she loves.

“But she sees I can hold myself now and she’s okay with it.’’

Bostock, who describes herself as “a long giraffe’’, said she loves the contact side and physicality of league and has got used to her bumps and bruises.

Indie Bostock of the Illawarra Steelers. Picture: Denis Ivaneza

“I like this game because of the contact. It’s a type of adrenaline you don’t get from something else,’’ she said.

“And people say I’m fast, the coach calls me Ferrari.

“Breaking my nose means I try and keep my face out of it a bit more because I don’t want it to be crooked, so I just try and go faster.

NSW CHS duo Caley Tallon-Henniker and Indie Bostock at the ASSRL Schoolgirls,

Young NRLW hopeful Indie Bostock. Picture: Supplied

“But it won’t put me off. My first instinct is to smash them. My first instinct is I want to put them on their a &$e.”

Bostock, renowned for her length of field tries in the junior ranks, is on a development contract with the Dragons and a member of the Illawarra Steelers team currently dominating the Tarsha Gale competition with Canterbury Bankstown.

Jack Bostock of the Dolphins celebrates after scoring a try during the NRL Pre-season challenge match between the Dolphins and Gold Coast Titans.

Both clubs are undefeated this season after the opening five rounds.

Bostock said her dream is to be playing elite rugby league for a top club like older brother Jack who is with the Dolphins in Queensland.

“That would be the coolest thing,” said Bostock, in her final year at Warilla High.

“I want to get in young and see how it goes.”

Stingrays of Shellharbour girls selected for the Australian U18 Schoolgirls side (left to right) Caley Tallon-Henniker, Evie McGrath, Kasey Reh and Indie Bostock. Picture: Stingrays of Shellharbour Facebook

Bostock’s father Josh played rugby league with the Balmain Tigers and in France but it was her brother’s bumpy ride to success which inspired her most.

“He was kind of one of those big brothers that didn’t like his sisters growing up, but that’s flipped around now,” she said.

“Growing up he was like the dud of the family. He never had the body for it. He was tiny and small.

“Now he’s like seven foot and I’ve seen him work so hard to get where he is. It’s really cool and inspiring.”

“My brother is the main reason I do this. I alway wanted to be like him growing up.”

Bostock said a strength of the current Illawarra Steelers team doing so well in the Tarsha Gale is the strong bond.

“We have younger girls coming up who have all played together throughout our junior careers,” she said. “I think six of us have done that which is a lot. We have a real bond.”

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