Sydney Roosters star Olivia Kernick opens up on culture, Jillaroos axing and eligibility rules
International eligibility, how she healed from the Jillaroos axing and why taking a step back helped her move forward. Ahead of the NRLW season, the biggest star in the game Olivia Kernick lays it all bare.
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Olivia Kernick is the biggest star of women’s rugby league at the moment.
Dally M Medallist, NRLW premiership-winner and NSW State of Origin champion, the 24-year-old gun is coming off the biggest season of her career.
And she looks every bit ready for a better one in 2025.
Off contract at the end of the year, the Sydney Roosters are currently working on an extension and are hopeful of locking her down until the end of 2027 in the coming weeks.
One of the few women’s rugby league stars to make mainstream sports headlines, it’s been a whirlwind ride for the explosive lock, who has remained largely private until now.
Ahead of the NRLW season start this week, Kernick sits down with The Sunday Telegraph to talk about her family, culture and international eligibility rules in a way that she never has before.
JILLAROOS AXING
Kernick is at the peak of her powers.
But she never really created meteoric attention until she was dropped from the Jillaroos for the Pacific Cup by former coach Brad Donald in October last year.
It came as a total shock just days after she helped the Roosters to the NRLW premiership, and claimed the Dally M Medal as player of the season.
She should have been riding the biggest high of her career to date, but instead she was left devastated and confused, as the public was left to make sense of the call.
The news came as she was celebrating the title win with teammates on a harbour cruise. A mood killer to say the least.
Instead of wallowing, she used a rare off-season to spend time with her mum Del in Te Puke on the east coast of New Zealand, reconnecting to culture and family in what was ultimately a healing trip.
“It definitely hurt not making Jillaroos selection. That’s always everyone’s goal at the end of the year, to be selected and to represent your country,” she says.
“But the silver lining in the non-selection was I got to go over to New Zealand with my mum.
“We hadn’t been back in six or seven years, and genuinely, if we didn’t get to do that together, I don’t know if she would have gone.
“Now we’re planning on going over again for Christmas, we got a rousing from the family for not going over sooner.
“It always hurts missing out but I don’t know if that opportunity would have come up again, and I’m grateful it worked out.”
Instead of going into camp with the Jillaroos, she played a Maori rugby league tournament (similar to the Koori Knockout in Australia), for the first time.
“That was really special that I got to do that with mum and my family while they’re watching, it was a really cool experience.”
TWO PARTS OF A WHOLE
Kernick is a laid back girl from the Central Coast, but her face lights up when you talk about family.
Her dad Brad is an Indigenous man from Forster, and her mum Del is Maori, born in Whangarei before moving to Australia in her 20s.
Their two proud cultures intersect in their children, of which Olivia is one of three.
“Footy has really driven my passion for my culture,” she says.
“It’s really important when you’re in this space and you’ve got a platform to use to be proud of who you are and your culture. You never know who’s watching.
“That’s what I’m aiming to do, and to look after my community as much as possible.”
She’s one of a handful players who have represented both the Indigenous and Maori All Stars, and she’s eligible for both Australia and New Zealand.
“Growing up in Australia there wasn’t a lot of Maori kids around us,” she explains.
“We were going back to New Zealand every year, but it’s just something where, if you’re not immersed in the culture, it’s really easy to lose.
“Since playing footy in All Stars, and that was sort of my first crack at one of the big games, every time I play it’s so special to me. It really helped me reconnect to my Maori side.
“You can’t know everything, but it inspires you to learn more and to be better for the community.
“I was always proud of who I was, always proud to be blak, and I’m proud to be Maori once I understood it.
“As a little kid you get a little bit embarrassed about those parts of yourself but I just love that sport has made me reconnect to my culture and made me proud of who I am.”
INTERNATIONAL ELIGIBILITY
After her debut season in 2021, the Kiwi Ferns coach Ricky Henry called her to ask her to play for New Zealand.
She didn’t realise it would make her ineligible to make her eventual State of Origin debut, if she accepted.
“I was super fresh into the game so I actually had no idea, I was a deer in headlights,” she said.
She turned down the opportunity and went on to play for NSW and the Jillaroos in the World Cup later that season.
To this day, anytime a New Zealand team is announced, there’s pleas from fans on social media asking her to switch allegiances.
Asked if she would like to play for New Zealand one day, she said: “My honest answer is yes. Obviously I love playing Origin, it’s such a huge carrot right there.
“And I love playing for Australia too, Australia is my home.
“But being able to represent my mum and her side of the family … I grew up always being an All Blacks fan, I thought New Zealand was my home.
“Dad would go for Australia and I’d be on mum’s team when we’d watch rugby union.
“With the eligibility rules how they are, I wouldn’t do it, though.”
As it is in the men’s game, players who represent a tier one nation other than Australia cannot play State of Origin.
The Jillaroos are the best international team in the world, but the Origin battle between NSW and Queensland is the highest quality contest in the women’s game.
It’s not something Kernick is willing to give up.
“It would be good if they didn’t have strict eligibility in the women’s game,” Kernick says.
“I didn’t grow up in New Zealand but half of my family still live there, it would be cool to represent them one day.”
A DAY IN THE LIFE
She uses this unique cultural perspective in her work with Deadly Choices, as a facilitator for Goanna Academy with Greg Inglis, and with the Trainer Group Foundation.
Her work with the Goanna Academy is recent.
She’s delivering programs to Indigenous scholarship students from remote areas across some of Sydney’s most elite private schools, helping to strengthen their identity and confidence through an enormous transition.
As important as work is to her, in 2024 she took a bit of a step back to be more selective with her time. And it’s no coincidence her performances skyrocketed.
“It’s so hard for part-time athletes, especially women, with the money side of things you’ve got to be willing to risk not earning as much,” she says.
“But I just really wanted to put my best foot forward.
“When I’m training at night, I’m home by 8.30 or 9pm, and by the time I get to sleep it’s 10.30, and then I’m up again early in the morning, so I wasn’t sleeping.
“I wanted to prioritise my body and I think that really played a part in our success as a team last year, because I know a lot of the girls at Roosters did that too.
“I’m living with my best friends and we always say, these are the best days of our lives at the moment, so to be able to take a step back from work and still work towards our goals, whether in footy or outside of football, I’m lucky to be able to do that and still live a really fun life.”
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