St George Illawarra Dragons NRLW coach Jamie Soward is excited to see his "disrespected" star fullback Teagan Berry prove the doubters wrong this upcoming season.
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Speaking ahead of the Dragons season opener away to the Newcastle Knights on Saturday, Soward said Berry had the "fire in her belly" to show she deserved representative honours this year.
"She's an amazing athlete, she's born to play rugby league," he said.
"I think this year, the thing I've really been impressed with Teagan is that she's wanted to learn and she's got that fire in her belly.
"She deserved to play Origin this year. She was snubbed for that and I think that was unfair. She should have been in that Origin side to be fair. She probably should have been on the Jillaroos tour last year.
"The disrespect out there on her game hasn't gone unnoticed. We've noticed it here.
"I feel like her development this year in wanting to be a fullback and taking that on has been a big challenge for her and she's gone well."
Berry steps into the fullback shoes left vacant by the departure of Jillaroo Emma Tonegato, who has joined the Cronulla Sharks.
The 21-year-old Berry mainly played on the wing for the Dragons last season but starred at fullback for the Illawarra Steelers in the Harvey Norman Premiership earlier this year.
With St George Illawarra also losing the services of Rachel Pearson, Keeley Davis and Kezie Apps, Soward has had the opportunity to mould his own squad.
A task the coach said was "long and stressful but enjoyable".
"There's always going to be roster changes, especially this year with four new teams," Soward said.
"I haven't been shy in saying that some girls made their own decision to play with friends for new experiences, for money. They maybe didn't like the style of coaching, so we can't shy away from that fact.
"I think the main thing that when we put this squad together, was getting 24 girls that wanted to be here and I feel like we've got that. Along with our development girls, it's a very good tight knit group, that have come from all different backgrounds and have all their own stories to tell.
"The girls we've recruited there's a lot of talent there that I think see the vision of what we want to build and how we want to build it.
"You get a Dally M player, you get a gold medallist to play in your halves, you get a local junior like Teagan Berry making a transition into fullback - now that's exciting versus worrying about what happened last year.
"I think the refresher we got here with the girls holds me in good stead that we're going to be very confident this year and the years to come."
Soward added the Dragons were looking forward to testing themselves against the reigning premiers Knights.
"No games are going to be easy. It's a short competition, every game is going to count. We're really excited we get to go to a hostile environment early and see where we're at," he said.
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Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
