Taleena Simon can see a pathway to success in rugby league now
THE lure of an Olympic gold medal took Taleena Simon away from rugby league. But now the code has got its act together, there is plenty on offer to keep her in the game.
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THE lure of an Olympic gold medal took Taleena Simon away from rugby league.
But Simon has been drawn back to a game she says is in her DNA after the NRL got its act together and announced a women’s elite competition for this year.
Tomorrow night at North Sydney she takes her place on the wing for the Blues for the State of Origin clash against Queensland and she is primed to score tries – lots of them.
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Her game is punishing, says NSW Origin coach Ben Cross. She’s fast, tenacious with the ball in hand and aggressive in the tackle.
“If she isn’t playing for Australia in the next two years, I’m a pretty poor judge – that’s how good a player she is,” Cross said.
“She’s an absolute handful. The legs just never stop pumping. Defenders need to get a hold of her then all of sudden she’s broken tackles.
“Defensively she’s really aggressive. She’s not just there to make a tackle, she’s there to inflict a little bit of discomfort on the opposition, which is what I really like as well.”
But if the NRL didn’t get its ship in order this year, rugby league fans would not be watching this exciting speedster from Redfern playing the game she grew up on.
League was always being played around Simon’s South Sydney community. She laced up for her first game, in the Koori Knockout indigenous tournament, at the age of 14 and three years later, in 2010, she made her senior debut for the Guildford Owls.
Injury struck shortly afterwards, when she first dislocated her shoulder. After surgery on it at the age of 20, she returned to playing, but this time in a different code. When the Australian Rugby Union decided to centralise its women’s rugby sevens program in pursuit of gold at the Rio Olympic Games, Simon decided to switch to a code that paid their players.
POSITIVE
Early in 2014, sevens coach Tim Walsh spotted Simon playing for the national Indigenous side and by July of that year, she was contracted.
“She’s just very elusive, an attacking worker,” Walsh said. “Fast, agile and really good kicking game as well, in terms of her tactical kicking.
“As a person, she’s very quiet and unassuming. She had a smile that just sort of lit up a room. She’s probably one of the most positive people to have around because she’s just always smiling.
“When she toured with the team, she was 13th (reserve) a couple of times and was just so positive on the field and off the field and always happy.
“When she got picked in the 12 for her debut, she dislocated her shoulder in the warm-up before game one and never actually took the field, which was a huge disappointment.”
With her Rio dreams shattered, Simon had to re-evaluate her football goals. Rugby league was calling, but things needed to change – with talk of a women’s competition being mooted.
In March, when the NRL announced the four teams for its inaugural competition, Simon was already back in the fold. She returned to league with the Redfern All Blacks (now South Sydney Rabbitohs) last year in the NSWRL Premiership, and her table-topping 14 tries for the season – five more than Jayme Fressard in second spot – made her a sought-after signing for NRL clubs.
Simon was duly announced last Sunday as one of 15 Roosters marquee signings for 2018.
PLAYING FOR FUTURES
The State of Origin has been around for decades but only this year they ditched the mundane Interstate Challenge moniker and renamed it the same as the men’s series. Tomorrow night the players have their first opportunity to show the nation what they’re in for with the expansion of the women’s game.
Many of those running out at North Sydney Oval have earned selection through their efforts week-in, week-out in the NSWRL and QRL premiership or for City or Country at the National Championships.
Simon is joined by nine of her Roosters teammates in the NSW squad – although there are still four uncontracted players in the Blues side who tomorrow night will be literally playing for their futures.
“It is so exciting,” Simon said. “Just being young and watching the men play, you never thought the opportunity would come where women would be able to play for all the clubs.
“It was an honour just to be a part of the history built around it, to create something for younger girls coming through.”
NO RUSH
They seized the opportunity to ride the World Cup momentum at the tail-end of last year, but the NRL is not rushing into talk of expansion or full professionalism until they see the results of 2018.
Tiffany Slater, NRL senior manager women’s elite programs, said the goal was to have as many women as possible playing rugby league and to do that, they need a women’s competition that will last the distance.
They consulted closely with the players throughout the whole process.
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It was NSW fullback Sam Bremner who came up with the “Same Game. Our Way” tag for women’s rugby league, which speaks to what is trying to be achieved.
In order for any of it to succeed, women’s rugby league needs the support of sponsors and the fans, who need to understand and accept that it won’t be the same as the men’s game. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be great viewing.
And so tomorrow’s State of Origin feels like the start of something big for women’s sport.
“Where this [Origin] sits on the calendar of 2018 for women’s rugby league is a really important event, but we’re very aware that we’re still, to some extent, at the education stage with our fans and stakeholders as to what this looks like,” Slater said.
“We were lucky to come off the back of the World Cup being so successful. It’s about increasing that engagement and Origin is one way of doing that.”
And with players like Taleena Simon back in the sport, they should not have much trouble winning over fans.
“It’s going to be a big smash fest,” Simon said.
NRL-CONTRACTED BLUES
Roosters: Taleena Simon, Corban McGregor, Isabelle Kelly, Nakia-Davis-Welsh, Lavina O’Mealey, Maddie Studdon, Elianna Walton, Simaima Taufa, Vanessa Foliaki, Nita Maynard, Ruan Sims (injured).
Dragons: Sam Bremner, Talesha Quinn, Kezie Apps.
Uncontracted: Rebecca Riley, Rebecca Young, Holli Wheeler, Hannah Southwell.