HUNTER female footballers will not only be in prime position to watch the Women's State of Origin game between NSW and Queensland on Friday - they will also be on the field and part of the action.
St Catherine's Catholic College Singleton's under-14 girls rugby league team has won an Ampol Little Origin competition, which will see them represent NSW and take to the field at Sunshine Coast Stadium at half-time to play against their Queensland counterparts, Yeppoon State High School's under-14 girls team.
The school's sports coordinator and the team's coach Matt Edwards said it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.
"It's a very rare experience, they're going to flash the girls' names up on the big screen as they run out so I'm sure we'll have plenty of parents snapping photos of the big screen as a memory for years to come," he said.
"These girls are a pretty special bunch, they're very active, they love their sport, not only just rugby league, but any sport that's thrown at these girls they grab it with both hands and are pretty successful at - they're very talented girls."
Competition entrants were asked to produce a one minute video about why they loved school football.
The team only had about 45 minutes to pull theirs together. "I had to tell them twice they were successful."
All 11 players - and one of their parents or carers each - flew to Queensland on Thursday for the all expenses paid trip. NSW centre Jessica Sergis presented the girls with their jerseys for Friday night and the girls did a tour of the stadium.
Today they will participate in training sessions with NRL development officers and an education session with former player Clinton Toopi, before heading to the stadium for the game.
Year eight student Tyla Matthews, 14, joined the team last year and said she was "pretty excited for a little small town like Singleton to win this competition".
"It's pretty exciting for all us girls to run out there and have all these people watching on live TV.
"I'm a bit nervous but I'm just hoping it's a clean game, nobody gets hurt and we don't make a fool of ourselves on live TV!"
