On Sunday, October 2, 2022, at the Accor Stadium in Sydney, the Newcastle Knights and Parramatta Eels battled it out in the Grand Final of the NRLW (National Rugby League Women) Premiership. The result was a comprehensive victory for the Knights, who scored a whopping seven tries on their way to securing a 32-12 win.

It was a pretty amazing feat for the Knights. The team had only joined the league the previous year and in the COVID-delayed 2021 season – played from February to April of 2022 – the team had come last in the six-team competition. To go from that low point to the high of premiership winners in just six months was an amazing turnaround.

Among the Knights players who lifted the trophy on that Grand Final day was Emma Manzelmann, a 21-year-old from Mackay who played the pivotal role
of Hooker.

An exceptionally gifted athlete – who exceled in the pool and swam competitively at a national level before choosing Rugby League as her sport – Emma’s footy achievements are pretty impressive. They include, amongst plenty of others, twice being named Player of the Year for the North Queensland Gold Stars in the QRL (Queensland Rugby League) BHP Premiership and being part of the 2019 Queensland Women’s under-18 State of Origin squad.

However, winning the Premiership was, she said, an amazing moment.

“After our first season we were bottom of the ladder. To then come out and win the Premiership – you wouldn’t expect it,” she said. “To come out and win that next season was incredible.”

A Grand Final victory would likely be the highlight of many a League player’s career, and for a key figure such as Emma, the start of a long and potentially lucrative one.

However, in many ways, the women’s professional Rugby League is just getting rolling. The NRLW Premiership competition was established only in 2018 with just four teams participating in that inaugural season. The 2022 competition comprised six teams, while the 2023 season is set to include 10 teams. That growth is a great indication that things are gathering steam, but the women’s game is yet to reach the status of the men’s and the earning power that they enjoy.

Image courtesy of the Newcastle Knights

It’s also worth remembering that a career considered long in any professional sport is short when compared to those of regular folk.

According to some – including the Rugby League Players Association (RLPA), which represents elite League players – the average men’s NRL career is less than 45 games, and it would be rare indeed to find anyone, in any rough, tough, physical sport, playing at the elite level beyond their mid-30s.

Taking all this into account, it is no surprise to learn that Emma, and likely many other women athletes, has another job – one that both allows her to earn while her sport works to provide her and others the opportunity to play and earn full time, as well as train for a second career once her playing days come to an end.

For Emma, that potential second career lies in the automotive industry, and she is currently in the third year of a light vehicle apprenticeship at Jet Maintenance Services in Mackay.

Formerly known as Eveready, Jet Maintenance is a division of the larger Jet Group which offers a range of services – including engineering, design, fabrication, installation and more – primarily to the mining sector.

Based out of a 2000 square-metre facility in Mackay, Jet Maintenance provides mechanical, auto electrical and onsite field services for light vehicle, and mechanical machinery and equipment, and employs some 30 staff. While work is done at mining sites, some is brought into Mackay to be serviced, overhauled, and repaired and Emma is one of a handful of mechanics, auto-electricians and other apprentices and tradies who do that work at the Mackay facility.

It is a job she enjoys immensely and, she said, she is lucky to have found an employer willing to offer her the chance to learn a trade and support her sporting ambitions – one that has seen her regularly travel the 1500km to Newcastle to train and play with the Knights team.

“If I didn’t work here, I don’t think I would have a job where I would be playing football. I’d either have one or the other,” said Emma.

“I remember that I said to them in my interview that I was doing well in rugby league at that moment and I would occasionally need days off. And they said that was fine and they could work around that. From there on it’s been perfect.”

For Lucas Seymour, Operations Manager for Jet Maintenance, accommodating Emma’s Rugby League ambitions and playing commitments was a simple decision to make.

“We are a people-focused business, and our people are our number-one priority, so when it came down to circumstances where Emma started progressing through the ranks of football and might need time off, it was an easy decision,” said Lucas.

“And Emma made it easy for us,” he added. “When she started her Origin campaign, there were times when she would fly down to training on an afternoon, have one day there and then fly back the following morning at 7:30 and be running in the front door here throwing her work boots on.

“Her work ethic here is the same as it is on the field. She works hard, she’s a very good communicator, she gets along well with everyone. She’s a pretty good apprentice!”
The work ethic Emma brings to her job at Jet Maintenance is mirrored in her training.

“Emma is a great student,” said Gareth Hartley, her MTA Institute trainer. “She’s keen, always has her units done and has the evidence and everything ready to go on the day. She’s very organised and she’s not afraid to ask questions. She’s not afraid to say ‘Hey, look, I don’t know,’ and that’s a big part of it as well.”

To support Emma while she played League, which in 2022 included the COVID-delayed 2021 season plus the actual 2022 season, training was put on hold for several months – a relatively easy option for those training with the MTA Institute. The one-on-one, in-the-workplace training delivery the Institute offers to students and employers allows for this sort of individual flexibility.