The Jillaroos Journey: Thompson's battle to build support structure

It was a time when the Australian players were forced to pay their own way, some selling cars just to afford to travel, and stayed in hostels to keep costs down. Thompson, however, said the triumph was an early sign of the side’s long-term potential.

“I knew how important that moment was,” Thompson said. “They were a gun team back then and were the best team in the world. They had some of the best players I ever played against so to be able to beat them was amazing.

“They were a lot more advanced than we were. They had a lot more support back in the day and some of the players were like steam trains coming at you. Trish Hina was their five-eighth and one of the best players to ever play the game.

“When she had the ball she was so hard to stop. They were just so fit but built strongly as well.”

Thompson’s talent and natural ability were unmatched but her time in the Jillaroos jersey was limited to just five years from 1999 to 2004.

The outside back played in 16 Test matches and remains in the top ten for both points and goals two decades on.

A shy teenager when she made her debut, Thompson struggled to spend time away from her family and found the travel difficult.

In the amateur era, mental health was far from front of mind and she eventually made the call to step away from elite rugby league as the personal toll grew.

“I struggled with confidence and self esteem off the field,” Thompson said. “I hated going away on tours and I was really shy because I was only a young one. I was best mates with the manager, who was Jeanette Luker and I’d room with her, she was my safety mechanism.

“From 2004 I stopped making myself available to play at the rep level. I was fortunate to play 16 matches and continued to play locally. I’d have coaches ring up and want me to play for Australia but I wasn’t mentally strong enough to do that.”

Thompson’s decision to step away to prioritise her mental health was both incredibly challenging and ahead of its time.

Awareness of the mental side of elite sport has advanced considerably in the past two decades, with sports psychologists becoming a regular fixture in team environments.

While she was not playing for the Jillaroos, Thompson continued to play club footy in Queensland and emerged as a leading voice for female Indigenous players.

Such was her standing within the game, she was named captain of the inaugural Indigenous All Stars side in 2011.

With support networks for female players still in their infancy, Thompson was determined to ensure future stars have more assistance as they embarked on their rugby league journey.

It wasn’t until she joined the police, however, that the former star felt she was equipped with the skills required to support emerging female players.

“The event that changed things for me was when I joined the Queensland Police Service when I was in my 30s,” Thompson said. “I did 12 months training, I did a pathway for Indigenous recruitment and then I did six months through the mainstream path.

“Within that six months of being around strong leaders and strong role models in that environment, I did a 360. I walked out of that Academy on top of the world, I had so much more confidence.”

Thompson later left the police force to work in the Indigenous health space before going on to found Iron Traks, an organisation that uses sport to inspire and mentor disadvantaged women.

Thompson partnered with the Australian Defence Force to run multiple army-style camps to equip emerging rugby league players with the skills to thrive on and off the field.

The former Jillaroo has also become an agent to allow her to take a more hands-on role with the mentoring of young boys and girls.

Thompson’s agency, Moxie Sports Management, is primarily focused on emerging talent, but also boasts a number of high-profile players such as Dragons veteran Hannah Southwell.

“I see a lot of young girls coming through that are a bit like me when I was playing,” Thompson said. “I didn’t have the right support off the field to build me up, to believe in myself. When I was playing football I was quite confident but it was the other areas I needed more help with.

“I’d be going to junior carnivals and a lot of agents just swoop on the young players. They’re promising this, promising that but they don’t live up to it. So I went into the space with my business partners Katrina [Robertson] and Brent [Stowers] to create a safe space for our young ones.

“We’re not all about the player, we’re about the person off the field. We want to help you grow off the field, with your career pathways, your confidence and self-esteem. The reason I went into this space was to try and help me.

“If I had someone like myself to help me when I was younger, I might’ve stayed playing at that higher level and not decided I couldn’t do it anymore.”

Thompson is one of multiple figures working hard to establish more support structures for emerging female players.

Brigginshaw has witnessed the progress firsthand, with women’s rugby league evolving from an amateur endeavour to elite high-performance sport in the 16 years since her Jillaroos debut in 2009.

Players are supported on and off the field by their clubs, and receive extensive education from a young age.

Thompson has been thrilled by the progress but knows there’s more work to be done to ensure every talented youngster can thrive on the field.

“There has been progress but there could still be a lot more support for them,” Thompson said. “There’s a lot of pressure on our young ones coming through and young girls and boys are wired differently.

“Girls are a lot more sensitive and we’ve got to be careful in that space because they get upset and if they don’t make a team it’s like the whole world’s over for some of them when it’s not. You’re still young, you’ve still got the whole world ahead of you.

“It’s come a long way but because I do a lot of stuff with young girls now I still think there’s a long way to go to make sure we’ve got that right support network in place for them.”