The players have spoken.
"It is extremely stressful when it comes to being able to play this game, which is the top of our game, as our first."
Maroons co-captain Ali Brigginshaw has voiced the vibe of all the athletes blasting into a highly amped up 2025 Women's State of Origin series at Suncorp Stadium on Thursday. The NRL has elevated the Women's Origin concept to key plank status in its commercial and business designs for the game in Australia. Fans are promised a spectacle worthy of State of Origin's legendary bedrock; the best of the best, at the peak of their powers, trying to tear one another apart.
The rapidly growing fanbase voted with their feet to break attendance records across the 2024 series and the players have very much done their bit. It's been stellar, it's been brutal. But it could be even better.
NRL players have 11 rounds of elite footy and a preseason before the Men's State of Origin comes around. The majority of this year's Women's Origin representatives haven't played consistent elite footy since last October. Coming in cold is an understatement, even for the Vegas trotting Jillaroos among them. As Blues prop Ellie Johnston said earlier this week:
"'Our off season is so long and us as individuals have to do our own training and running programs. That is hard to do for five to six months."
Both teams come into this year's series off an extended training camp. State level football hasn't been on the agenda and wont be until June. Last year several players suffered season-ending injuries not long after the Origin period was complete and had NRLW seasons curtailed. A few of them are playing on Thursday.
Irrespective of future decisions, Queensland are the champions of the arena as they hunt for three straight. Last year they out-ground the Blues in the moments that mattered most; late in the series-levelling game two. An 11-10 Blues lead in the slop of a sodden Hunter Stadium, a scratchy Lauren Brown drop kick from 25 metres out. More than 25 thousand shivering souls watching it wobble, drift and dip over the uprights. A series gone, and a series captured.
This was June 6th last year, a Maroons course correction after the Blues cruised to victory in the Suncorp Stadium opener. Three weeks later the Blues travelled to Townsville and lost all intensity in transit. An error riddled and out muscled evening and the maiden three-game joust went north. Tahnee Norris and her Queenslanders, held together by a core of the game's genuine greats, taught NSW the Origin lesson that infuriates them the most. Queensland did a Queensland on them.
Twelve months on and the Blues are quietly going about learning the lesson and have picked a team high on energy, attack and aggression. Coach John Strange, recalled 11 players from last year, alongside four debutants and that again with prior Origin experience. It's a squad drawn from a six week process of testing combinations, building entirely new ones and addressing shortfalls from last year.
Points were one of the biggest problems for the Blues, with a deluge of scoring opportunities not bearing fruit across the entire series. This issue became worse when the grind was on, as per the drenched slog outs in the two games they lost. Halves Rachael Pearson and Corban Baxter were unable to take control of the more decisive moments and had the back foot in the territory battle. They were out-kicked and out-maneuvered and Origin fairytales quickly became nightmares.
Pearson was the story of the buildup after beating Newcastle superstar Jesse Southwell - widely considered the NRLW's best halfback - to the gig. Baxter did an ACL in an NRLW trial not long after the series and missed the entire season for the Roosters. This year attack is firmly on the agenda for the Blues brains trust. Southwell is in for Pearson and will be joined by eight-gamer Tiana Penitani. The 29-year-old Sharks star has priceless Origin experience, but zero blue jerseys featuring No. 6 on the back. Being the NRLW's reigning Dally M centre of the year, her selection over specialist pivot Kirra Dibb raised eyebrows and her decision making will be fiercely tested by the Queensland pack. Strange is banking on the dual premiership winning Southwell to control the tempo and territory, while Penitani's running game provides an effective point of difference.
Twenty-seven-year-old full time paramedic Abbi Church will debut at fullback, not an undaunting prospect up against newly minted Maroons co-captain Tamika Upton. The Queensland custodian is a giant of the women's game and will provide the sternest of tests for Church (and the entire Blues team). The Eels star is a consistent tackle buster and metre-eater with high post-contact numbers. She's not renowned for a passing game and Strange is prepared to trade up for territory and dents in the Maroons line. The 27-year-old's support work off the likes of Southwell, Jess Sergis and Simaima Taufa up front could also prove game breaking in an extremely tight tussle.
Roosters try-scorer Jayme Fressard represents another facet of that whole 'Queensland did a Queensland' thing, completing a decade of near misses to snare a debut on the wing. The passion on display from the likes of her and fellow Rooster Jocelyn Kelleher, capable of plugging a hole anywhere on the field. The pair round out a six-strong Roosters contingent for club coach Strange, twice that of the next best represented Knights and Sharks. It's a grand final winning connection (from six months ago) and makes sense given the series' current framework.
Sharks prop Ellie Johnston is another debutant picked for a very specific role. She brings a huge defensive work rate, tough carries and speedy play the ball to a front row also featuring Jillaroos stalwart Taufa and Keeley Davis. The Johnston/Taufa combo replaces Millie Elliott and Caitlan Johnston-Green, who are both taking time away to start families. Eels lock Kennedy Cherrington is recalled on the bench to break a spell of elite footy dating back to her LCL blowing out in Round 6 of the NRLW last year. Her inclusion rounds out a powerful and aggressive forward rotation. Metres, speedy play the balls, and that word again - aggression.
The Maroons come in with 10 Brisbane Broncos and six debutants in the 20 woman squad. Tahnee Norris has navigated a number of big name availabilities with energy, versatility and power, and invested heavily in the untried.
Broncos star Jada Ferguson will debut in place of reigning Cowboys player-of-the-year and last year's incumbent utility Emma Manzelmann. Roosters premiership winner Tavarna Papali'i will also begin her Origin career from the bench, offering halves cover and forward relief at a pinch. The ultra tough Keilee Joseph steps from lock into the gaping breach left by prop Shannon Mato (maternity leave), with Makenzie Weale and Sophie Holyman to bring high work rates to the middle rotation. Holyman makes her first gameday appearance in Maroon and completes an entirely new bench from last year's decider.
Rory Owen and Jasmine Peters come together on the left edge to round out Norris' debutants. Peters is arguably the Cowboys' most dangerous ball runner, while it's a huge assignment for Owen opposite Blues weapon Isabelle Kelly. Norris has seen enough in six weeks - and after a scintillating 2024 rookie season for the Eels - to back her.
It's a very different side to last year's decider and one full of quality. At its core is the hardened regiment of troops who've delivered the past two shields to Queensland. Brigginshaw, Tarryn Aiken, Lauren Brown, Julia Robinson and Tamika Upton have muscled up for the big moments before and lead a side capable of putting points on from anywhere. Proud's girls have been assembled to bring some shock and awe; match and exceed the Queenslanders for physicality and turn sniffs into points. They might just be about to wrestle one back this year, but the great variable of the game's timing means anything can happen.
Frustration with the current framework will remain for both sides throughout and long after the series. It's a valid and entirely rational stance; the NRLW kitty allows for an average salary of just under $35,000, with the competition's peak deal tipping $60,000. Within three years the latter figure will be a few grand below the average, and more than double what it was when the competition began in 2018. The game grows and the elite status of its athletes slowly catches up. NRL head office needs to consider speeding up this process to give its biggest stars the chance to reach the commercial pedestal expected of them.