Jess Skinner made history last month as the first female head coach of the Indigenous Women’s All Stars team, but for her, success will be making sure she is not the last.
Deeply involved with the game with various coaching roles which include heading up the First Nations Gems and the NRL Indigenous Women's Academy, Skinner also works with the game's governing body as a pathways strategy manager.
Coaching though is a passion and her journey began with a community team in her hometown of Trangie before rising to the elite ranks including being appointed an assistant coach with the Jillaroos.
Skinner said it had been a long-term goal of hers to take over the reins of the Indigenous Women’s All Stars side and thanked the mentors who continue to help her on her path, including Jillaroos coach Brad Donald and newly-appointed Newcastle Knights NRLW coach Ben Jeffries.
The appointment to role was also made all the more special for Skinner given she is of both Indigenous and Māori heritage. On her mother's side Skinner's Aboriginal bloodline is Barkindji and she is connected to the Wongaibon People of Trangie in New South Wales, while through her father she links to Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Hine in New Zealand.
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“It’s been a massive goal for me and something I have always aspired to do … (and) I feel good at this particular time of my career to take on that responsibility and step into that role,” Skinner said.
“I have felt ready for a while for it, but just waiting for an opportunity to arise to take it.
“I am the first female coach of the All Stars which is really exciting and I am not saying it for just myself; but for me, I hope I am remembered for being a great coach, but it is really exciting to have a female to show other females that this is a pathway and that they can do this as well through the All Stars program.
"It’s not just a job for the boys.
“It is definitely for other women to come through and … hopefully I can be a mentor to other females coming through who want to be an All Stars coach as well.
“We have some amazing female coaches coming through our system at the moment which is exciting.”
These systems include providing opportunities all the way to the national level with Donald enlisting both Skinner and Kate Mullaly to be his assistant coaches during the triumphant 2022 Rugby League World Cup campaign.
As a coach, Donald has won Interstate Challenge games, Test matches and Rugby League World Cup titles, but said one of the proudest moments of his career was seeing Skinner guide the Indigenous Women’s All Stars team to the win this year.
“There’s lots of elements of the coaching that she has got strengths in; technically and tactically savvy, her personal relationship with players is outstanding, her understanding of culture – team culture, First Nations culture of the players within our team, Pacific Nations culture; she’s one of those coaches that ticks all the boxes,” Donald said.
“She’s just a really good people manager.
“One of the greatest highlights of my career was to watch her team that she coached win the All Stars game against the Māori All Stars team.
“It honestly gave me shivers. I even told the chairman (Peter V’Landys) it was one of my highlights of my career.
“He said something to me along the lines of ‘you’ve won a few World Cups, it must be big, what’s going on?’ and I said Jess works for our organisation, she is my assistant coach at the Jillaroos and she’s going to win this game and it’s not because they are a better team on paper, it’s because of what she’s done and she’s a great coach.”
Outside of his role coaching the Jillaroos, Donald’s role with the NRL as General Manager – Player Pathways sees him working to provide opportunities and pathways for female participants in the game; not only in coaching and in team roles, but exposing more players to the game.
The RISE program helps emerging players be they can be, while the upcoming Women’s National Championships will see teams from across Australia and beyond compete. Work was also done most recently in the US with the pan66.combine, which overall means more exposure to women who want to play the game.
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“We’ve gone from working in NSW and Queensland to the Combined Affiliated States; we’ve now got a program in New Zealand where we are bringing a team from there to the National Championships this year … and we’re looking to expand,” Donald said.
“It continually keeps growing and up in the US we ran a referees course and a coaches course, so there’s an appetite up there to grow the game up there too.
“Everybody wants to know if you are playing the game, how to get to the next step, so our pathways programs are really important in that.”
*March 8 is International Women's Day, a day dedicated to celebrating the achievements and contributions of women around the globe. The for this year’s International Women’s Day is “Count Her In. Invest in Women. Accelerate Progress”.