{"id":434485,"date":"2026-01-24T13:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T13:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/434485\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T13:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T13:04:09","slug":"st-helens-duo-gaining-experience-in-australia-via-exchange-partnership-total-rugby-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/434485\/","title":{"rendered":"St Helens duo gaining experience in Australia via exchange partnership \u2013 Total Rugby League"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

ST HELENS co-coach Derek Hardman is confident Caitlin Maylor and Mia Drescher will come back from their current exchange visit to Australia and push for more first-team action this year.<\/p>\n

The duo are spending time with Redcliffe Dolphins\u2019 Under 19 side as part of a female player-exchange partnership designed to enhance development.<\/p>\n

Maylor stepped up to Saints\u2019 first team last season and made five substitute appearances for the Grand Finalists while Drescher, who has now been officially promoted to the first team for 2026, featured twice.<\/p>\n

But with the experienced gained in Australia, Hardman is expecting to see more from the pair when they return to the UK in April.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThose two are loving it out there,\u201d said Hardman. \u201cThe big message they\u2019ve sent back so far is that the training isn\u2019t actually that different, but it\u2019s the environment of being able to train without having weather conditions against you and being able to embrace the lifestyle of being a Rugby League player that is (different).<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they are very brave for going out there at their age and living so far from home, and that experience will help them when they get back and are pushing for the team here.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing you can\u2019t put into people is life experience, so hopefully this trip has accelerated them a bit to what they want to achieve here.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are both very talented young players, but we are very blessed at halfback with Zoe Harris and Faye Gaskin.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019ll drip-feed them in to the side. We don\u2019t want to overawe them because there is an expectancy here \u2013 people always expect St Helens to be competing for trophies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about protecting them a little bit and doing right by them, but they will play at some stage this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lindsay Anfield keen to see Catalans Dragons ‘add buzz’ to Women’s Challenge Cup<\/a>Quadruple-winning Wigan Warriors ‘hungry for more success’<\/a>Megan Pakulis returns to York Valkyrie after NRLW spell<\/a>St Helens to be cautious with returning star Leah Burke<\/a>Stuart Barrow sets out England’s plans for World Cup preparation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST HELENS co-coach Derek Hardman is confident Caitlin Maylor and Mia Drescher will come back from their current…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-434485","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\/434485","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=434485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}