How gift of gab changed footy forever for Burleigh star Tahnee Norris

Getting a front-row seat to the most influential man in footy is a good way to get noticed.

GETTING a front-row seat to the most influential man in footy is a good way to get noticed.

Tahnee Norris may have already been a veteran Jillaroos player and women’s footy star but it wasn’t until 2013 that she felt the game change.

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Playing in Tests and rep games was great, but chewing the fat with NRL CEO Dave Smith while a marquee women’s contest played out in front of you proved the perfect cocktail for promotion.

It was a conversation that would well usurp any of Norris’ personal achievements in the game, and one she still hails as the defining moment of her career.

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Former NRL boss Dave Smith. Picture: Hollie Adams

“I’d played for 15 years with the Jillaroos but it wasn’t until the 2013 World Cup in England, which we won, that the game changed,” said Norris, now the Burleigh Bears QRLW coach.

“(Aussie teammate) Ruan Sims and I were sitting either side to Dave Smith and we were watching New Zealand play England in the semi-final, with the winner to play us.

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“He was talking about how good the game was and how good it was to watch.

“And we said ‘well, you’re the man that can change this. You can give us the opportunity to move forward and put the product on primetime TV’.

Tahnee Norris with the 2013 World Cup trophy. Picture: Supplied

“Going on to win the final helped, but we just wanted the recognition the game deserved and that was the massive change for women’s league.”

And how things evolved.

“Everyone started to notice,” Norris said.

“The Roosters won the grand final and we took the trophy around before the game in front of the crowd.

“All the media around it changed and got bigger.

“So it wasn’t about me personally (and my big break) but it was about the women’s game and where it’s gone.”

Australia's most capped Test women's and men's rugby league players Tahnee Norris and Cameron Smith. Picture: Supplied

While NRLW talents these days are still streets behind NRL counterparts in pay, Norris said that World Cup at least ended the era of playing just for love.

“That was the first time we didn’t have to pay anything to go away,” she said.

“We spent thousands on touring over the years and this was the first time, while we didn’t get paid, we got meal allowances.

“We didn’t have to put our hands in our pockets to go away.”