Pioneering women’s rugby league player Jenni-Sue Hoepper continues to blaze a trail in the sport and will next lead out her Northern Pride side in their inaugural BMD Premiership game.
The Pride, based in Cairns and feeding into the North Queensland Cowboys in the NRLW competition, are one of two new clubs to enter Queensland’s statewide competition for the first time this year alongside the Ipswich Jets, bringing the total of competing teams to 12.
For the first time, the competition has been scheduled to run alongside the NRLW competition which kicks off next month, bringing the QRL in line with the NSWRL, who made the change last year.
“Inaugural year for our Pride women, so I'm very excited, I get to throw on my hometown colours at home and in front of family and friends,” Hoepper told ljmpta.com before the season launched.
“I think it's going to be amazing; for one, to have a Pride women's team in the BMD, I think it's definitely something that we needed in Cairns and for our Far North Queensland girls, so I think it was a massive tick and heading in the right direction.”
Hoepper was an obvious choice to lead out the new team with her vast experience in the game which includes representing her Torres Strait Islander heritage in the Women’s Indigenous All Stars team as well as PNG Orchids, the Australian Jillaroos and the Queensland Maroons.
Named at five-eighth for the Round 1 game, Hoepper was also the inaugural winner of the Dally M medal for women in 2015 (before the inception of the NRLW) and said the new alignment of the competition to the NRLW would open up new opportunities for emerging Queensland players.
“That was massive for Pride to really jump at that opportunity and the way that the draw works out this year, there's a lot of opportunities for those ones who are coming through,” Hoepper said.
“It's only going to strengthen the NRLW comp as well as the BMD comp; so it only makes sense for it to work out the way it is now and I'm just excited for the season to come.”
The Northern Pride will kick off the 2025 BMD Premiership competition today (Saturday, June 14) when they travel to Brisbane to take on the Tigers at Totally Workwear Stadium from 12.40pm.
Games will be played across Saturday and Sunday with the full BMD Premiership draw available at the QRL website.
The will kick off on July 3.
