To whet the appetite ahead of the 2018 Rugby League season, NSWRL.com.au looks at some of the up-and-coming male and female stars who will hope to represent NSW. Today, we look at a Tarsha Gale Cup product to earned plaudits on the world stage.
Illawarra’s Lilly Rose-Bennett again looks set to light up the Tarsha Gale Cup in 2018 – as she did last season – when scoring 16 tries and all-but guiding her side into the competition’s inaugural decider.
Starring with her two-try effort in Illawarra’s narrow preliminary final defeat at the hands of eventual premiers the Panthers, Rose-Bennett showed her at-times unconventional weaving and winding wares to twice find the line.
Despite wearing the side’s No. 7 shirt, Bennett plied her trade for much of the season on the wing, proving an astute finisher on the end of a lethal backline.
“A few of those tries, they were pretty hard. It’s my job to look for the gaps, and to hit them,” Rose-Bennett told NSWRL.com.au of the breakout season.
Not resting on her laurels come the end of the Junior Representative season, the south coast product represented Australia at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Barbados.
Capping a remarkable Winter period for herself, Bennett crossed for a hat-trick to claim a gold medal in the Green and Gold.
Such is Rose-Bennett's endeavour to go one better this season, the 17-year-old will return to the Illawarra fold in 2018, hopeful of finding success with the Steelers.
