‘I still get butterflies’: The highs, lows and history of Women’s Origin

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It was in 2018 that Blues co-captains Isabelle Kelly and Kezie Apps stepped onto North Sydney Oval for the first women’s State of Origin, but the pair still can’t help but feel elated by it five years later.

“That’s probably my favourite Origin game,” Kelly reflects.

“I still get butterflies remembering when we ran out … It was the first kind of big thing for women’s rugby league.”

For Apps, who will captain the Blues for a fifth time at CommBank Stadium on Thursday night in game one of the 2023 series, that first year was something special.

“Even the little things like the fire when we ran out, we [had] never really had the whole experience or the whole build up to it,” Apps said.

“I remember the crowd. It was so loud … you couldn’t even talk to your mate next to you, you couldn’t hear the ref.”

Sky Blues co-captains Isabelle Kelly (left) and Kezie Apps.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

With five minutes to go, the two states were gridlocked. Kelly had scored in the opening 10 minutes, making history as the first women’s player to score an Origin try, but in the dying minutes of the game, she linked up with fullback Sam Bremner to split the Queensland defence and secure victory for NSW.

“We were drawing [the match], and then the crowd just got behind us, and I think for me, that was my highlight of my Origin career. You just can’t top that.”

Before 2018, women’s rugby league had the interstate challenge — a match between NSW and Queensland that had all the appearance of an Origin game, but lacked the title and promotion.

And so, on June 22, 2018, Women’s Origin was born on a cool night in North Sydney in front of a crowd of 6824 people, with a 16-10 victory for NSW.

Blues celebrate after victory in 2018.Credit: NRL Images

The fixture returned to North Sydney in 2019 with crowd attendance jumping to 10,515 — a clear indication there was an appetite for women’s rugby league in Australia.

“People always ask us, wouldn’t you rather play before the men, and we always say no because we love having our own standalone game where people just want to watch us play, they’re not there for the boys, they’re there to watch us,” Kelly said.

The pandemic-riddled years brought crowd numbers down but, beneficially to the players, last year’s Origin series was sandwiched between two NRLW seasons after the 2021 NRLW draw was postponed to April 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A record 11,321 people turned out to Canberra last year to watch the Blues defeat the Maroons 20-14, and now NSW get the upper hand with a home game to kick off the 2023 series, which will see two matches played.

NSW Blues celebrate victory in Canberra after winning the 2022 Origin series. Credit: NRL Imagery

There have been plenty of developments in the game since that first night in North Sydney. The matches are longer, the skill level is higher, and the women’s game is growing rapidly, exemplified by the expanded NRLW draw in 2023.

“Some of the skill that some of the girls have [now], you look at Jesse Southwell: 18 years old and her skill set is enormous. Having the pathways now that we have, those girls can come through and be confident that they’re going to play in the Blues jersey or in the NRLW,” Kelly said.

“That’s what we have always wanted, and that’s what the girls before us have always wanted, was to create pathways for people like me and Kez and girls a lot younger … Origin has been the biggest landmark which has made that happen.”

Pay for women’s Origin lifted to $15,000 per game for the first time this year, but is still at 50 per cent of the men’s wages, and the series expanded to a controversial two-game format, leaving the door open for more work to be done in the future.

“Three games [and] getting paid really well, I’d love to see that for the girls, and then full-time, hopefully. That’s all we want. We want girls to be able to strive to be full-time athletes,” Kelly said.

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