Broncos veteran Tazmin Rapana has played on the biggest stages in women’s rugby league and has lined up against some brutal opponents but standing in front of her team mates at the Broncos’ Red Hill training facility on Tuesday to announce her immediate retirement from all forms of the game – due to medical reasons – was as daunting and as tough of a task as any.
I’m very thankful to the Club, it’s been a time for my family and I to sit down and reflect on the career that I’ve had and to be able to retire and leave the jersey in a place where I respected it enough to pass it on,
Tazmin Rapana
The 29-year-old second rower has played 32 NRLW games since its inception in 2018, eleven State of Origin matches for Queensland and represented the Australian Jillaroos on one occasion.
Despite having one-year left on her Broncos contract, she said it became clear at the end of last year that it was time to “hang up the boots”.
“Obviously, it’s an emotional time for both myself and everyone that’s sacrificed or played alongside me and a lot of my close friends,” Rapana said.
“Playing rugby league, you need to be physically fit and mentally fit and I feel like at the back end of last year, I was kind of finding it hard to have both those combinations.
“So that’s why I made the call, my body wasn’t ready, and then mentally, I knew I just needed to hang the boots up and hand the jersey over to the next generation.”
Tazmin – formerly Tazmin Gray – was thrown into the world of rugby league from a young age and began playing as a five-year-old.
So, when the NRLW kicked off in 2018, she jumped at the chance to play in the competition, initially for the Sydney Roosters.
It was a season later – after losing the 2018 grand final to the Broncos – when Rapana joined the Brisbane based side and a taste of premiership success.
She said sharing the 2019 Grand Final day with her brother Jordan Rapana– who played for the Canberra Raiders in the men’s match – was her favourite memory of her career.
“Obviously, my brother, being my brother, that’s the closest that I’m ever going to get to [playing a game with him] if not play a game of football, but to play alongside him.
“We lost our granddad that year, so then to be able to play off the back of that and in the Grand Final, and for me, I won the Grand Final.
“He didn’t have that moment, but for me, that would be one of my fondest memories, and greatest memories of football, is to be able to share that moment with my brother.”
Rapana played for the Warriors and Titans in the following seasons, before returning to the Broncos in 2023.
“I came back to the club at a time when my life was probably up and up in the air just for things off the field, and I feel like I needed to be at a club that was going to push me out of my comfort zone again.
“It’s a club that obviously backs themselves a lot, and they’re very professional in what they do and that was something that I definitely probably miss being at different clubs.”
As well as being a mainstay in the Queensland side, the Broncos stalwart has represented both the women’s and Maori All Stars teams and earned one cap for the Australian Jillaroos.
She was awarded the Nellie Doherty Medal as Player of the Women’s State of Origin series in 2021 and 2023.
But Rapana is more than just a rugby league player, the mother-of-two epitomising what female players have endured to pursue their football careers.
Despite balancing football and motherhood, she said it was her children who sacrificed the most to allow her to live out her rugby league dreams.
“My oldest is turning 10, and so for the last 10 years of her life, she’s watched mum play football.
“They’re very excited for mum to not be playing, they’re very excited to have mum at home a lot more and just to be more present.
“Most importantly for me, I get to spend more time with my kids and to capture this moment in time, because they’re at an age now where if I miss it, then I miss it for good.”
The Club plans to celebrate Rapana’s career over the coming months with the veteran to continue to have a presence in and around the team.
The announcement comes on the eve of the Broncos’ NRLW preseason officially kicking off next week.