NRLWahine Spotlight: The Continued Excellence Of Georgia Hale
Georgia Hale has already been a legendary figure for women's rugby league in Aotearoa and now she is in the midst of her best NRLW season as Gold Coast Titans make a winning start. Titans are 2-0 this season after making the Grand Final last year and Hale is once again at the top of the tackling charts by a hefty margin...
2023: 501 tackles @ 98.8% - only player with 340+ tackles
2024: 89 tackles @ 97.8% - only player with 75+ tackles
Hale rolled out 43 tackles @ 100% efficiency in last round's win over Tigers, as well as 15 runs - 180m @ 12m/run. This takes Hale to 590 tackles made since the start of last season with six missed tackles in this period. NRLW started with a few teams and not many games so there is growth in the stats players can gather thanks to more games, but it's still pretty cool that Hale has made 50+ tackles in all seven of her NRLW seasons with less than 10 missed tackles ... make that less than eight missed tackles in each season.
The most interesting aspect of Hale's mahi is her development as a middle forward, having started out in the halves. Hale has always been an excellent tackler and she has consistently shown fabulous passing skills, but now she has added running oomph to her elite bag of tricks. Hale averaged less than 70m/game in her first five seasons of NRLW and now she is in her second consecutive season over 100m/game. Add more post contact metres to the mix and Hale has grown into a powerful middle forward…
2023: 106m/game | 35.1 PCM/game
2024: 141m/game | 50 PCM/game
All of which was on display last year with Aotearoa Kiwi Ferns as Hale had 24 runs - 157m @ 6.5m/run and 44 tackles @ 93.6% efficiency in the win over Australia. Hale had 30+ PCM, 100+ metres and 40+ tackles in all three Tests for Aotearoa last year.
Now in her fourth season with Titans in NRLW, Hale has established combinations and she is 10-3 for Titans since the start of last season. The win over Tigers also featured Hale showcasing her play-making ability as she threw this lovely cut-out pass to Jamie Chapman who went on to score a try. Not only did Hale make 43 tackles without a miss and average 12m/run on 15 runs, she dropped this pass in Chapman's bread-basket in what appeared to be a planned move.
Halfback Lauren Brown is out the back of Hale on this play and Hale gets the footy from fullback Evania Pelite, which along with Hale setting up wider on the left is a funky attacking move. There aren't many middle forwards in NRLW who can throw a 10m cut-out pass and this skillset from Hale provides ample attacking options to Titans.
Hale is undeniably one of the best players in NRLW and with NRLWahine bias in the baggy, Hale is the best lock forward in NRLW. An NRLW All Star team would have Hale in the middle forward trio and she has quietly shown development across her NRLWahine career, which has propelled Titans into a top-tier NRLW team.
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