Women’s State-of-Origin match wins Peter Frilingos Headline Moment of the Year
IT was the moment that rugby league proved that the women’s game in its own right could draw a big crowd and a mass television audience.
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IT was the moment that will forever mark the arrival of women’s rugby league to the main arena.
Although the start of the inaugural premiership was still 10 weeks away, it was the women’s State of Origin encounter at North Sydney Oval in late June that made people sit up and take notice as the season’s Headline Moment of the Year — named in honour of the late Peter “Chippy” Frilingos, the Daily Telegraph’s much-loved and respected former Chief Rugby League writer.
Coming under the State of Origin banner for the first time, the match was the first occasion it had been treated as a stand-alone fixture as part of the representative weekend — and shown live on prime-time TV on Channel 9 and Fox League.
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A nation was watching – almost 7000 at the ground, with more than a million on TV – and the NSW and Queensland players, who had been waiting a long time for this moment, did not buckle under the expectation of producing a cracking game.
“I think it’s a moment in time that will be reflected on later, but free-to-air broadcast, simulcast with Fox, multiple radios, live crosses from news coming into it,” NRL CEO Todd Greenberg said at the time.
“There will be some casual fans who will turn on Friday Night Football not sure who’s going to play and will go ‘wow’.
“I think this has been a long time coming, these things don’t happen overnight by clicking your fingers and hoping, so there’s a lot of people who have worked hard, mainly the players who have been working for a long time to get the opportunity.
“It is a very hallmark moment for the game.”
The NSW and Queensland players delivered a match worthy of its title, as gritty and hard-fought as any men’s Origin match.
It was an arm-wrestle that went down to the wire. A break late in the game by NSW’s Lavina O’Mealey laid the foundation for the deciding play when the Blues shifted left to find strike centre Isabelle Kelly, who busted through to score and break the 10-10 deadlock. It sealed a 16-10 victory.
The match hit the backpage for its significance for women’s league. It ignited a hunger for women’s football and set up the forthcoming competition for a blockbuster arrival in September.
The inaugural women’s competition didn’t disappoint, with Sunday’s premiership grand final to be fought out between state lines — the Brisbane Broncos against the Sydney Roosters.
These two teams are brimming with talent from that Origin game, with plenty of old scores to be settled.
It has the makings of another grandstand game that could cement NRLW in that main arena Origin was delivered to us in June.
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