NRLW remains a "dream" down the track for Anika Butler, but for now the Novocastrian wants to make her family proud as she represents Papua New Guinea on the international sporting stage.
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Butler caps off an impressive rise up the rugby league ranks, joining the Orchids squad for the women's World Cup which gets underway in England next week.
Having often bounced between codes, most notably rugby union with the Hunter Wildfires, the 25-year-old from Georgetown switched focus mainly to league in 2022 and following a NSW Women's Premiership campaign for the Knights she caught the eye of selectors.
Butler is eligible for PNG through her late grandmother Veronica, who was predominately based in Central Province.
"I'm very excited to be able to represent PNG," Butler told the Newcastle Herald.
"The fact she [my grandmother] isn't with us anymore makes this even more special, it feels nice to have that connection when we didn't have that much time to spend with her."
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Butler's previous experience with PNG was rugby sevens, a tournament in Sydney pre COVID in 2019, but her enduring memory was beforehand during trials.
"The first time I ever went to PNG my whole, entire family came from near and far to meet me," she said.
From a league perspective, the Orchids are a fairly new entity, making their World Cup debut in Australia in 2017 and clocking their first 13-a-side win in a friendly against England in Port Moresby three years ago.
Butler had her first taste recently, a warm-up game against the PM XIII in Brisbane.
PNG are drawn to open against Canada at Headingley on Wednesday (2am AEST) before meeting Brazil at Hull next Sunday (2am AEST) and hosts England back in Leeds on November 10 (4:30am AEST).
"There's no expectations, we're just going over there to put PNG on that global stage," the winger said.
"Obviously the Orchids have only had that opportunity from 2017, women being able to be professional athletes is what we're striving towards.
"In saying that, I'm really hopeful we can be competitive against those three teams."
Butler says "it would be a dream" to make NRLW.
"I am a little bit older and I guess it's much more mainstream now for girls to play juniors so obviously there's a way bigger talent pool coming up than before," she said.
The Knights have Caitlan Johnston, Yasmin Clydsdale (Australia), Shanice Parker and Autumn-Rain Stephens-Daly (New Zealand) at the women's World Cup.
In round three of the men's tournament, former Central first grader Jake Maizen has again been named for Italy and will look to add to his four tournament tries when he tackles Australia at St Helen's on Sunday (5:30am AEST).
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Josh Callinan
My name is Josh Callinan and I'm a sports journalist at the Newcastle Herald. I started with the newspaper in 2016 after a decade at the Maitland Mercury.
My name is Josh Callinan and I'm a sports journalist at the Newcastle Herald. I started with the newspaper in 2016 after a decade at the Maitland Mercury.
