NRLWahine Spotlight: Annessa Biddle - The Scorpion From Otara
Annessa Biddle burst onto the NRLW scene in 2023 by bursting through defences and the Otara Scorpion has quickly settled back into her dominant mahi for the 2024 season. Cronulla Sharks defeated North Queensland Cowboys in their first game of the year and Biddle was dominant as usual, but to set that up we need to roll back through her debut campaign which finished with Biddle playing for Aotearoa Kiwi Ferns in their win over Australia.
A sneaky wrinkle of NRLWahine footy has been how quickly players from the local scene in Aotearoa showcased their talents at the NRLW level. Biddle is the best example of this as she earned a Sharks NRLW from her performances with Otara and Counties Manukau, before rolling out 170m/game with 93.9% tackling in her first season of NRLW.
Biddle finished second for total post contact metres last season, but her average of 77.5 post contact metres per game was the best. The only other players who averaged over 65 post contact metres per game were Shannon Mato and Millie Elliott, both of whom are props. Biddle on the other hand started as a winger for Sharks before moving to centre and she almost finished the 2023 campaign with one linebreak per game (seven linebreaks in eight games).
This flowed into Biddle's Kiwi Ferns debut where she played on the wing in a narrow loss for Aotearoa vs Australia. Biddle then moved to edge forward for a win over Tonga and stayed at edge forward for the win over Australia, meaning that Biddle played three positions in her first year of NRLW/Test footy.
How did Biddle start her 2024 season vs Cowboys?
19 runs - 192m @ 10.1m/run, 109 post contact metres, 2 tackle breaks, 5 tackles @ 83%
No other Sharks player had more than 15 runs or 155m or 65 post contact metres. NRL.com is full of goofy mishaps and there are no 2024 stat rankings available at the time of writing, but the next best post contact metre eaters from last season in Mato and Elliott had 83pcm and 56pcm in their first games.
There is no shortage of NRLWahine centres with Shanice Parker, Abigail Roahe, Mele Hufanga, Leianne Tufuga, Mackenzie Wiki and Cheyelle Robins-Reti all in the Aotearoa Kiwi Ferns mix. Biddle is building a case as the best NRLWahine centre but she has already shown her mana in playing edge forward to help build the best possible Kiwi Ferns team and she would do just as well on the wing. Regardless of where Biddle ends up with Kiwi Ferns, she has started the 2024 NRLW seasons just as good, if not better than last season and that's what makes her a genuine Otara Scorpion.
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