Taliah Fuimaono can still hear the surgeon telling her to hang the boots up. With busted shoulders and torn ligaments, her body just wasn’t built for rugby league – and that’s before we even get to the broken collarbone.
Now the 23-year-old is packing her bags for England after being named in Brad Donald’s Jillaroos squad for Australia’s World Cup defence.
Fuimaono figured she was nowhere near the Jillaroos’ radar when she heard some St George Illawarra Dragons teammates had been given information about the World Cup during the NRLW season.
She thought the same until the phones started ringing. Dragons back-rower Holli Wheeler got the call from St George Illawarra’s NRLW football manager Steve Nielsen first.
“She kind of spilled the beans like 30 seconds before I got the call, although I kind of needed the call to clear it up,” Fuimaono said.
“I looked at her message and thought ‘No, surely not’, then I started freaking out. Not long after that, my phone started ringing and I was scared to answer it.
Taliah Fuimaono is bound for the World Cup with the Jillaroos.Credit:Renee Nowytarger
“I could barely speak. I had to regather myself for about 10 minutes before calling my mum [Michelle] and my brother [Dragons player Tyrell Fuimaono]. It was very emotional, I didn’t think I would get emotional but I didn’t quite think I was going to get the call, so I didn’t prepare for how I was going to feel.”
Michelle has already started looking at flights, desperate to see her daughter live out a dream during a World Cup campaign which begins against the Cook Islands at York Community Stadium on November 3 [AEDT].
Considering Michelle once sold her jewellery so she and Taliah could fly to Perth to watch Tyrell play a schoolboys game, you’d be brave to say she won’t find a way.
Just like her daughter continually found a way back after shoulder surgery, a torn anterior cruciate ligament, another shoulder busted in the final two minutes of a Prime Minister’s XII camp, and a collarbone broken in between NRLW seasons this year.
“A few times there when I was seeing people get selected in teams and I couldn’t quite get there because I kept getting injured, I was questioning whether I was actually good enough to make those teams,” Fuimaono said.
Fuimaono was back in time for the 2022 season, during which she shone at five-eighth, centre and lock – but it was during an Indigenous All Stars camp earlier this year that Donald got his best look at the one-time Samoan international.
In Fuimaono, the Jillaroos coach found a resilient footballer and “a great human” – the kind you want to see get an opportunity.
“It’s kind of funny to think All Stars was at the start of this year and I actually didn’t make the squad originally. I got called in last-minute because someone had dropped out due to COVID,” Fuimaono said.
Tahlia Fuimaono is on the verge of a Test debut.Credit:Renee Nowytarger
“That was January this year, to think about where I am now is absolutely insane. I wouldn’t have thought I’d be here, it definitely didn’t cross my mind. I don’t think I even knew World Cup was on this year.
“I know what I’ve been through and I know what I’ve done to get myself to where I am now. It’s very emotional to think about.”
GUIDE TO THE WOMEN’S WORLD CUP
The nations competing for the women’s World Cup are split into two pools: England, Papua New Guinea, Canada and Brazil are in pool A, while pool B comprises Australia, New Zealand, France and the Cook Islands.
The Jillaroos open their tournament against the 11th-ranked Cook Islands on November 3, before backing up against France, and New Zealand. The top two sides from each pool advance to the semi-finals. The final will be played at Old Trafford on November 20, with Australia and New Zealand favoured to advance to the World Cup decider for the fourth time in a row. The Jillaroos have claimed the past two titles.
THE PLAYERS TO WATCH
Sam Bremner hated being called a former Jillaroo. She always thought that title was reserved for retired players, so Bremner was careful not to utter the R-word when she took a step back from rugby league to have her second child. A return at NSWRL premiership level saw the star fullback added to the Sky Blues’ State of Origin squad, and now a stellar NRLW season for the Sydney Roosters has seen Bremner elevated to Australian captaincy alongside Ali Brigginshaw and Kezie Apps.
There is something brutally poetic about watching Simaima Taufa throw her body into a wall of defenders. The Parramatta Eels captain has emerged as one of the NRLW’s most devastating middle forwards and will have a bigger role to play for Australia following Millie Boyle’s withdrawal. Glance through the numbers that matter from clubland and Taufa’s name is always near the top – we’re talking run metres (second), post-contact metres (second), tackles (first), and tries (fourth).
New Zealand’s three-time premiership playmaker Raecene McGregor says she was in disbelief when she won the Dally M Medal. Ask just about anyone who has seen the Sydney Roosters halfback in action and they’ll tell you they were anything but. Player of the match in the 2021 All Stars, McGregor entered this year without an NRLW contract following a shoulder reconstruction before landing a last-minute deal with the Roosters to become the final piece in their premiership puzzle.
THE MUST-WATCH GAME
It’s the Dally M halfback of the year in McGregor against the No. 7 for so long considered the best in the game in Brigginshaw. New Zealand have powerhouse props in Annetta-Claudia Nu’uausala, Amber-Paris Hall and Brianna Clark. Australia have superstar centres in Isabelle Kelly and Jessica Sergis. This third-round pool B clash between the best two teams in the world on November 11 may well be the dress rehearsal for the World Cup final.
