This Blues star hasn’t played a game in 18 months. Next week she will make her comeback in State of Origin

It’s been more than a year since Millie Elliott played her last professional game of rugby league after the NSW and Australia representative took a year off to have her baby, Gigi.

But after 18 months on the sidelines, it’s time for the 27-year-old prop to return to the game – and she’ll do so in the Origin arena.

“It’s just like coming back from injury,” Elliott said. “But you take confidence in the fact that, unfortunately, we haven’t played footy in a long time anyway.

“It’s been about six months since anyone has played, regardless of whether you’ve had a baby or you’ve been injured, or whatever it is. I’ve [had] about 18 months since I played. You lose your fitness within six months anyway, so we’re all kind of back to square one the way I see it.”

Origin will be the first serious hit-out for most players this year when game one of the 2026 series gets under way in Newcastle on April 30.

Elliott did play an NRL nines game in Las Vegas in March, and has been part of the Blues six-week training block before the Origin season, but it’s still an adjustment stepping into a representative team.

“It’s tough, obviously, coming back into it with a big group of girls … just getting back into the rhythm of playing and ball in hand, defence and backing up and training,” she said.

“We had three field sessions a week, three or four gym sessions a week, so it’s lots of training, but it’s just great to do that in a team environment, because there’s a lot of training that we have to do on our own, and that’s demotivating as hell.”

Being a full-time parent has been an adjustment for Elliott, whose partner, Adam, is also a full-time contracted player with the Rabbitohs. But with her mum moving down from Gold Coast to live with them in Coogee, Elliott said it has allowed both of them to balance parenthood and football.

But there are some things that change when you become a parent, and Elliott said having her daughter has given her a bit more perspective on the football field.

“I think there’s always a bigger picture than footy – it’s not all just about that,” said Elliott.

“I’m so lucky that bad training sessions or good training sessions, good games or bad games, it’s all just small picture at the end of the day when you come home to a little family.

“I’m so lucky that I have been able to have my little girl, and hopefully a few more to come down the track, but I know that it’s quite a privilege to be able to do that because there are girls that either struggle or struggle with timing when they want to choose footy, your career over starting a family.

“It’s really hard, there’s no right answers with it, and I just feel really happy and content with the way it’s all happened.”

She’s never played in the pack, but Penitani-Gray is doing it for Origin

Tiana Penitani-Gray has played 13 minutes in the back row – and that was only for an in-house trial a few weeks ago.

When she walks onto McDonald Jones Stadium in Newcastle next Thursday for game one of the 2026 State of Origin series, that’s where she’ll line up as coach John Strange tries to squeeze all the big names into his star-studded NSW team.

But Strange has no qualms about moving one of his most experienced campaigners – who has played centre and five-eighth for NSW and is a regular in the Australian squad – as his team attempts to retain the Origin shield.

“I know I look at football different than most coaches and most people, but I just look at the physical attributes they’ve got and the mindset they have. And if you sit down and put all those down on a list, she ticks every box to be an outstanding back-rower,” Strange said of Penitani-Gray.

“We’ve seen her in the centres [and] she loves running lines – that’s a courage thing that not everyone has. She’s also a great defender, she’s a really good communicator, which you need in the back row because in defence you need to communicate with your middle and your edge, and I know she’s aggressive.”

Strange, a premiership- and Origin-winning coach, is so comfortable with his decision because he’s done it before with Yasmin Meakes (formerly Clydsdale), who was a winger and centre when she arrived at the Roosters in 2020, before Strange moved her into the back row. Now Meakes is the best back-rower in the NRLW.

Penitani-Gray’s move to No.11 is one of just a handful of changes to the NSW team that won the shield in 2025.

Jesse Southwell will have a new partner in the halves, with Jocelyn Kelleher named at five-eighth this year.

Kelleher made her Origin debut in 2025, when instrumental off the bench, and then had an impressive season with the Roosters. But Strange said it was her combination with Southwell that eventually sealed the No.6 jersey for her for game one.

“In my mind, she was either going to be starting five-eighth or No.14 – that was always going to be the case, but I was probably leaning more towards Jocelyn being No.14 over five-eighth because she’s so versatile – she can play 13, nine, and obviously in the halves,” Strange said.

“But the way she trained at five-eighth, with the connection with Jesse, I thought it was really good, and it gives us another kicking option as well … To have her and Jesse as two kicking options both sides of the ruck, I think that’s going to add a little bit of value to us.”