It’s funny now, but it was bad, she reckons.

Absolutely demolished it.

“Darren Lockyer was my favourite player, and I absolutely loved the Broncos. I would literally cry if they lost. Same with Queensland. I remember one Origin, they lost and I went into my room and trashed it, that’s how upset I was,” she laughs.

“The passion started young, and I definitely haven’t lost that competitiveness.

“That was prime Lauren, a little brat.”

Funny then, that 20-ish years later she got to exact the same kind of torture on some unsuspecting NSW fans.

Her field goal in Newcastle to win Origin II for Queensland was clutch for many reasons.

Obviously, it handed the Maroons a one-point victory in a do-or-die classic.

It also catapulted women’s rugby league to the biggest moment to date – a decider in the first-ever three game Origin series, in front of what’s expected to be a sellout crowd in Townsville on Thursday night.

It caps off four consecutive record-breaking crowds from this series and last, back-to-back sell out games for the first time, and the acceleration of every metric used to quantify success. Broadcast numbers, crowds, ticket sales, etc.

All of it continues to swell.

But to understand how we got here, we need to go back.

THE START

It’s the winter of 2018 and it’s absolutely freezing in Sydney.

Brown and her Rugby 7s teammate/housemate at the time, Yasmin Clydsdale (then Meakes) were warm at home on the couch watching the first free-to-air broadcast of the women’s interstate challenge, which was newly welcomed under the Origin brand.

Their household was one of 159,000 to tune into the game on Nine, while 6824 people rolled into North Sydney Oval, breathing clouds of fog into the cold night and voting with their feet.

There was an audience for this thing, it just needed a chance.

It was a whole vibe.

“It was such a cool environment,” Clydsdale says.

“I just remember thinking how cool it was to see girls get that kind of platform.”

The seed was planted.

Two years on, the best mates weren’t recontracted by Rugby Australia and they made the switch to rugby league where they became sides of the same coin.

Before, they would go to NRL games together as a Broncos and Roosters fan, only to sign NRLW contracts with those clubs and play a grand final opposite each other in 2020.

“That was a full circle moment for us because I still remember us going to watch the boys games, she in a Broncos jersey and me in a Roosters jersey,” Clydsdale continues.

Last year they reversed the score, Clydsdale winning a premiership with the Knights against Brown’s Titans.

They stayed rivals at a state level too, Brown with her beloved Maroons and Clydsdale with NSW.

“It was always special to share those moments even though we were on opposite sides of the field,” says the Sky Blues second-rower.

“For the World Cup in 2021, we both made the Jillaroos team. We never knew if we could play together again and she’s always asking me to go to the Titans which will never happen.

“Seeing her play I’m so proud of her, but she broke my heart in Newcastle. I feel so torn.”

SLOW MOTION

Of course Clydsdale knew where the ball was going with the scores locked 10-all in the last minute of Origin II.

Careers entwined across codes and state loyalties, they spin out in different directions in these moments.

The boot of her best friend crushing and building at the same time.

“I was in the two previous tackles, because I wanted to be marker so I could try and chase her. Lauren is my best friend, so I knew she was going to kick a field goal and I knew if they were going to pick anyone it would be her,” she explains.

Clydsdale closes her eyes to replay the moment as though it’s saved — filed under “heartbreak”.

“Sienna Lofipo took the next carry and it was CJ (Caitlan Johnston) and Olivia (Kernick) at marker and I could see Tamika (Upton) get herself in position to be the dummy half, she’s a big moment player and she knows where to put herself to get the best for her team, so as soon as I saw that happening I knew it was going straight to Loz.

“It was loud. And we all knew what was happening but it was almost in slow motion.

“Sometimes it’s hard when you’re at different angles, you don’t know if it actually goes through until the ref blows the whistle, so there was a bit of disbelief.

“Olivia and CJ both got quite a distance, so for her to get that is quite phenomenal. And I’ve only just gotten over it.”

And on her home turf, no less.

McDonald Jones Stadium is where Clydsdale plays with the Knights. It’s hallowed ground.

“I’ve started to focus on Game 3, it’s going to be a massive spectacle for the women’s game and having three games now, we have proven we’re at the point where we deserve the three games,” she says.

“To have it come down to a decider, that’s what everyone wanted. Not us.”

CLUTCH MOMENT

Weirdly, drop goals have become Brown’s trademark.

She kicked two in clutch moments for the Titans in 2023 on their way to the grand final, and is the only other player aside from NSW halfback Rachael Pearson to kick a field goal in the NRLW across both Origin teams.

“I’ve said to the girls, though, I’d be so happy if I didn’t have to kick another field goal, that it doesn’t come that close,” she says.

“I do know it’s my job to step up in those moments. I’m usually the goal kicker and I’ll do two or three goalkicking sessions leading into the game, and at the end of those sessions I just like to practice three to five drop goals just to get the muscle memory going.

“I have a soccer background but also in 7s for kick off and goal kicks, they’re all drop kicks.

“I guess when it comes to those moments I know I have done the work.

“It still happens so quickly and I never think, what if I miss or whatever the outcome is, I just go straight into my muscle memory and process from training. “Sometimes it doesn’t register that it’s gone through, it’s more the looks on the girls faces and how excited they are when they’re running towards me.”

Rain pouring down, it’s a miracle the ball even bounced enough to get a boot under it.

“We went out before the game and I kicked the ball to Meeks (fullback Tamika Upton), she caught it and threw it back and it just kind of went splat,” Brown says.

“I’m surprised it bounced to be fair but I knew if I had good enough contact with it, kept my head down, then hopefully got enough airtime to go over the crossbar.”

Was it a fluke? Could she do it again?

“We’ll see,” she laughs.

“I would say yes because hopefully I’ve done the work in the lead up. It wasn’t the prettiest field goal but it was the best one.”

BLUES’ BEST CHANCE

She hopes it doesn’t come to this but Pearson is ready for her moment if it arrives.

The Parramatta and NSW halfback is the only other player aside from Brown who has done it on the big stage.

Kirra Dibb, who is on the extended bench for the Blues, is another, while Zahara Temara, who played in the halves for Queensland in game one, is another from the series as a whole.

With NRLW still in its infancy, these proven clutch players are still so rare because the moments themselves are few and far between.

“I’d like to hope so, yeah. As a half you practice those,” Pearson says when asked if she could deliver if NSW needed her to.

“I don’t think you want to have those moments, you hope it doesn’t come to that, but you want to be ready for when it does or if you are needed, to be prepared and back yourself to do it.

“You hope you’d beat them by a try instead, but sometimes you only need to beat them by one point.”

This series is special for the country girl from Hay, who was dropped after the Sky Blues lost game one in 2023, but was recalled by coach Kylie Hilder for the Origin opener at Suncorp Stadium this year.

It’s restored her confidence and if the game is on the line she’s ready.

Her moment came while playing for the Dragons in 2022, a golden point game against the Broncos at AAMI Park in Melbourne.

Scores locked at 18-all, Ali Brigginshaw missed a field goal in the 70th minute but Pearson nailed hers two minutes later for the win.

“You just have to stay relaxed and composed, that one against the Broncos, it was extra time, we know what we’re setting for, we have a call for it, and in that set all I’m thinking about is the drop of the ball, kicking it and nothing else, then calling for it when you’re ready, you know your distance and then you put it over the black dot.”

REFLECTION

Six years on from that first Origin game at North Sydney Oval and so much has changed.

“Those girls who were a part of that first Origin in 2018, they’re huge role models for us to put the game where it is now. If they didn’t do what they did, we wouldn’t be here now,” Brown says.

“To look back on 2018 and that game in North Sydney to now having a three-game series and being in a decider in Townsville, it’s pretty surreal.”

Only five players who appeared in that historic match have played a part in this year’s groundbreaking series – Isabelle Kelly, Corban Baxter and Kezie Apps for NSW, and Brigginshaw and Temara for Queensland.

It’s testament to their quality as players that they’re still around considering the level of talent nipping at their heels.

Soon they’ll be surpassed, overtaken by any of the remarkable young guns rising the grades who have played rugby league through every age group, an opportunity none of these women had.

That’s thanks to pathways built by their predecessors. Champions still sacrificing to establish a better future for women’s rugby league.

Brown, for example, is a firefighter.

Annual leave covered her time off for the first two Origin camps, but she banked extra shifts over the summer to have enough days in lieu to be in camp for game three, as well as every captain’s run and game day for the Titans this upcoming NRLW season.

A reminder they are still part-time athletes, and while they’re on the precipice of the biggest moment so far, there’s a bigger one to come.

Full-time professionalism.

“That’s what’s wild, it’s still hard to believe that we are role models, that there are little girls watching us who aspire to be us,” Brown says.

“Even little boys, going around the field at Suncorp Stadium after game one, there were so many little girls and boys asking for autographs and pictures, also my boots but look, I don’t get a new pair of boots every game, I’m gonna have to hold onto these ones.”

Trying to relish the moment but push for more is something Clydsdale thinks about often.

“I think everyone is starting to realise there’s a future and a pathway through NRLW and we’re seeing a lot more people want to take that path,” she says.

“I don’t think we know right now because we’re living in the moment, but in 10 years time we’ll look back and think we started something really special, so to be a part of a legacy.

“I don’t think the game will ever go backwards, I think it’ll always keep moving forward with more talent and younger girls coming through. Hopefully we can guide them.

“In 10 years time I hope we can sit back and watch them and know we were a part of that.”