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![\"Keele](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/keelecwb-2.jpg\"\/)
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\n Keele with students in Ballimore \u2013 a small village in the Orana region of NSW.
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Despite having just turned 23, Keele Browne enters 2026 as the Dragons\u2019 second longest-tenured player.<\/p>\n
Keele\u2019s first taste of rugby league came at age 15 when her local club \u2013 the Milton-Ulladulla Bulldogs \u2013 debuted their first female tackle team.<\/p>\n
Her introduction to the sport may have been delayed by a then lack of female rugby league infrastructure, but it has wasted no time growing into a core of Keele\u2019s life with the Dragons star spending her time off the field travelling with the Dragons Community Team and mentoring aspiring rugby league players at Illawarra Sports High.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe world of rugby league is my job at the moment,\u201d Keele laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel very fortunate to be in that position because I know what it\u2019s like trying to balance and juggle work, full-time study, training or just life outside of footy.<\/p>\n
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\n Keele with students in Ballimore \u2013 a small village in the Orana region of NSW.
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\u201cTo be able work for the club and be in a position where my life revolves around rugby league probably fuels my passion if anything. I feel very lucky and privileged to be in that position. I\u2019ve just loved it and realised quickly how passionate I am about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a reality that, as a young girl growing up in a small town on the state\u2019s South Coast, Keele didn\u2019t know was possible.<\/p>\n
But now with a Bachelor of Exercise Science, a Prime Minister\u2019s XIII cap, and 34 NRLW appearances to her name, Keele\u2019s journey is just starting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just so grateful for every opportunity because I wasn\u2019t always afforded these opportunities when I was younger,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know that people from a small town could do all these things, but I think it just makes everything more exciting and more rewarding to go out and achieve things that I\u2019m proud of and take on opportunities. I\u2019m glad that I grew up in Ulladulla; it made me really grateful for everything that I have now. It made me want to go out and see the world and chase life, I suppose.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cI love going out there and encouraging the kids to have big dreams and chase them because it\u2019s easy to get caught up. I enjoy reassuring them and making sure that they know that they can be whoever they want to be, they\u2019ve just got to work really hard for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Keele was this year nominated for the NRL\u2019s Veronica White Medal thanks in large part to the hours she spends visiting schools, junior clubs, and community groups \u2013 particularly in regional areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a soft spot for all of the small towns we visit because they don\u2019t always have a lot out there and they always show so much gratitude,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think growing up in a small town, you don\u2019t always think those big opportunities are for you. I love going out there and encouraging the kids to have big dreams and chase them because it\u2019s easy to get caught up. I enjoy reassuring them and making sure that they know that they can be whoever they want to be, they\u2019ve just got to work really hard for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The arrival of new work pal Hannah Southwell earlier in the year has proven a blessing for Keele as she continues her development both on and off the paddock.<\/p>\n
\u201cHannah\u2019s been great,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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\n ![\"Hannah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/keelecwb-4.jpg\"\/)
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\n Hannah & Keele share a laugh.
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<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s so funny and she\u2019s a great person to work with. She\u2019s brought a lot to the club; the whole team gets around her. She\u2019s been a great addition to both the Community Team and obviously our squad. She brings so much leadership, and we get along really well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keele this year played every minute of every game for the Dragons tallying career-highs in run metres and tackles made en route an NRLW Coaches\u2019 Award \u2013 a recognition of her stature at the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like you play good footy when you\u2019re enjoying your footy and I had a really enjoyable year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really excited about what we\u2019re building here and the direction we\u2019re moving in as a club. I feel like our results on the field didn\u2019t reflect where we\u2019re at. We\u2019ve got a lot of work to do over off-season, but I really think that we\u2019ve got something building and it\u2019s a really good space to be in at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keele\u2019s youth has done little to curtail the continued strides she has made as a leader with each step along her way offering her small lessons and pieces of guidance.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes, I still feel like that 18-year-old that I was when I first came in,\u201d Keele laughed.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI just try to make sure that I\u2019m staying true to my values and my words and the person that I want to be on and off the field. I want to carry myself in the best way that I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cBut it\u2019s nice to be able to help those girls that are coming in fresh because I was in that position not long ago. I try and help them out where I can because I know what it feels like to step into the NRLW as a young girl\u2026 Leadership to me is just living by your own values and leading both by actions and words, but probably more so actions.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of words can be said, but it doesn\u2019t really mean anything unless action\u2019s being taken. I just try to make sure that I\u2019m staying true to my values and my words and the person that I want to be on and off the field. I want to carry myself in the best way that I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now preparing for her sixth campaign in the Red V, Keele\u2019s focus is on sparking a climb up the competition ladder for her Dragons.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s crazy to think that I\u2019m one of the club\u2019s longest-tenured players, but it is home for me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had so many opportunities that\u2019ve come from rugby league, so it really does feel like home and the club means so much to me. I know that we haven’t had the success that we\u2019ve wanted, but I\u2019d love nothing more than to win a premiership for this club. I have a lot of love for the club, and I have a lot of faith in where we\u2019re going.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite having just turned 23, Keele Browne enters 2026 as the Dragons\u2019 second longest-tenured player. Keele\u2019s first taste…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-295806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295806","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=295806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}