NRLW 2024: Roosters star Jayme Fressard on troubled childhood, Isabelle Kelly opens up on the family tragedy
Jayme Fressard likely wouldn’t have developed into the NRLW star she is today had she not got expelled in year 10 for “getting into a few fights”. Hear the Roosters fireball open up on her troubled childhood that turned her into a rugby league machine.
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Sydney Roosters winger Jayme Fressard nearly didn’t make Sunday’s NRLW grand final.
But where would she be if she wasn’t expelled in year 10 for “getting into a few fights”?
The tattooed fireball from the Central Coast certainly wouldn’t have represented Australia for rugby sevens at the Commonwealth Youth Games in 2015, nor become a top NRLW tryscorer aiming for her second premiership.
If a cataclysmic turn of events hadn’t up-ended her world, her Roosters captain Isabelle Kelly wouldn’t have introduced her to rugby league back in 2016.
And she wouldn’t be at Accor Stadium on Sunday, a living example of successful second chances.
Who knows what would have happened to her? But she’s so grateful not to have found out.
“I was hanging out with the wrong crowd,” the 27-year-old explains.
“I was a bit troubled in high school and then it wasn’t until year 10 that I got expelled, but it ended up being the best thing that could have happened to me.
“I ended up going to a new school that loved sport, and I was such a sporty kid.
“As soon as I switched schools they got me straight into footy.
“They mentored me and saw some potential in me and that’s all I needed, just a few people in my corner cheering for me.
“I ended up finishing year 12 and representing Australia at the Commonwealth Games, all within two years of being expelled.”
The short fuse still ignites sometimes, and you can see it in the passion Fressard plays with for the Roosters.
“I didn’t have the best support network,” she says.“But that’s been a massive thing for me, having that support network and I think I’ve got it at the Roosters.”
FULL CIRCLE
It’s a story she tells now as a youth worker at the same school that saved her more than a decade ago, Gorokan High School at Lake Haven on the Central Coast.
With her lived experience as a kid in trouble, she now helps other at-risk teenagers from the area see their potential. Hopefully that saves them, too.
“They get the experience that I’ve been through, I’m a local girl going through all of that, to now working at the school and they see me on TV as well,” she says.
“I just try and be the person I needed when I was younger. If I can go through it and come out the other side, then anyone can.”
Back then it took just one teacher to believe in her.
“I signed up for one of the school footy teams, and she told me, ‘If you’re naughty or you’re in trouble, you can’t play’,” Fressard says.
“But then she watched me play and saw that I had talent, so she actually took me down to rugby union trials.
“I had never played it before but she encouraged me to give it a go.
“She full took me down there, and I ended up getting picked up in the team, then NSW and it tumbled from there.
“It was just one teacher going, ‘I believe in you’. And that’s what I try to be now with these kids, just to be a positive influence on them just in case they might not have that at home.”
COASTAL TIES
The next person to step in was Roosters skipper Isabelle Kelly.
Her family is heavily involved in rugby league on the Central Coast and a chance message brought the two together just as the women’s game started to grow legs.
“Isabelle Kelly actually shot me a message, they were starting up a women’s rugby league thing at Berkeley Vale and she said, ‘Come have a go’,” Fressard said.
“That’s where my journey started with rugby league, so I’ve been playing footy with Izzy now for almost 10 years.
“It’s a pretty special experience to go together this weekend and share this journey which I absolutely love.”
The famous rugby league area has produced a stack of women’s stars and the through lines are evident through the Roosters grand final team.
Coach John Strange and his wife Adele are heavily involved in the Central Coast Roosters elite academy, which has developed Dally M Medalist Olivia Kernick, Jocelyn Kelleher, Shannon Rose, Kelly and Fressard.
“Strangey has come through the Central Coast and pulled a lot of us Central Coast girls through the system, and really upskilled us and now we get to repay that to him,” Fressard says.
“They’re very passionate about the Central Coast elite program, that’s where I’ve come from and that’s where a lot of these girls have come from too.”
FAMILY TRAGEDY HELPING KELLY PUSH THROUGH PAIN
Courageous Sydney Roosters skipper Isabelle Kelly routinely pushes her body to extremes because she has an unfortunate wisdom that comes with worse pain.
Days before she leads the Roosters onto Accor Stadium against Cronulla to chase her second NRLW premiership, the private star has opened up about the tragic death of her mum Maree 11 years ago.
Kelly was just 17 when her mum suffered a brain aneurysm, suddenly ripping her from the young Central Coast family at the age of 50.
It was a senseless and scary tragedy that has reverberated through the lives of the Kelly family since.
As the Australia and NSW star prepares to play through yet another painful injury, a dislocated elbow she suffered less than a fortnight ago, she draws strength from knowing she has survived far greater.
“I’ve been through a lot of tough things in my life mentally, and I lost my mum when I was quite young, so I reflect on that as something that I’ve been through a lot worse in my life and why I’m willing to do everything I can for this team,” she says.
“I adore this club. I adore everyone that’s part of it. I just think back to the tough times that I’ve gone through before, and take that as a bit of motivation that nothing’s going to be ever as hard as that time that I went through.”
SUDDEN TRAGEDY
The 28-year-old is one of the biggest stars in rugby league, but Maree never even got to see her play.
“She had a brain aneurysm, so it was super sudden,” Kelly explains.
“It was something that happened to my mum, and then it kind of skipped a generation. So it happened to my nan’s mum as well.
“It’s a bit scary, but she was 50, and she lived a great life.
“She had beautiful kids, a beautiful marriage, and was so very loved, so at the end of the day, that’s all you can ask for.”
The devastation brought the Kelly family close together, with dad Ken left to raise Isabelle and her two brothers Dylan and Jack.
“I’m a very private person, and family for me is the biggest thing. And my dad means the world to me. My brothers mean the world to me,” she says.
“I don’t like to reach out too much and tell much about my story, because everyone goes through something in their life that is absolutely horrible, but all my friends know and people close to me.
“But it’s a huge motivator for me and why I play, and why I feel like I can push through things as well.”
RUGBY LEAGUE TIES
Her father, former rugby league player Ken Kelly who played for Manly in the 1980s, eventually settled with Maree at Berkeley Vale on The Central Coast, where the family was heavily tied to the local rugby league club.
That’s where the love of the game blossomed for the Roosters skipper.
With her dad as president and mum as secretary of the club, she would spend weekends running through the canteen and watching her brothers play.
“Playing rugby league is something that was really close within my family and really close with her,” she says.
“I find that I have a big connection with her when I’m out there playing on the field.
“She never got to see me play rugby league, but that’s okay.
“Rugby league’s always been a massive part of my life, and I still remember sitting there watching Origins and all of us as a family just screaming the house down.”
It goes without saying that for a teenage girl on the verge of adulthood, Kelly needed her mum at such a pivotal time in her life.
The impact of an enormous loss like that, so sudden and unfair, has a ripple effect.
PAIN THRESHOLD
It’s why Kelly’s relationship with pain is a complicated one.
Last season she suffered an horrific throat injury in the opening State of Origin game that put her in Westmead Hospital’s intensive care unit for two days.
She was cleared of a larynx fracture after heavy contact with Queensland winger Julia Robinson, but the swelling was traumatic and she struggled to breathe while coughing up blood.
It rocked her, no doubt, but she backed up to play Origin II three weeks later showing courage through her fears.
On Sunday she played with heavy duty strapping on her right elbow just seven days after dislocating it, brushing off concerns her season was over.
“It actually subluxed, so it went back in. I didn’t have to deal with it staying out, which was great. I probably would have fainted, but yeah super painful,” she says of the injury.
“But rugby league is a sport where injuries are obviously going to happen, and they’re very common.”
Not only did she play and win the semi-final against Newcastle, she ran 152 metres (the second most behind Millie Elliot on 157 for the game) and seven tackle-breaks, despite sitting out the final 20 minutes of the game.
Living, in all its suffering and glory, is what she intends to do for her mum.
“I’ve always had a thing that she missed out on so much in her life,” she says.
“And I want to live my life feeling and doing as much as I can, and really live my life to the fullest.
“I think sometimes we take for granted how special life is and what we can do.
“And I think for me, that’s where I find my motivation as well.
“And I love pushing my body to the limit. I love being able to do things that you might not think you’re able to do.
“And I think leading this team has really showed me that.”
INJURIES MOUNTING
She still hasn’t missed a game for the Roosters in six seasons at the club.
It’s a remarkable record for a player of Kelly’s power, but a welcome statistic for the Roosters who have been dealt another heavy injury toll this season.
Fellow representative centre Jess Sergis spent six weeks sidelined with an MCL injury, while halfback Tarryn Aiken missed a fortnight with an AC joint injury she will need to have needled to take on the Sharks on Sunday.
Star fullback Corban Baxter also suffered an ACL injury in the pre-season, which brought former Jillaroos captain Sam Bremner out of retirement as a favour to coach John Strange.
Bremner, who will officially retire after the grand final, has never won an NRLW premiership across her 15 year rugby league career.
Giving Bremner the send off she deserves is just another motivator for Kelly, as if she needs another reason to win.
After winning the 2021 premiership, the Roosters have been bumped out of back-to-back semi finals before this season and the feeling burns.
“It’s something that I held on to for quite a long time, and I know that I’m only one person out on that field, but I take a huge responsibility for it,” she says.
“It’s something that I use as a motivation. It’s really driving me to get the win.”
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