Jo Barrett’s incredible impact on women’s rugby league in Queensland has been recognised, with the QRL announcing on Tuesday that its Under 17 female competition will be named after the trailblazing Fox League commentator.
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Barrett is widely regarded as one of the leading voices in the women’s game, having become the first female play-by-play commentator in broadcast history this year while also debating some of the biggest issues in the NRLW in her regular foxsports.com.au column.
It follows an industrious playing career which saw Barrett earn multiple representative honours and pave the way for future women’s rugby league stars.
Now, Barrett’s influence on the game will forever be remembered after it was officially revealed that the Under 19 female competition will now be known as the Jo Barrett Premiership.
Barrett first found out the news around September during one of her regular phone calls with QRL’s General Manager of Pathways and Performance Glen Ottaway.
At least, she thought it was just any old phone call.
“I was definitely taken by surprise,” Barrett told foxsports.com.au.
“I absolutely did not see it coming. I never would have dreamed that I would be having that conversation. It was a rare occasion where I was genuinely lost for words and quite overwhelmed by emotion.”
Emotion not only for what the honour represented but for those who had helped Barrett forge the career she did, including her late father Leo.
It made her think of him, because he was one of the first people she wanted to call.
“He was at the centre of why I love and have been involved in rugby league my whole life… he was such a big part of coming to my games,” Barrett said.
“He knew my teammates. The last World Cup in 2017, when I had long retired, the girls invited my dad into the sheds when they won. He was in and around the game for years.”
Getting to games was far from an easy task for Barrett, who at one point early in her life grew up on a station near Cunnamulla in south-west Queensland.
It was a seven-hour drive one way to Toowoomba, where Barrett would come off the bench for the Fillies.
It was all worth it though and back then, Barrett didn’t look at it as a chore or commitment.
“I saw it as an opportunity to play something I’d always loved,” she said.
“If I look back in retrospect, that commitment to the game has probably contributed to the opportunities that have opened up.”
Now, many new doors have opened for aspiring female rugby league players and it is why Barrett was so deeply touched to have a pathways competition named in her honour.
“It’s something that means so much to me because it stands for the progression of not just the sport but for opportunities for girls in Queensland and I think that’s probably what’s emotionally tugged at the heart strings the most,” she said.
“I’m just filled with such gratitude that those pathways have opened up for other people. I’m so grateful to the sport of rugby league, the administrators, the people who had opportunity to make changes for women long before we had a seat at the table.”
Barrett is not the only Queensland rugby league legend to be honoured, with the QRL also announcing on Tuesday that the Under 19 female competition would be renamed the Jenni-Sue Hoepper Premiership.
Hoepper will forever go down in history as the inaugural winner of the Women’s Dally M Medal in 2015 and retired at the end of 2025 after captaining Northern Pride in their debut BMD Cup season.
It was a full-circle moment for Hoepper, who grew up playing in Cairns, and went to have an accomplished career which saw her represent Papua New Guinea, the Indigenous All Stars, Queensland and Australia.
Hoepper relocated from Cairns to Brisbane and then Townsville in a search of more opportunities given female pathways were limited during her playing career, with no local women’s competition even in 2015 after her Dally M Medal win.
That has since changed and now her name will continue to inspire the next generation of young women who benefit from the pathways that weren’t necessarily there in Hoepper’s career.
QRL Chief Executive Officer Jeff Reibel credited the influence both Barrett and Hoepper have had on women’s rugby league, with the re-naming of the competitions worthy recognition of their past and ongoing contribution.
“These competitions are producing the next wave of players, coaches and officials, many of whom will go on to be involved in the NRLW and Queensland State of Origin programs,” Reibel said.
“By attaching Jo and Jenni-Sue’s names to these pathways, we are ensuring their stories continue to inspire young women to chase their rugby league dreams.”