Less than six months ago, Berry was on the verge of hanging up the boots due to being burned out and no longer enjoying rugby league.<\/p>\n
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\u201cTowards the end of last season I didn\u2019t enjoy footy that much and I was thinking about walking away from the game,\u201d Berry said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t enjoying it and I didn\u2019t find it fun coming to training. It took a lot from my family and my partner to really change that for me. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy partner got me out of a dark place at the start of the year. He\u2019s been my motivation through this. My family\u2019s my motivation to keep going, to make them proud is all I play football for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thankfully, the St George Illawarra Dragons fullback decided to remain in the sport and has subsequently been rewarded with an Origin debut after being close to making the representative team for a number of years.<\/p>\n
Bursting onto the scene as a standout in the female pathways, Berry represented the Under-18s and Under-19s NSW Blues during her teenage years and is remembered fondly for becoming a viral sensation in 2021 when she scored an 80-metre try on the Sunshine Coast.<\/p>\n
NO NEWS.COM NO NEWS WIRE NO AUSTRALIAN DAILY TELEGRAPH – 23\/4\/26 MUST CHECK WITH PIC DESK BEFORE USING Westpac NSW Blues player Teagan Berry at the NSWRL Centre of Excellence at Sydney Olympic Park, ahead of the opening game of the 2026 Ampol Women\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u0082\u00ac\u00e2\u0084\u00a2s State of Origin series. Picture: Jonathan NgSource: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n
However, after previously being named as the 18th and 19th reserve player, she finally gets the opportunity to make her long-awaited senior Origin debut – coming off the interchange bench in the No.17 jersey.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still pinching myself. It\u2019s been a long time coming. I\u2019ve been 20th man, 19th man and I\u2019ve played 18s, 19s Origin, but this jersey means more to me than anything,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was hard, I wasn\u2019t sure when I was going to get my chance and I\u2019m 24 this year, so I was like, I\u2019m not sure if I\u2019ll ever play Origin, but now that I\u2019m getting my opportunity it\u2019s a dream come true for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeading into this I feel like I worked very hard. I\u2019ve been disappointed the last couple of years and I feel like I\u2019ve used that as motivation. I get my chance now, and I\u2019m going to take it with two hands.\u201d<\/p>\n
NSW Blues debutant Teagan Berry poses for a photograph during the announcemnt of the Women\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u0082\u00ac\u00e2\u0084\u00a2s squad for Game One of the Women\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u0082\u00ac\u00e2\u0084\u00a2s State of Origin Series, at the Sydney Opera House, in Sydney, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AAP Image\/Dan Himbrechts) NO ARCHIVINGSource: AAP<\/p>\n
Nicknamed \u2018Flash\u2019, Berry is keen to run out onto the field on Thursday evening and has been working a lot on her craft as a fullback which has involved her eating more and doing more weights in the lead-up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been in the six-week block leading into this and I feel like I worked so hard, I\u2019ve been disappointed the last couple of years and I\u2019ve used that as motivation and I get my chance now and I\u2019ve just got to take it with two hands,\u201d Berry continued. <\/p>\n
\u201cI know I\u2019m meant to be here, and it took me to really focus on my training and ask questions from the coach and have that good relationship with him. I\u2019ve just worked hard. <\/p>\n
\u201cI worked on my craft a lot at fullback. Last year I may not have done as well probably in the skill area and this season I\u2019ve worked on both my skill and my running game and I\u2019ve come a long way<\/p>\n
Why Berry ‘had to be picked’ in NSW team | 01:41<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was coming through, I was probably the skinniest girl in the team and the girls here are honestly so solid and they\u2019ve worked so hard on their bodies to get it right and I feel like I have probably chunked out a little bit to get there as well. <\/p>\n
\u201cI had to eat a lot more and lift a little bit more, coming from a sprinting background, I didn\u2019t do too much of that growing up and coming through the pathways there. <\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, I love food so that\u2019s not an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahead of making her debut for the NSW Blues, Teagan Berry has opened up on how she considered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-637656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637656","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=637656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}