'It's the feeling of Origin': clamour for women's State of Origin intensifies | Joe Gorman | Sport

'It's the feeling of Origin': clamour for women's State of Origin intensifies | Joe Gorman | Sport

Steph Hancock won’t say for sure if this is her final year as a rugby league footballer, but she knows the stage is set for a dream end to her career. The veteran Queenslander is preparing to defend Australia’s title at the women’s World Cup in November, and on Sunday, will be part of the Queensland side attempting to win back the interstate challenge from NSW.

Nobody â€" not even the NSWRL or the QRL â€" has kept accurate records for the interstate challenge, but from 1999 to 2015 the Queensland women’s side went undefeated. “Of those 17 years that they were unbeaten, the number of games they won straight was like 30 plus,” said Brad Donald, the coach of the Australian women’s side, the Jillaroos. “It was an outstanding achievement.”

Hancock, 35, has been a key figure in this success story. Her father Rohan, who played for Queensland in the first State of Origin match in 1980, could not be more proud of his daughter’s role in the Queensland side.

“When she was eight years old, she wanted to play footy, and I was the assistant coach of a little side in Killarney,” recalls Rohan Hancock. “I’d coach the kids on a Tuesday and then they’d go in and get coached by a bloke in Warwick on a Thursday. Anyway, this day the kids got beat 60-4.

“The next time we played them, the coach said, ‘you ought to let your daughter have a run’. She went out there and against the same side, she scored four tries and kicked two goals and the team won 30â€"4. A selector of junior football come over to me and said, ‘that boy there will be a representative player one day, mark my words’. I said, ‘hey Steph, take your headgear off’.”

The rest, as they say, is history. Before the interstate match last year, Steph Hancock offhandedly told a reporter that she would “give it away” if Queensland lost. NSW won 8-4 but any thoughts of retirement were immediately put on hold.

My blood’s boiling and it’s not just me â€" all the girls feel exactly the same way

Steph Hancock

“It was the most devastating game of football I’ve ever played in my entire life,” said Hancock. “Losing a World Cup? I can handle that. I’ve been part of it for so long, and being the captain, I didn’t want to be part of a side that lost to NSW after 17 years. That didn’t sit well with me, obviously because of the history, family-wise, and also because of how passionate I am about Queensland. My blood’s boiling and it’s not just me â€" all the girls feel exactly the same way.”

Despite her unbridled passion for the Maroon jersey, Hancock has technically never played a proper “State of Origin” match. None of the women have. For reasons that have to do with funding and development, the interstate challenge â€" also known as the Nellie Doherty Cup â€" still operates under residential selection policies, meaning that players are picked for the state in which they live, not their state of origin.

“It’s about money,” explains Jo Barrett, a former Queensland representative player. “Up until very recently, players paid their way for everything â€" you got a team levy when you made the rep side. So, if I was working in Sydney and wanted to play for Queensland I would be putting my hand in my pocket to travel and play.”

Barrett and Hancock point to the case of Tarah Westara, who, despite being born in Innisfail and having played for Queensland, was forced to play for NSW when she moved south. Other examples include Nat Dwyer and Tahnee Norris, who played for Queensland even though they were from NSW.

And then there’s the current NSW second rower, Vanessa Foliaki, who last year moved north to play for Burleigh Heads in the South-East Queensland competition. Raised in Sydney’s western suburbs and a self-described “true blue”, Foliaki asked if she could continue playing for NSW. Her situation brought the eligibility issue to a head, and the QRL and the NSWRL agreed to let her continue playing for the Blues. According to Donald, “she’s the catalyst for change”.

Foliaki, 23, says that being a part in last year’s breakthrough win for NSW was “the best feeling and the greatest achievement” in her career. “I always wanted to play Origin and play for NSW,” she says. “Most of us rarely use the term ‘interstate challenge’, because playing for NSW or Queensland, it is the feeling of Origin. The rivalry we have between the two states is exactly like the men.”

This year Foliaki is playing for Easts Tigers in Brisbane alongside her partner, Karina Brown. And even though Brown plays for Queensland, that hasn’t lessened Foliaki’s desire to represent NSW. “For 80 minutes we’re enemies,” she says, “but after that it’s OK, we can be friends.”

Brad Donald, who was born in NSW and coached Queensland for five years before taking over as Jillaroos coach in 2016, believes a State of Origin for women â€" with all the appropriate billing â€" will come sooner rather than later.

“The big issue with having ‘Origin’ eligibility is that it’s focused on where players played up until 12,” he said. “And without the girls having continuous pathways [from 13 to 17] just yet it’s not a straight match for eligibility for the girls.”

It is true that most of the women currently play for their home state and, like Foliaki, already refer to the interstate challenge as a “State of Origin”. Donald attributes the Maroons’ long period of success to the fact that the women’s team play with the same “Queensland spirit” as the men. And according to Barrett, who will be part of the Fox Sports commentary team on Sunday, even though “the crowd wasn’t there, the TV cameras weren’t there, a Queensland jersey is a Queensland jersey”.

However it is also true that the words “interstate challenge” don’t have the emotional resonance and pulling power as “State of Origin”. Women’s sport advocate and founder of the Ladies Who League website, Mary Konstantopolous, admits that she wasn’t even aware of the existence of the interstate challenge until NSW won in 2016. A change in perception around the women’s game, she believes, will come from how the game is promoted. Since 2015 there have been both male and female Dally M awards, while earlier this year, the Jillaroos played an Anzac Test match before the men and the World Cup final on 2 December will be a fully integrated double header.

Women’s participation is currently the fastest growing area of rugby league, and in a contested marketplace where football and AFL both have national women’s competitions, league has a golden opportunity to bring women into one of the best-known rivalries in Australian sport. “I think we can’t underestimate the power of words,” said Konstantopolous. “Hopefully that happens next year and the [women’s] State of Origin becomes this big thing.”

Donald is predicting a blockbuster match in Wollongong this weekend. In an historic move, NSW will be paid under contract, and have at their disposal a new generation of talented players such as Kezie Apps, Maddie Studdon and Sammy Bremner. Meanwhile Queensland will be playing as underdogs for the first time and will potentially be farewelling senior players Renae Kunst and Hancock.

Rohan Hancock, who will travel to Wollongong for what might be his daughter’s last game in Queensland colours, supports the introduction of State of Origin for women, promising that his daughter is “a Queenslander through and through”.

“It’s come to that stage, if we’re going to keep up with the other competing codes we need to step it up and go along with the boys,” said Steph Hancock. “We’re the ‘Nellie Doherty Cup’ and the boys are ‘State of Origin’. I think we’re at the stage where it should just be State of Origin.

“My dream would be to win the World Cup at Suncorp, leave my boots in the shed and go and celebrate for a week. I couldn’t think of anything better than playing 15 years of footy and winning the World Cup to end it in front of all my family and friends. And especially if Queensland wins this game, by the way.”

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