Live stream: Queensland schoolgirls challenge on ASSRL U16 Championships a real family affair
Cousins Evelyn Roberts and Leilani Taofinu’u are set to form a dynamic duo for Queensland schoolgirls at the ASSRL Championships. Read the deep dive on every member of the side.
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It will be a family affair when cousins Evelyn Roberts and Leilani Taofinu’u line up alongside each other for the Queensland 15-16 years schoolgirls at the ASSRL championships starting on Saturday.
Roberts will play as a ball playing No.13 while Taofniu’u will be the right edge strike centre.
The cousins have been reunited at Marsden SHS after Roberts moved over from New Zealand.
Earlier this year Roberts fast tracked her rugby league development by playing in the Lisa Fiaola Cup with the Canterbury Bulldogs where she was a two-try hero in a premiership-winning side. She was also named Player of the Series.
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She joined her cousin at school in Marsden SHS, where Taofniu’u has established a reputation as a hole running and strong defending centre.
Watch for the girls to link up on short side raids down the right side.
Every match of the ASSRL Under-15/16 Nationals will be exclusively live streamed on KommunityTV from June 30-July 5.
Check out the full LIVE STREAM schedule below.
The Queensland team also includes a track and field record breaker, Riley-Jay Henry-Purcell.
Last year she produced a 45.14m effort to smash the QGSSSA championship 15 years discus record representing Brisbane State High School. She will be back this year as a 16 years competitor.
1. Janique Mili (Marsden SHS)
A wonderful natural athlete who has an instinctive understanding with the team’s No.1 play maker, Lili Lewis, whom she has been playing with since Year 7 at Marsden SHS. A fullback or winger of PNG descent, Mili played in the corresponding championship last season as an under age player.
2. Lacey McLaren (Palm Beach Currumbin SHS)
The fierce headgear wearing fullback from the southern Gold Coast will bring plenty of attack to this team, but don’t underestimate her cover defence, which was on show often during the Harvey Under-17s season for Burleigh.
Like her brother Marley, Lacey’s kicking game is one of her biggest assets and it will no doubt be used alongside Luadaka’s at this year’s event.
Watch for the PBC SHS and Currumbin State School product to evade plenty of first up defenders with her elite left to right step.
3. Leilani Taofinu’u (Marsden SHS)
As mentioned earlier, Leilani is an outstanding centre prospect who can hit a hole better than any of her peers in this age group. A Future Titans squad member, Taofinu’u will give her halves a running option on the left side of the field. She was also a terrific defender.
4. Lilliana Nati (Wavell SHS)
Queensland Under 17 City selection Shalene Lilliana Nati was an outside back with untapped potential.
The energetic Redcliffe Dolphins fullback was a cool and composed customer, with a sprinkle of x-factor where she mixes her speed and power to make half breaks and get her team onto the front foot.
5. Evoltia Tuala (St Margaret Mary’s College)
An Oonoonba State School product who was an outstanding track and field athlete as a child, she has progressed to be among the top rugby league player sin her age group. Vice-captain of Northern during the state trials, she made the Queensland country under-17s earlier in the season after a strong club season for Blackhawks in the Harvey Norman under-17s.
6. Lilianah Lewis (Marsden SHS)
The young general will pair with Torah Luadaka to direct Queensland around the field. Lewis has an understanding of the game which is inherit, something which cannot be coached. A member of last season’s Queensland schoolgirls team, she will be that little more advanced both physically and mentally for her second stint at the championships.
7. Torah Luadaka (Keebra Park SHS)
What a talent. An elite talent from the Keebra Park SHS, Luadaka will pair in the halves with Lili Lewis. She has an uncanny understanding of how to read the play, and also a terrific kicking game.
Luadaka made the City under-17s this season and also the News Corp Harvey 17s Team of the Season earlier in the year after an outstanding contribution to Tweed Seagulls campaign.
13. Evelyn Roberts (Marsden SHS)
A whiz kid from New Zealand, Roberts made an impact playing Lisa Fiaola Cup under-16s when she was named player of finals as Canterbury surged to a premiership win in the NSWRL pathways competition.
She played five-eight for the Bulldogs, but she will start at No.13 where her ball skills will add variety to the halves pairing of Lewis and Luadaka. Her NRLW idols were Annessa Biddle and Ali Brigginshaw.
12. Star Arthur-Clarke (Marsden SHS)
A striking talent from that hot bed of rugby league talent, Marsden SHS, Arthur-Clarke will give the Queensland side plenty of thrust on the other side of the ruck to another second row strike player, Macey Lahrs (mentioned below).
11. Macey Lahrs (Kirwan SHS)
She comes from a great rugby league pedigree - her father Tom represented Australia and NSW and her brother Kaiden was a 2023 Australian schoolboy and last year’s Queensland schoolboys captain - but the high achieving Macey Lahrs has a sporting portfolio which stands on its own. She is a cross code wonder, having represented North Queensland in basketball and having helped Kirwan SHS star in the Champion Basketball School of Queensland Championships. In rugby league the athletic forward has been a prolific try scorer at junior level and will be a forward leader.
10. Sienna Trew (BSHS)
Queensland has a bundle of courage in Sienna Trew. The competitive utility is absolutely fearless and came on in leaps and bounds for the South Logan Magpies in the Harvey under-17s earlier in the year.
A tight forward who could play edge, she has had plenty of practise honing her skills - her older brother Bailey played in a Broncos pre-season trial game against Wynnum Manly at Kougari Oval earlier this year.
Sienna, who attends Brisbane State High School, is a member of the Titans Futures squad.
9. Enah Desic (Marsden SHS)
Queensland have a grand dummy half in Desic, a Warrigal Road SS alumni who had a mighty club season for the Brisbane Tigers earlier in the season. A goal kicker, she has a clever running game when needed but importantly has bedded down her service from the ruck which her halves Torah Luadaka and Lili Lewis will cherish at the championships.
8. Luisa Olomalii (Marsden SHS)
Emerging Marsden SHS middle forward Luisa Olomalii was a metre-eating prop that moved mountains for her brave Redcliffe Dolphins Under-17s side earlier this year.
Alongside eyes up sister Raewyn, a hooker, the Olomalii’s were central to the Dolphins’ attack where Luisa’s hard carries laid a brilliant platform for Raewyn to distribute or go herself.
14. Okalani Compton (Keebra park SHS)
The fearless Burleigh Bears enforcer was another Queensland Under 17 selection despite missing the inaugural Harvey girls season.
The Keebra Park utility forward played at last year’s event and will provide plenty of highlights this year with her thumping defence, vision around the ruck and ferocious fend.
She can play a variety of positions in the forwards and by the end of the tournament opposition players will have learned to make business decisions around tackling her.
15. Bella Alo (Stretton State College)
An instinctual right centre from Stretton State College, Bella Alo honed her skills at the nest earlier this year with the Magpies Harvey Norman Under-17s side.
Sporting bright pink boots, Alo burst onto the representative scene with a lovely intercept try against Burleigh in round one and was consistent in the games that followed.
16. Leevi Williams (Stretton State College)
Williams is a lovely, natural outside back athlete who flows when she runs. She shone for Wynnum Manly as a fullback in the under-17 Harvey Norman competition and her selection in this company will surprise no one.
17. Emilee George (Ipswich SHS)
An elite second rower, George has been a rugby league prodigy who last year made the Wanderers representative side which travelled to the United Kingdom and France. Originally a Kenmore SHS product who is now with Ipswich SHS, she plays club league for the Ipswich Jets.
18. Aaliyah Temete-Boga (Keebra Park SHS)
The emerging Keebra Park SHS Year 10 student is an edge forward dynamo in rugby league and in rugby union, a creative playmaker for the Gold Coast Eagles.
Lock would be a great position for Temete-Boga where she can use her power to fight through contact and her ball playing ability to create for others.
19. Leteena Medland (St Joseph’s College)
A Highfields & District and Oakey junior, Medland is part of an exciting crop of back rowers swamping the Darling Downs representative seen in both the under-17s and under-19s. Medland is community minded, always helping out around the Oakey club - including as a referee.
20. Riley-Jay Henry-Purcell (Brisbane State High School)
The persuasive skills of BSHS schoolmates Rana and Noa Pasese and Sienna Ibrahim lured Henry-Purcell back into rugby league after she had put the code on pause after relocating to Brisbane from New Zealand in 2017 where she had played with the Mt Albert Lions juniors. The Queensland selectors were glad this first class No.13 was encouraged back into the code as she will be a forward leader in the pack.
Originally published as Live stream: Queensland schoolgirls challenge on ASSRL U16 Championships a real family affair
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