Kezie Apps bags 2016 female Dally M medal after just three seasons

IT has to be the most circuitous road to a Dally M medal in the history of the awards, involving a decade in a different sport and just three seasons playing rugby league at the elite level.

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IT has to be the most circuitous road to a Dally M medal in the history of the awards, involving a decade in a different sport and just three seasons playing rugby league at the elite level.

Bega footballer Kezie Apps has rewritten sporting rules by claiming the most prestigious prize for women’s rugby league in Australia — a Dally M.

From playing alongside boys as an eight-year-old to not even knowing the Jillaroos existed until four years ago, Apps’ has rewritten the book on how to become a champion of the sport you love at high-speed.

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Kezie Apps has won the second ever Dally M medal for women. Picture: Mark Evans

“I just love everything about rugby league. Everything,’’ said the towering second rower, who on Wednesday night became only the second woman to be awarded a Dally M.

Apps, who travels five hours to training from her home near the Victorian border, says she was born to play rugby league despite having to switch over to hockey when she became too old to play in boys teams at age 12.

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“I didn’t get back into it until I was 22 and that was only because I heard the Jillaroos had won the 2013 World Cup,’’ she said.

“I didn’t even know there was such a competition for women.

Jillaroos Samantha Bremner, Kezie Apps, Ruan Sims and Simaima Taufa were all in the running for the Dally M female player of the year title. Picture: Toby Zerna

“So I made some calls, found a club at Helensburg and (have) been back playing rugby league ever since.’’

From the moment she returned to the game she loves, Apps has been on a fast-track to a Dally M.

Just a year into her senior football career she was named Illawarra Women’s Player of the Year, NSW Women’s Player of the Year and selected to make her Jillaroos debut for Australia against the Kiwi Ferns.

Last month she won the NSW award again thanks to her feats with the Jillaroos and NSW, who won Origin for the first time in their 18th year of trying.

Female player of the year Kezie Apps at the Dally M Awards night. Picture: Gregg Porteous

“I really love the contact nature of the sport, the feeling of getting smashed,’’ said Apps, who suffered broken knuckles and fingers as a hockey player but whose worst injury in league is a corked thigh.

“Of pushing and pushing, putting your body on the line and hurting.

“It my passion.’’