Just a few hours before the official announcement was put out to the public on June 19, Marley Cardwell caught wind that the under 19s State of Origin squad was going to be released later that day.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Assuming the successful players would have been told the good news days prior, the former Orange Viper assumed she'd missed the cut.
"In my mind, I already knew that I hadn't made the team," she said.
Having only seen the field for 20 minutes in the Country v City game and having come off the bench for the majority of the National Championships, the 18-year-old didn't hold high hopes of wearing a NSW jersey even before this latest revelation.
![Marley Cardwell is looking forward to her time as part of the Harvey Norman NSW Women's Under 19s State of Origin side. Picture by Carla Freedman Marley Cardwell is looking forward to her time as part of the Harvey Norman NSW Women's Under 19s State of Origin side. Picture by Carla Freedman](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/YN4FA67iw2pXwXjwm2vmnJ/47489afb-3ac8-4337-87af-9d09fe1ce254.JPG/r0_202_8256_5504_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
So when Cardwell saw she'd got a missed call from head coach Kate Mullaly, she immediately dropped what she was doing to ring her back.
"I was at work and I told my boss the NSW coach just called me and I needed to leave straight away to talk to her," she said.
"I needed to know what this was about. I didn't know if she was telling me that I didn't make it or that I did make it. I was literally shaking when I was holding the phone."
It turned out to be the latter as Mullaly informed Cardwell she had cracked the 19-player squad for the match against QLD.
She walked back into work and immediately told her colleagues the good news.
"I've been chewing their ears off about it for weeks about how I didn't know if I was going to make it and that I was very scared to see the team list," Cardwell added.
"It still feels pretty unreal and hasn't overly hit me that it's happened."
What makes Cardwell's success story that more memorable is the meteoric rise with which it has happened.
At the start of 2023 and with Tarsha Gale squads being finalised left, right and centre, the front rower didn't even know if she'd have a team to play with during the season.
But having made the Penrith Panthers side, she didn't let the moment pass her by and was recently awarded by the club as their under 19s side's player of the year honour.
Although Cardwell anticipates being the 19th player for the Origin game, she isn't letting the prospect of not playing get in the way of the exciting news.
![Marley Cardwell may soon be donning a NSW jersey of her own. Picture by Carla Freedman Marley Cardwell may soon be donning a NSW jersey of her own. Picture by Carla Freedman](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/YN4FA67iw2pXwXjwm2vmnJ/69e20d05-8c8f-4452-a36c-bbecaf55009e.JPG/r0_220_8256_5504_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"I'll still get the same training opportunities as the other players," she said.
"I don't even mind because to be told you're in the top 19 of the state is pretty unreal."
Cardwell and the rest of the squad will go into camp at the beginning of July in preparation for the game at Redcliffe's Kayo Stadium on the 13th.
There was one person in particular she wanted to shout out for helping her reach this point, that being her dad, David Cardwell.
"He did a lot of work with me during the season," she said.
"He was constantly driving me and he sacrificed a lot for my footy. He's obviously seeing the good side of those sacrifices now."
Reading this on mobile web? Download our news app. It's faster, easier to read and we'll send you alerts for breaking news as it happens.
Download in the Apple Store or Google Play.