NRL 2025: State of Origin, U19s, women, seven; NSW Blues draw on experience

Lucky seven to help Westpac NSW U19s Women

Author: NSWRL
Timestamp: Tue 17 Jun 2025, 03:31 PM

The number seven is associated with good luck and the Westpac NSW Under 19s Women’s coach Courtney Crawford will be hoping that is certainly the case when they tackle Queensland in the Women’s State of Origin Under 19s on the Sunshine Coast on Thursday night (19 June).

The Westpac NSW Under 19s Women’s team includes seven players from last year’s team that beat Queensland 46-4 at Leichhardt Oval in Sydney – Ryvrr-Lee Alo, Indie Bostock, Evah McEwen, Evie McGrath, Maria Paseka, Kasey Reh and Bronte Wilson.

“We’ve got the seven girls returning so I think that just helps us with our preparation and our understanding how to handle the big moments,” Crawford said.

“For those girls who have had exposure to NRLW or a Harvey Norman level, they understand how they need to prepare for the big games and how to take those right decisions in key moments of the game.

“They’re pretty cool, calm and collected this time around in camp and just really excited to wear that Blues jersey again.

“Queensland is going to be a lot stronger side this year, they’ve got some good young players coming through.

“Obviously it’s different playing in enemy territory but the girls are looking really good and are prepped for a big one on Thursday night.”

The Westpac NSW Under 19s Women’s team came into camp at Sydney Olympic Park last Friday (13 June) and trained at the NSWRL Centre of Excellence before relocating to the Sunshine Coast on Monday (16 June) to put the finishing touches on their preparation.

The team boasts strong form lines, with eight players also hailing from Westpac Tarsha Gale Cup Minor Premiers Illawarra Steelers and five from Premiers Parramatta Eels.

Crawford said one of the greatest challenges has been getting all the players to come together in a short space of time, with camp only lasting for one week, but she has been impressed with how the players have handled it.

“It is really difficult, but the big thing is to make sure they’re connected off the field first and foremost,” Crawford said.

“Then when we roll into training sessions making sure we get out of it what we need to. They’re obviously a highly-skilled group so it’s important to put those final pieces together.

“It is a short campaign, and we have to make sure we plan as best we can across the sessions we do have to set ourselves up to perform really well on Thursday.”

There is also a host of players from the NSWRL’s Country v City Under 19s Women’s match in May at Kogarah Oval, which proved a tremendous form reference for Crawford with City just hanging on for a 27-26 win.

“We selected the top girls for the City-Country coming into this and it obviously helped making our selections coming out of that game,” Crawford said.

“There were some really strong performers across the Tarsha Gale Cup season and they performed really well again in the City-Country game.”

Crawford started her coaching journey almost 10 years ago after being asked to take on the job as a teenager for the Berkeley Eagles Under 6s.

She has now progressed to steering the Illawarra Steelers to a Grand Final win in the Westpac Tarsha Gale Cup last year before landing the coveted NSW Under 19s Women’s job after input from NSWRL Female Pathways Manager Kylie Hilder and Westpac NSW Blues Women’s coach John Strange.

“Obviously (former coach) Kate Mullaly made the decision to step away from that role and I’ve been with Country for the past couple of years and have been the assistant at Origin level for two years now,” Crawford said.

“To get that call was really pleasing and a really exciting moment for me. I’m really grateful for the opportunity and really looking forward to Thursday night.”