{"id":639502,"date":"2026-04-30T01:13:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T01:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/639502\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T01:13:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T01:13:12","slug":"blues-out-to-rewrite-womens-state-of-origin-history-against-maroons-in-newcastle-series-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/639502\/","title":{"rendered":"Blues out to rewrite Women’s State of Origin history against Maroons in Newcastle series opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

New South Wales is chasing its first Women’s State of Origin win over Queensland in Newcastle when the series kicks off tonight.<\/p>\n

The Blues have lost to the Maroons in both of the State of Origin matches played in the NSW city.<\/p>\n

They were defeated 18-14 in last year’s dead rubber after already wrapping up a series victory, and in 2024, it was a Maroons’ field goal that separated the teams in an 11-10 thriller.<\/p>\n

Tonight’s series opener is the only match to be held in NSW in 2026.<\/p>\n

The final two matches of the series will be played in Brisbane and Robina.<\/p>\n

“We haven’t been too lucky here in Newcastle,” Blues captain Isabelle Kelly said.<\/p>\n

“Every time we’ve been here, we’ve actually really enjoyed it as well, so it’s not a sense of doom and gloom for us.<\/p>\n

No games, no problems for Blues ahead of Origin kick-off<\/a><\/p>\n

For the second year in a row both New South Wales and Queensland enter the women’s State of Origin match with barely a game between them this year.<\/p>\n

“Winning game one is a huge boost within the series. I think it can bring a lot of team morale and confidence within the group.”<\/p>\n

Kelly said there would be a wave of Blues support from the crowd in Newcastle.<\/p>\n

“When you look around here, and you have all the fan base here, it’s huge,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Every time I’ve played here, whether it’s State of Origin or NRLW, I think you can really feel a sense of pride from the town and community with supporting women’s sports.”<\/p>\n

Several Blues stars hail from Newcastle, including half-back Jesse Southwell and Knights captain Yasmin Meakes.<\/p>\n

Southwell has spent the last four seasons starring for the Newcastle Knights in the NRLW but has signed with Brisbane for the upcoming season.<\/p>\n

“It’s special, Newcastle always shows out for the women’s game,” Southwell said.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New South Wales is chasing its first Women’s State of Origin win over Queensland in Newcastle when the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,3925,54317,23423,10668,25993,2733,94,701,159,85,6405,301836],"class_list":["post-639502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-blues","tag-isabelle-kelly","tag-maroons","tag-newcastle","tag-nrlw","tag-nsw","tag-qld","tag-queensland","tag-rugby-league","tag-sports","tag-state-of-origin","tag-womens-state-of-origin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639502","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=639502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}