Dragons teen Keeley Davis ready to tackle inaugural women’s NRL competition
YOUNG Dragon recruit reckons her friends and family are getting used to her turning up looking like she’s just come from a fight.
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KEELEY Davis reckons her friends and family are getting used to her turning up looking like she’s just come from a fight.
She’s had three black eyes and a dislocated elbow in recent times but the 18-year-old hooker accepts it comes with the territory of being a rugby league player.
“I don’t worry about the bruises and cuts. I am always looking like I’ve been in a fight,” said the teenager from Sydney’s south.
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“I’ve had three black eyes. I think I bruise easily.”
Rather than being a deterrent to her, the physical aspect of league is what has lured Davis to the game.
The teen, who signed with the Dragons just after her 18th birthday for the upcoming Holden Women’s Premiership, says she found other sports too tame for her liking, with NRL the right fit.
“I’m definitely suited to NRL. I love the physicality aspect. I love being able to tackle. It’s what me fall in love with the sport,’’ she said.
“I have two older brothers and am are used to being roughed up. Since I was six I’ve been tackling them.
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“It is just a really good feeling when you do a hard hit. Not so much fun when you get whacked but I don’t don’t really worry about getting hurt.”
Davis has played sevens, Oztag, football and touch in recent years but rugby league is now her No.1 pick.
“I prefer the league to the union 100 per cent,” she said. “I’ve stopped playing every other sport to do this. I just wanted to give it a big crack.”
Coach Daniel Lacey says it was important to him to source local talent for the Dragons, with six of his players from the clubs catchment area.
Davis, along with the likes of Talia Atfield, Georgia Brooker and Shakiah Tungai, all come from either the Wollongong and South Coast regions and have been recruited with the Dragons future in mind after the club signed a five-years licence.
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The inaugural women’s NRL comp will feature the Dragons, Roosters, Broncos and Warriors and will be played throughout the NRL finals series.
Under the rules of the competition a maximum 15 players were allowed to be recruited from the 40-strong Australian and 20-strong New Zealand elite squads.