24-year-old Georgia Hale is not only New Zealand Rugby League’s Women’s Player of the Year but her tireless and compassionate work, using her sport of rugby league to create opportunities for many different communities, has earned her the title of Young New Zealander of the Year as well.

Alongside her burgeoning rugby league career, Hale is the community relations coordinator at the New Zealand Warriors. As soon as she left high school, Georgia Hale began working with children with intellectual disabilities; her teaching experience put her in good stead for this role, which has seen her take to schools and grassroots rugby league clubs across New Zealand to promote the game and its benefits on and off the field.

Georgia has represented New Zealand with nothing but pride since her debut In 2015 and has become one of women’s rugby league’s most recognisable figures over the past five years.

A New Zealand touch and tag-football rep, she was 18th player for the Kiwi Ferns in their 2014 Test

against the Jillaroos at just 19 years of age. A few months later she featured in the historic Kiwi

Ferns-Jillaroos series at the 2015 NRL Auckland Nines and made her Test debut off the bench in the 2015 Anzac Test.

The gifted playmaker was the linchpin of the Kiwi Ferns’ 2016-17 Auckland Nines campaigns and wore the No.6 in the Anzac Test both seasons, earning MVP of the 2016 Nines and Anzac Test. Named vice-captain for the 2017 Rugby League World Cup soon after turning 22, Hale featured in pool wins over Canada and Papua New Guinea, and the semi-final win over England.

Georgia stared in all three games for Warriors in the inaugural NRLW premiership in 2018 and was named Captain in the 2019 season.

The courageous Hale returned to New Zealand’s starting line-up for the mid-season Test against Fetu

Samoa in 2019, racking up 29 tackles and 122 metres from lock and played a key role in the Kiwi Ferns’ World Cup Nines upset over the Jillaroos.

With nine Tests under her belt at 24, Women’s Player of the Year and Young New Zealander of the Year, she’s definitely one to watch – both on and off the field.