The Chronicle shines spotlight on Darling Downs top sport stars
From elite coaches and officials to rising and veteran sport stars, the Darling Downs is blessed with great female sporting identities. Here’s our look at the region’s top 35 women shaping sport across the region.
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Ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8, The Chronicle sport team is celebrating and honouring women in sport.
From the grassroots level to the national and international stage, we’re shining a light on Toowoomba and the Darling Downs most influential athletes, coaches, administrators and volunteers.
Courtney-Lee Nolan
The inaugural Toowoomba Rugby League Hancock Edwards Medal winner has been one of the competition’s top performers every season for the Gatton Hawks. A shining example of what hard work and a passion for the game can achieve.
Belinda Slatter
For the past 10 years, Toowoomba’s Belinda Slatter has been living out an increasingly better version of her dream every day. Slatter fell in love with athletics in her school, years and never looked back. Competing at the 2022 Virtus Oceania Asia Games, an international multi-sport competition for athletes with an intellectual impairment, she won heptathlon, 100m and mixed relay silver and gold in the women’s 4x100m relay.
Shenae Ciesiolka
Last year the Brisbane Broncos NRLW flyer wrote her name into the record books when she lined up for the Australia Jillaroos at the women’s rugby league World Cup.
Ciesiolka’s cup run marked the third time she represented Australia, having previously worn green and gold in Rugby Sevens and touch football.
Jackie Gallagher
At Toowoomba Grammar she oversees the development of the school’s athletic program and its student athletes. She also coaches a number of elite athletes and was recently named Sports Darling Coach of the Year.
Sienna Deurloo
Deurloo is one of Toowoomba’s brightest swimming talents. The teenager added another Australian Open Water Swimming Championships gold medal to her trophy cabinet in 2022 winning the Girls 17 years 5km event. She also qualified for the Commonwealth Games trials in three events and despite going up against a more experience field she finished third in the Open 1500m final at the Australian Open Short Course Championships.
Taylah Chapman
The 2022 Sports Darling Downs Junior Para Athlete of the Year is one to watch. She brought home a swag of medals from the 2022 National Championship. Chapman finished with under-15 discus silver, under-17 javelin silver and under-15 long jump bronze. She also recorded a personal best throw to finish fourth in the under-15 shot put and finished fourth in the under-15 100m final.
Lucy Dyson
Dyson is an multi discipline star. At the 2022 Australian All Schools Athletics Championships she won 4x100m under-15 girls gold, 100m silver, 200m bronze and finished fifth in the 400m. She was also named in the Australian under-15 futsal team and will tour Brazil this year.
Chloe Denning
In the space of just a few years Denning has shown great ability in triathlon. The Toowoomba teen added to growing trophy cabinet in 2022 with 16 years silver at the Queensland and Australian schools championships. Denning is also a Triathlon Queensland Development Team Member.
Tatum Stewart
There’s no questioning Stewart’s status as one of Australian hockey’s top talents. For years she has been a staple part of the Queensland and Australian representative and is now a step closer to making a long held dream a reality. Stewart was recently named in the Hockeyroos senior squad.
Emma Stevens
The Toowoomba cyclist made her mark on the Australia, Oceania and world stages in 2022.
Stevens won the 19 years sprint and kierin events and finished second in the time trial at the Australian Track Cycling Championships. At the Oceania Championships she won under-19 women’s sprint and was a member of the women’s team sprint. Racing at the Junior Track World Championships in Israel she was a member of the under-19 Team Sprint team who won silver and set a New Australian Team Sprint Record.
Brielle Erbacher
Erbacher’s 3000m steeplechase Commonwealth Games debut last year was both heartbreaking and inspiring. Despite crashing several times – she battled on to finish her race.
Lizzy King
Holding the reins of one of the Garden City’s biggest clubs is no easy feat, but King has helped the Toowoomba Turf Club go from strength to strength.
King helped the TTC navigate the ‘rough waters’ of Covid-19 enforced restrictions and more recently played a key role in establishing the new King of the Mountain race – Queensland’s richest country race meet.
Demi Hayes
After first lacing up her rugby boots at Fairholme College, Hayes is now considered among Australia’s top Rugby Sevens players.
Co-captained the Australian team to Commonwealth Games gold in 2022.
Maddy Sears
She doesn’t fit the ‘traditional’ horse racing trainer mold, but Sears’ record speaks for itself. Alongside her father Tony, she has produced a number of top class winners in Toowoomba and right across south east Queensland.
Dominque du Toit
Alongside fellow Fairholme College Old Girl Demi Hayes, du Toit was a key figure in Australia’s 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medal win.
Mia Stower
Toowoomba’s lone Suncorp Super Netball rep will be looking to make her mark for the Queensland Firebirds in the 2023 season.
Bianca Daniel
Daniel went from strength to strength in 2022 – setting and breaking her own powerlifting world record – and adding a world championship gold medal to her cabinet.
Emilee Cherry
The Darling Downs premier women’s Rugby Sevens competition is named after one of Australia’s greatest players for good reason. Cherry first played rugby at Fairholme and continues to inspire young players from the region.
Tori Gallegos
Gallegos ranks among Australia’s weightlifting elite. Competing the 59kg division she finished third at the 2022 Singapore International Weightlifting Tournament, Oceania Weightlifting Association Cup Invitational gold, silver in the 59kg division of the Australian Senior Championships and third overall.
Briana Dascombe
Dascombe has rocketed up the rugby ranks in recent years. After first playing the game at school she went on shine for UniSQ in the Downs Rugby Emilee Cherry Cup. More recently she was named in the Queensland Reds Super Rugby W squad. Dascombe has proven playing country rugby is no barrier to career progression.
Georgia Voll
Voll debuted for the Queensland Fire at 16 years of age in 2020 – taking 2-11. She has played in the WBBL and was named in the Australia A squad in 2022.
Aliesha Neumann
Neumann is among the game’s top umpires having officiated at the national, Commonwealth and Olympic Games level. She is also an elite level player.
Lily Black
She is still one of the youngest players in the team but Black has captained the Queensland Country women’s rugby team for the past three years. She is one of Downs Rugby’s top talents and a great inspiration to young players rising through the ranks.
Kaylin Van Greunen
The sharp shooting teenager is looking to follow in the footsteps of Laura Geitz and Mia Stower. In bid to take her game to the next level and hopefully secure a Suncorp Super Netball contract, Van Greunen will line for the Bond University Bull Sharks in this year’s Netball Queensland Ruby Series.
Taliqua Clancy
At the 2016 Rio Olympics Clancy wrote her name into the history books as Australia’s first Indigenous Olympic Games beach volleyball player. She is an inspiration to a generation of young Indigenous athletes.
Jackie Stephson
The QRL League & Club co-ordinator has a massive patch to cover looking after Toowoomba, Warwick and surrounds. Working alongside the TRL she has done a fantastic job administering and growing the game.
Sally Johnston
Johnston has big shoes to fill following the departure of previous general manager Matt Hammond. She has hit the ground running though with a number of initiatives in place already to help grow rugby.
Janelle Sothmann
Sothmann has been a mainstay of Toowoomba soccer for several years – overseeing its growth and expansion from the junior level through the SWQ Thunder.
Jana Anderson
The AFLDD boss was key to another cracking season of Aussie rules on the Downs punctuated by the special appearances of AFL legends Dane Swan and Jason Akermanis in special games.
Lana Harch
The former Australia Matildas and Brisbane Roar came home in 2022 – lacing up her boots for the South West Queensland Thunder. The veteran star is an inspirational figure for the region’s junior players and has plenty of advice and experience to offer.
Meg Englart
The Panthers have gone from strength to strength in recent years and with Englart at the helm that growth is sure to continue. Englart also plays a key role in the development of netball right across the Darling Downs region at the school and club levels.
Lizzie Adams
After video of a Pittsworth man telling an Indigenous player to “shut up you b — c —” aired in 2022, Adams led a campaign to ensure the offender was punished by Toowoomba and Queensland Rugby League. As president, Adams has also been key to Brothers Rugby League Club’s growth in recent years.
Abbey Lloyd
After a long time away playing with the Brisbane Roar and a number of top NPLW and FQPLW squads, Lloyd has returned home. Like Harch, the 2021 FQPL golden boot, is an inspiration to juniors showing the path to professional football can start in Toowoomba.
Mel Lloyd
Abbie sister’s has been a Thunder mainstay for a number of years. A great positive on the club and region’s juniors, Mel is also one of the FQPL’s best attackers.
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