{"id":131458,"date":"2025-09-10T00:11:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T00:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/131458\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T00:11:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T00:11:07","slug":"nrl-2025-jillaroos-jillaroos-journey-history-of-womens-rugby-league-tracey-thompson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/131458\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2025, Jillaroos, Jillaroos Journey, history of women’s rugby league, Tracey Thompson"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Jillaroos prepare to celebrate 30 years since their first Test, NRL.com is shining the spotlight on some of the unheralded players who played a key role in the rise of women’s rugby league. This week in our Jillaroos Journey<\/a> series is Jillaroo No.46 Tracey Thompson.<\/p>\n

Tracey Thompson could be the best rugby league player you\u2019ve never heard of. Yet, chances are you witness her impact on the sport every time you turn on the television.<\/p>\n

Thompson\u2019s ability on the field was unmatched throughout the early 2000s. A powerful centre and winger, the former Jillaroos has been compared to Selwyn Cobbo, Latrell Mitchell and Isabelle Kelly.<\/p>\n

To many current and former players, she was the prototypical outside back.<\/p>\n


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Kelly’s road to 15 Tests<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was genetically blessed,\u201d current Jillaroos co-captain Ali Brigginshaw said. \u201cWe see Selwyn Cobbo and Latrell Mitchell, she was essentially those guys but without all the fancy sports science we have now.\u201d<\/p>\n

NRL Hall of Famer, and former teammate, Tahnee Norris agrees.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe could score a try,\u201d Norris said. \u201cShe was a powerful winger that would just run over the top of people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved playing alongside her but unfortunately she didn\u2019t play as many games as we would have liked to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thompson made her Test debut in 1999 as a teenager and played a key role in Australia\u2019s maiden victory over New Zealand.<\/p>\n

It was the Jillaroos first win against the Kiwi Ferns from six attempts and it was another decade before New Zealand would taste their next defeat.<\/p>\n

It was a time when the Australian players were forced to pay their own way, some selling cars just to afford to travel, and stayed in hostels to keep costs down. Thompson, however, said the triumph was an early sign of the side\u2019s long-term potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew how important that moment was,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cThey were a gun team back then and were the best team in the world. They had some of the best players I ever played against so to be able to beat them was amazing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were a lot more advanced than we were. They had a lot more support back in the day and some of the players were like steam trains coming at you. Trish Hina was their five-eighth and one of the best players to ever play the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen she had the ball she was so hard to stop. They were just so fit but built strongly as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thompson\u2019s talent and natural ability were unmatched but her time in the Jillaroos jersey was limited to just five years from 1999 to 2004.<\/p>\n

The outside back played in 16 Test matches and remains in the top ten for both points and goals two decades on.<\/p>\n

A shy teenager when she made her debut, Thompson struggled to spend time away from her family and found the travel difficult.<\/p>\n

In the amateur era, mental health was far from front of mind and she eventually made the call to step away from elite rugby league as the personal toll grew.<\/p>\n

\u201cI struggled with confidence and self esteem off the field,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cI hated going away on tours and I was really shy because I was only a young one. I was best mates with the manager, who was Jeanette Luker and I\u2019d room with her, she was my safety mechanism.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom 2004 I stopped making myself available to play at the rep level. I was fortunate to play 16 matches and continued to play locally. I\u2019d have coaches ring up and want me to play for Australia but I wasn\u2019t mentally strong enough to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thompson\u2019s decision to step away to prioritise her mental health was both incredibly challenging and ahead of its time.<\/p>\n

Awareness of the mental side of elite sport has advanced considerably in the past two decades, with sports psychologists becoming a regular fixture in team environments.<\/p>\n

While she was not playing for the Jillaroos, Thompson continued to play club footy in Queensland and emerged as a leading voice for female Indigenous players.<\/p>\n

Such was her standing within the game, she was named captain of the inaugural Indigenous All Stars side in 2011.<\/p>\n

With support networks for female players still in their infancy, Thompson was determined to ensure future stars have more assistance as they embarked on their rugby league journey.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until she joined the police, however, that the former star felt she was equipped with the skills required to support emerging female players.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe event that changed things for me was when I joined the Queensland Police Service when I was in my 30s,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cI did 12 months training, I did a pathway for Indigenous recruitment and then I did six months through the mainstream path.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin that six months of being around strong leaders and strong role models in that environment, I did a 360. I walked out of that Academy on top of the world, I had so much more confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thompson later left the police force to work in the Indigenous health space before going on to found Iron Traks, an organisation that uses sport to inspire and mentor disadvantaged women.<\/p>\n


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What it means: Pacific Championships<\/p>\n

Thompson partnered with the Australian Defence Force to run multiple army-style camps to equip emerging rugby league players with the skills to thrive on and off the field.<\/p>\n

The former Jillaroo has also become an agent to allow her to take a more hands-on role with the mentoring of young boys and girls.<\/p>\n

Thompson\u2019s agency, Moxie Sports Management, is primarily focused on emerging talent, but also boasts a number of high-profile players such as Dragons veteran Hannah Southwell.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see a lot of young girls coming through that are a bit like me when I was playing,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cI didn\u2019t have the right support off the field to build me up, to believe in myself. When I was playing football I was quite confident but it was the other areas I needed more help with.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d be going to junior carnivals and a lot of agents just swoop on the young players. They\u2019re promising this, promising that but they don\u2019t live up to it. So I went into the space with my business partners Katrina [Robertson] and Brent [Stowers] to create a safe space for our young ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not all about the player, we\u2019re about the person off the field. We want to help you grow off the field, with your career pathways, your confidence and self-esteem. The reason I went into this space was to try and help me.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had someone like myself to help me when I was younger, I might\u2019ve stayed playing at that higher level and not decided I couldn\u2019t do it anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thompson is one of multiple figures working hard to establish more support structures for emerging female players.<\/p>\n

Brigginshaw has witnessed the progress firsthand, with women\u2019s rugby league evolving from an amateur endeavour to elite high-performance sport in the 16 years since her Jillaroos debut in 2009.<\/p>\n

Players are supported on and off the field by their clubs, and receive extensive education from a young age.<\/p>\n

Thompson has been thrilled by the progress but knows there\u2019s more work to be done to ensure every talented youngster can thrive on the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been progress but there could still be a lot more support for them,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of pressure on our young ones coming through and young girls and boys are wired differently.<\/p>\n

\u201cGirls are a lot more sensitive and we\u2019ve got to be careful in that space because they get upset and if they don\u2019t make a team it\u2019s like the whole world\u2019s over for some of them when it\u2019s not. You\u2019re still young, you\u2019ve still got the whole world ahead of you.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s come a long way but because I do a lot of stuff with young girls now I still think there\u2019s a long way to go to make sure we\u2019ve got that right support network in place for them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Jillaroos prepare to celebrate 30 years since their first Test, NRL.com is shining the spotlight on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-131458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}