Utility forward Seli Mailangi has come full circle by returning to the team which has been a part of her Rugby League journey – the South Sydney Rabbitohs – for this year’s Harvey Norman NSW Women’s Premiership season.
The 2024 edition of NSWRL’s premier women’s competition for 12 clubs kicked off last Thursday 3 July.
South Sydney South begins its campaign against the Wentworthville Magpies tonight at NSWRL’s Centre of Excellence at Sydney Olympic Park.
Mailangi was the Rabbitohs’ Player of the Year in 2021 for the Harvey Norman NSW Women’s Premiership season – an award two True Blues have won in the past with Maddie Studdon (2018) and Ellie Johnston (2020).
Mailangi started with the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs before moving to South Sydney, then across to the North Sydney Bears, over to the Sharks and now back to Redfern.
In between she played two seasons (2021-2022) with the Parramatta Eels in the NRLW – now aligned with NSWRL’s leading female matches.
“It makes such good competition for the girls too,” Mailangi told nswrl.com at last February’s 2025 season launch.
“Players are actually competing for more than representing their club and trying to win the Harvey Norman Cup, but now they are also trying to get a spot the next level up in NRLW.
“We want to replicate what the men have in terms of pathways and they’ve had the perfect pathway for some time,” she said.
“Now there’s the same pathway for women and it’s exactly what we need to get where we want to be - being a professional athlete in Rugby League.”
And there’s few clubs with the clout or prestige South Sydney brings in terms of profile and tradition.
“It is such a strong club, such a grand club that everyone seems to know about even from outside the sport,” Mailangi said, pictured above with (from Left) Matt French from The Knock-On Effect NSW Cup and UN SG Ball Cup captain Matt Humphries, now with Souths Jersey Flegg Cup (Under 21s) team.
“They take good care of their pathways and young players in all their Junior leagues and Junior Reps teams,” she said. “You want to play for them for as long as you can.
“That’s why I’m hoping that through being strong in Harvey Norman we will eventually get a NRLW team.
“The boys won NSW Cup a couple of years ago (2023), so hopefully it’s the girls turn to bring the Harvey Norman trophy home.”
It would mean the world to Mailangi on several fronts. She was in the Eels line-up that lost the 2022 NRLW Grand Final to Newcastle Knights.
“It’s actually a great family team here at the Rabbitohs,” she said. “We all grew up in the South Sydney region … it means a lot more than just playing for a footy team.
“And I’ve also had the privilege of representing Tonga, where both my parents are from. When you play with those kinds of emblems on your chest it’s very special.”
