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Blues back-rower Yasmin Clydsdale wants Newcastle to have a permanent place in the Women’s State of Origin schedule to reward her home town’s passionate fans.
A crowd of 21,912 braved the rain at McDonald Jones Stadium on Thursday night to watch Queensland fight back to beat NSW 18-14 and prevent a 3-0 series clean sweep.
That was 12 months after a then Women’s Origin record crowd of 25,782 endured even wetter, wilder conditions as the Maroons levelled the series with an 11-10 win in Game Two.
“I think it just shows how good the support is that we always get here in Newcastle,” Clydsdale said after Thursday night's Origin finale.
“The series was already done, it was 2-0, and we still got so many supporters here to watch the game, in those conditions again.
“I feel like every time we come to Newcastle it seems to rain, but all our supporters still just show up and I absolutely love that.
“I feel like this is the home of Women’s State of Origin, and I love it.”
A last-gasp Lauren Brown field goal proved the difference for Queensland in 2024, and it took late tries by forwards Romy Teitzel and Chelsea Lenarduzzi to help the Maroons claw back a 14-6 deficit to win on Thursday.
“Someone reminded me of that last year, and that field goal,” Clydsdale laughed.
“So it’s a bit of a bogey game but I don’t want that because I love Newcastle, and I want us to keep playing here because we have such passionate supporters and they always show up for women’s rugby league.
"They deserve these sort of matches here. They always show up. We broke the record last year, then Brisbane got the record again this year (a crowd of 26,022 watched Game One on May 1), but there were so many supporters out there and it was such an electric feeling.”
NSW skipper Isabelle Kelly echoed Clydsdale’s sentiments, thanking the Newcastle crowd and anticipating similar support for the inaugural NRLW Magic Round at McDonald Jones Stadium featuring all 12 teams on the weekend of August 2-3.
“It was unreal,” Kelly said. “When we were singing the anthem, we were all whispering to each other how good it was to be here and have everyone turn out, and you looked up and the stands were full.
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NRLW Magic Round 2025
“We know Newcastle love their footy, and I think having the Magic Round here, it’s the perfect place to do it, so we want to probably say thank you to Newcastle for turning out for us and making sure that we could put out a good effort.
“It's not the result that we wanted, but they were still there to support us, no matter what.
“We were talking about this, it just happens to rain every single time we’re here, but that’s all right. That’s footy.”
Though disappointed NSW could not complete the sweep, Clydsdale said the Blues would still celebrate their first Origin series win before returning to their NRLW clubs.
There have been only seven whitewashes in the history of men’s State of Origin since the inception of the best-of-three series in 1982, and the result in Newcastle on Thursday night further emphasised how difficult it is for one team to win all three games.
“It’s so hard,” the 31-year-old Jillaroos forward said. “They probably came with a different sort of desperation, the Maroons, and it’s a credit to them. We just didn’t step up when we needed to.
“It was a pretty close game in the end, and it was bittersweet I feel, but we are going to celebrate the win. We deserve that [series] win, we just couldn’t finish the 3-0 whitewash.”
Clydsdale, NSW halfback Jesse Southwell and Blues squad member Olivia Higgins will rejoin their Newcastle team-mates at pre-season training this weekend.
Clydsdale is preparing for her fourth NRLW campaign with the Knights and plans to stay even longer, having signed a contract extension earlier this month that will keep her at the club until the end of the 2027 season.
“It’s a quick turn-around but it is really important to get back to club land,” said Clydsdale, who won back-to-back premierships with the Knights in 2022 and 2023.
“Being the senior players on the team – I say senior and Jesse’s only 20 – but just having that connection with them is really important.
"I think they’re already up to week three of pre-season, so I'm really excited to get back to the girls.
“I know we definitely learned a lot from [NSW coach] John Strange, and being those senior players, we need to make sure we instil that confidence in the players coming through.”
