One ring for Sammy means more than four for me: Elliott
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Millie Elliott has the chance to join front-row great Glenn Lazarus as the only players to win grand finals with three clubs, but the Roosters prop is more motivated to send Sam Bremner out with a premiership.
Bremner has done everything in the game except win a premiership and she has the chance to fulfil that ambition on Sunday against the Sharks before retiring to take up a newly created role as Female Football Manager for St George Illawarra.
In contrast, Elliott won premierships in her first two seasons in the NRLW, helping the Broncos to grand final wins over Bremner’s Dragons in 2019 and the Roosters in 2020, before captaining the Knights to their first title in 2022.
Lazarus, who was a member of grand final winning teams at Canberra in 1989 and 1990, Brisbane in 1992 and 1993 and Melbourne in 1999, is the only player to have won premierships with three clubs in 117 seasons since the game begun in Australia.
Sammy’s done everything there is, from playing local footy in Helensburgh on a Saturday morning at 10am, to representing her country and playing in grand finals.
Roosters prop Millie Elliott
Elliott can join him after Sunday's grand final, but she is more focused on ensuring Bremner succeeds in her last shot at glory after coming out retirement when NSW five-eighth Corban Baxter ruptured her ACL on the eve of the NRLW season.
“When she retired the last time, I felt let down and disappointed that I had never got to play with Sammy Bremner,” Elliott said. “I played against her, but I never got to play in the same side as her.
Vintage Bremner
“To be able to take the field with her this year was bittersweet, obviously not having Corbs, but to have Sammy come in and be able to play with her, I feel very blessed for that opportunity.
“She's such an athlete, and she's such a good person, and such a good mother as well.
She is someone we can all strive to be like; she’s the player that you want to play alongside.
"She's just got the bloody dog in her, she's such a competitor and she is always working hard for her team-mates. She'll never give up.”
Bremner was the first signing for the Dragons in 2018 before sitting out the 2019 season due to the birth of her first child, Reef.
She made her comeback with the Dragons in 2020 before having another season off for the birth of daughter Lakey.
After again returning in 2022 to lead the Roosters to the grand final, Bremner co-captained the victorious Jillaroos at her third World Cup.
That was supposed to be the end of Bremner’s illustrious career but after the birth of her second son, Cali, last year, she accepted an SOS from Roosters coach John Strange.
“We were so lucky Sammy was keeping fit,” Elliott said. “She came in after no pre-season – you know, she just had her third child - and hasn't missed a beat.
“She's already been part of the squad before, she’d played fullback when Corban was pregnant, so she’s got that history there with the Roosters, she's played at the highest level, and she knows what it takes.”
While only 32 years of age and still one of the best fullbacks in the NRLW, Bremner feels she has more to offer the game and will again become a pioneer when she takes up her new role with the Dragons on November 1.
Among Bremner’s responsibilities will be overseeing the club’s women’s football program, including pathways and coaching structure, developing the next generation of players and shaping the NRLW roster.
“She's one of the first to play the game and she is also one of the first ones to take up a role like this,” Elliott said.
“Sammy’s done everything there is, from playing local footy in Helensburgh on a Saturday morning at 10am, to representing her country and playing in grand finals, as well.
Bremner is in rare form
“She's worked so hard in so many different areas of the game and I feel like she can have that influence now from a higher level that can really make a difference for the girls coming through.
“I think it opens doors for more girls to be able to take on those higher roles and be able to have an impact in the game from a player's point of view, but also from a female's point of view.
“We see males in those positions, more often than not, but Sammy knows what it's like to be a player, she knows what it's like to play grassroots footy as a female, to work on the weekends and to have kids in between playing.
“This is a great step forward for our game and it's honestly the best thing that the Dragons could have done, with her being a Dragons girl from growing up.
“A lot of the younger girls probably wouldn't realise the impact this will have, but they'll soon see how much of a difference it can make for retaining the talent that is born-and-bred in that area and getting the right coaches and support around them.”
