At 18 years and 109 days old, Jesse Southwell is about to break Brad Fittler's 33-year-old record and etch her name into State of Origin history as NSW's youngest-ever player.
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But the five-eighth admits the fairytale feels incomplete as her sister Hannah watches from the sidelines due to injury.
The Southwells play their club football for Newcastle but have so far shared the field for only 33 minutes.
Already a Commonwealth Games gold medallist in rugby sevens, Jesse made her highly anticipated NRLW debut in round one last season but just before halftime sister Hannah went down with an anterior cruciate ligament injury and needed assistance leaving the field.
While Jesse went on to guide the Knights to their first NRLW premiership, Hannah began the long road to recovery, a journey that has ruled her out of contention for the newly expanded two-match Origin series.
Thursday's series opener at Sydney's CommBank Stadium will be the first Origin match Hannah has missed since the NRLW's inception in 2018.
"It's very, very bittersweet to actually be here in camp without her," Jesse Southwell said.
"More bitter than sweet, when you think about it.
"I see all the photos and videos of the past five years and she's in every single one of them."
The sisters are best mates. Amid her recovery, 24-year-old Hannah organised a surprise 18th birthday party for Jesse earlier this year, wrangling the Knights' NRLW squad to Customs House in Newcastle for the festivities.
Jesse, meanwhile, rates Hannah's NSW debut as her fondest State of Origin memory - even though the younger sibling had to contend with the mid-winter cold and the pain of a broken collarbone as she watched from the stands at North Sydney Oval.
Though she won't be on the field for her sister's Origin debut, Hannah has continued to spur Jesse on ahead of the series.
"To see the way Hannah has come back from her injury, it's very, very inspiring," Jesse said.
"The way she's done things and the way she holds herself. The way she can still care about everyone else in our Newcastle team and even in the NSW squad."
Hannah has kept Origin advice to a minimum despite her status as one of NSW's longest-serving players.
"She said it's very fast, it's a fast game, which is what you see with the men's, what you see with the women's," Jesse said.
"That's what I'm expecting, a very fast, high-quality game."
As for breaking Fittler's long-standing record, Southwell is approaching the milestone with the poise one might expect from a teenaged premiership-winner.
Until being informed by AAP, she was unaware she would be claiming her own little slice of Origin history on Thursday night, taking the field at five days younger than current NSW men's Origin coach Fittler was when he took his bow in 1990.
"To be here is really, really cool and something that you definitely can't take for granted," she said.
"But when it comes down to it, it's just another game of footy and more fun to be had while playing footy and doing the thing that you love."
Australian Associated Press
