‘Scary’: NRLW’s best player tipped to get even better
She’s won four NRLW premierships, two consecutive Karyn Murphy Medals for player of the match in the grand final and a Dally M, but its “scary” how much more Newcastle’s Tamika Upton can improve.
The prolific fullback has been central to the Knights’ charge for a third straight title, scoring seven tries in nine outings.
But club captain Hannah Southwell thinks her footy intelligence is even more impressive.
Upton’s competition-leading 12 try assists and 14 linebreak assists have been invaluable as Newcastle amassed the league’s second-highest points tally.
“She has to be the smartest player I’ve ever played with,” Southwell said.
“Because I’m in the middle of the line, I can sort of hear what Tamika is saying out the back, and some of the stuff is just incredible.”
Like, for instance, calling for five-eighth Georgia Roche to kick it through to her on tackle one after Upton noticed nobody home at the back of the Gold Coast defence on the way to their 46-10 round-eight demolition.
“Just her game sense and game awareness, when to hit short, when to hit long, is incredible,” Southwell said.
“I think she’s really progressed this year and I can’t wait to see how she goes the next few years.”
Amazingly, despite winning just about every honour possible in the women’s game, Southwell expects more to come from the Queensland State of Origin champion.
“I think she’s untapped still. She does a lot of homework, a lot of video. She’s always in the video room, she’s always asking questions, always talking to (NRL assistant coach) Blake Green,” she said.
“It’s scary to see and hopefully in the next couple of years she can be tapped and used to her full potential.”
The Knights will be hoping for more Upton magic in their semi-final showdown against the in-form Sydney Roosters, who will be eager not to fall at the penultimate hurdle for the third year running.
After back-to-back premierships, the Novocastrians know full well they are playing with targets on their backs but have turned the focus inwards.
“We wanted to focus on ourselves internally and develop the way we play footy,” Southwell said.
“I feel like that kind of lacked a little bit last year, that development, and then I guess at the start of this year, a bit of the same. But the last couple of weeks, we’ve just got this belief back in each other.
“I kind of sat everyone down and just said after the (32-24 loss in the) Broncos game, we need to start believing.”
And to find inspiration, who better to turn to than fictional soccer coach Ted Lasso.
“I actually put on a video of Ted Lasso and I said, ‘let’s just watch this and start to believe’,” she said.
“And we put it up in the change room and started believing in what we can do, because I actually believe in this team and believe that we can win a premiership again.
“I think that started to change the way a few girls thought and I think it’s definitely shown in the way we’ve played.”
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