Women’s State of Origin kicks off tonight.
The three-match series pits NSW and Queensland’s best women’s rugby league players against each other.
It will also act as a preview for the coming NRLW season, set to kick off on 2 July.
Here’s what to know.
State of Origin
State of Origin is a three-game NRL series between NSW (the Blues) and Queensland (the Maroons).
Women’s Origin began with a one-off game in 2018.
It expanded to two games in 2023, and to three games (the same as the men’s series) in 2024.
Team selection isn’t as simple as where players live, or which team they currently play for – e.g. players on the Brisbane Broncos aren’t automatically locked in to play for Queensland.
There’s a complex eligibility system covering where players went to school and where they lived before they turned 13.
Fun fact: in the men’s series, a state can select a player if his father played for them.
NSW
Last year’s winners NSW will be captained by Isabelle Kelly, and feature debutants Teagan Berry (the Dragons) and Rima Butler (the Roosters).
Your contribution ensures The Daily Aus can continue doing the work you love.
I want to give $10 monthly to help TDA keep doing the news.
Your details:
TDA’s player to watch is Tiana Penitani Gray, set to make big moves this year in the back row.
In the regular season, she plays for the Cronulla Sharks, and has represented Australia in rugby league and sevens.
She told TDA the Blues have been through six weeks of “intensive” training and are “excited to get to show how hard we’ve been working.”
Millie Elliott is set to return for game one after missing last year’s series due to pregnancy.
Elliott told NRL.com: “There are so many players who have paved the way in having kids and coming back to the sport... at a level better than they were before.”
“I don’t know what the science is, but it is probably experiencing childbirth and knowing that nothing can be that bad,” Elliott said.
Qld
Qld will be captained by Tamika Upton, who is also TDA’s player to watch.
Upton is Qld’s biggest attacking threat. She’s been part of five premiership-winning teams and has two Dally M Medals (the award given to the best player across a season). In the regular NRLW season, Upton plays for the Brisbane Broncos.
The Maroons have several newcomers, with the Sharks’ Chantay Kiria-Ratu, the Roosters’ Otesa Pule, and the Titans’ Phoenix-Raine Hippi, Ivana Lolesio, and Destiny Mino-Sinapati.
While game one is in Newcastle, NSW, Maroons vice-captain Lauren Brown said: “We have won the last two here, and [the Blues] haven’t so that will be a huge goal for them to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
The game is set to kick off at 7:45pm tonight (AEST) and will be broadcast on Channel 9.
