For the first time in her career, Jayme Fressard will run out onto the Women's State of Origin arena for the NSW Blues on Thursday, and she will be able to celebrate that achievement alongside close friend and teammate Isabelle Kelly.
One of four debutants to take to the field on Thursday evening in the Blues jersey alongside Abbi Church, Ellie Johnston and Jocelyn Kelleher, Fressard's debut has been a long time coming after being named the 18th player for NSW in the 2016 Women's State of Origin series.
After undergoing several setbacks, including a ruptured ACL and MCL and a broken ankle, she will finally get the opportunity to run out for the Blues.
The once-in-a-lifetime opportunity will also see her run out onto the field alongside NSW Blues captain and Sydney Roosters NRLW teammate Isabelle Kelly, with whom she has been friends since school.
What most people don't know is that Fressard and Kelly have known each other for more than a decade and even started their rugby league careers at the same junior rugby league club, the Berkeley Vale Panthers.
"Fred's [Jayme Fressard] and I have known each other since school," NSW Blues skipper Isabelle Kelly told Zero Tackle.
"She was fast, agile, and a really great player. I love playing with her. She's my winger, and we always love our little combination. She's built for Origin, and I think Origin is her arena.
"We're both from the Central Coast, so we used to play against each other a bit, but then we played our first rugby league for the Berkeley Vale Panthers a very long time ago in 2015 or 2014.
"She's just been really wanting this for a very long time, and I think she worked really hard last year and then in the off-season to come into this campaign and be really fit and putting herself up for that position.
"We had a lot of great girls miss out, so for Fred's to do that and make sure she was performing at her best speaks volumes of how ready she is for Origin."
Nicknamed 'Mad Dog' by her teammates and Blues head coach John Strange, Fressard revealed that it was a call from Isabelle Kelly that saw her switch sports from soccer to rugby league all those years ago.
"I played soccer growing up, and it wasn't until I got into high school that I started playing in the footy world, but I just knew how to run fast and loved watching Izzy [Isabelle Kelly] play," Fressard told Zero Tackleย ahead of her Women's Origin debut.
"It was Izzy who actually gave me the phone call and said come join Berkeley Vale and it started ever since then."
Like most players, Fressard's journey to the NSW Blues jersey hasn't been an easy one.
Plagued by multiple injuries and other players jumping ahead of her in the Origin queue, she never gave up on achieving her dream despite several setbacks.
"It's been a long time in the making for me, so I'm bloody honoured and very excited," Fressard added.
"The main thing for me was having a really good support network and setting myself goals. I always said in my head, when am I going to get back?
"It was never can I get back? I always had the mindset that I was going to get back.
"My whole life was sports, so I had to then learn other parts of my life, where my career and things that I probably didn't look forward to as much - I really put my focus into that.
"It helped me develop as a person as a whole, and I developed a lot of resilience."
