From Cbus Super Stadium on the Gold Coast to Wagga Wagga’s Geohex Park, Warriors fans were at their boisterous best across a massive weekend of footy.<\/p>\n
For 2025 Karyn Murphy Medal winner Mele Hufanga, the support was heartwarming as she stepped out in Warriors colours for the first time at NRLW Magic Round.<\/p>\n
In her\u00a0first game since last October\u2019s grand final when she helped steer the Broncos to premiership glory, Hufanga clocked up 129 metres and busted six tackles in the 18-16 loss to Murphy’s Titans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess the hype and build-up has been amazing,\u201d Hufanga told NRL.com.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously it\u2019s not New Zealand but it\u2019s been before a very appreciative crowd, which shows how much women\u2019s rugby league is growing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not the result we wanted but I\u2019m so glad to be back running out there with the sisters.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Mele Hufanga Try<\/p>\n
After missing the first four rounds with a hamstring tear, the Kiwi Ferns international revelled in the support of the Wahs faithful.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we rocked up to play, getting off the bus, I saw a lot of Warriors jerseys and heard, \u2018Up the Wahs; Up the Wahs\u2019, which brought a lot of joy… very cool actually,” she said.<\/p>\n
Although she didn\u2019t envisage the first game for the Warriors after three seasons in Brisbane would be in rural NSW, Hufanga is simply glad to be back playing although she forgot how match fitness can slip away during rehab.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOne hundred per cent! After the first 10 minutes I was thinking \u2018holy moly\u2019 but I just kept looking to my sisters on my left and right and that kept me going,” she said.<\/p>\n
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Warriors v Titans – Round 5, 2026<\/p>\n
“I did not want to let them down.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The frustration with her first hamstring strain taught her a valuable lesson \u2013 patience.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never had this injury before and this is the longest injury I\u2019ve had so it was pretty tough,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI just kept telling myself, \u2018hang in there and it will come good\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Then I kept thinking about a new club, new colours and how that would affect things.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The 2025 Karyn Murphy Medallist<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I had Gayle (Broughton) next to me and all those times at the Broncos we had together kept flooding back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool and something special always happens if I keep close to her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me I just want to keep bettering my performance each week, ticking the boxes. People ask if I can be as well as I did at the Broncos and I know I can.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Cbus Super Stadium on the Gold Coast to Wagga Wagga’s Geohex Park, Warriors fans were at their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":841193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-841192","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\/841192","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=841192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}