Brittany Breayley knows the importance of having visible role-models in women’s sport. At 17, Breayley hadn’t considered rugby league as an option for girls. She came from a union background, but was lured into league by the chance to play alongside Jillaroo Ranae Kunst in her regional hometown of Mackay. With Kunst as inspiration, Braeyley was an instant convert.
“Playing alongside Ranae, I knew there was a career in league, a chance to make the Queensland and Australian sides, so I chose to pursue a footy career,” she says. “I chose to live by the motto, ‘dream, believe, achieve’. So I set myself the dream goal to make the Queensland side, believed in myself that I could do it, and was able to achieve that aim the year after.”
Since then, the Australian hooker has achieved much more than making the state side. At 27, she has won a World Cup with the Jillaroos, had a Dally M nomination every year since the award was inaugurated for women in 2015, and was Queensland player of the year for the past two seasons. Now, with the rebrand of the Interstate Challenge to State of Origin, Breayley says she wants to ensure that those lining up for QLD pause to recognise how far women’s rugby league has come.
“It’s a huge honour to get the same brand as the men, to play under that banner is really quite exciting for us,” she says. “It shows how much work has gone on in previous years, from past players – how many sacrifices they had to make to get the game to where it is now.
“[As Queenslanders], when we come into camp we make sure we respect that, and pride ourselves on that. We always reflect on the past and instil that in the girls – that the jersey you put on, the fibres in it have all the sacrifices of past players in them.”
Having watched men’s Origin games for years on TV, Breayley says she is thrilled that crowds and viewers will now have a chance to witness the same “Origin spirit” on display amongst the women who take the field on Friday night under lights at North Sydney Oval.
“Growing up, you’d watch the men go at it on TV, see the hard hits, but until you’re actually involved in it, you don’t know exactly what the Queenslander spirit is,” she says. “It’s really hard to describe [that spirit]. I’d say it’s [embodied in] the hard Queenslander; the never give up feeling that we pride ourselves in. The Maroon jersey means we all play for each other, and our mates beside us.”
Breayley will also be focused on setting the ledger straight against NSW: the Blues have won the last two Interstate Challenge games, but before 2015 (which was a draw), Queensland had won 17 in a row. Asked what enabled such dominance, Breayley credits a strong, “core group” of Queenslanders like the now-retired Karyn Murphy.
“I was lucky enough to play with Karyn when we last defeated NSW – it was her last Interstate Challenge – but full credit to them, they’ve improved their pathways and strengthened their game, [and now] they’ve got a solid core,” she says. “We’re fighting back, we’re doing everything right, and the future is bright for us. Come Friday we’re hoping we can start our winning streak back up again. We have the team to do it.”
Regardless of the result, Breayley says the best part of the added exposure for women’s State of Origin is that girls can now aspire to be like her in the same way that she looked up to Kunst when she first took up league: “To be here now and to have girls aspiring to be like me and looking up to me as a leader on the field, you’d think it’d be an added pressure but it’s not, it’s just an absolute honour.
“Now my nieces go to school and are like ‘oh my god, my aunty plays for Australia!’ It’s cute but it’s also really exciting. Just knowing that girls back at home, when I come back they’re excited to see me and want photos... I’m so glad they have opportunities now to look forward to, and hopefully want to pursue and be in a position like we are now.”
With excitement building towards Friday’s game, and also to the inaugural season of the national competition in September, Brealey is hopeful that attitudes are changing towards women’s sport.
“We play sports that are very male-dominated, so to be recognised and accepted [with State of Origin and the new NRL competition] is such a huge step,” she says. “We’ll have our critics out there, and there’s going to be positives as well as negatives, but we just have to go out there, train hard, play hard, showcase a great product and show people that women can play.”
