Shaylee Bent’s big sacrifice pays off with Jillaroos second-chance

It means leaving an important job she loves, working with Link Up NSW, reuniting members of Australia’s Stolen Generation with their families.

It means making choices between what’s right for her NRLW career and what might be easier on her family and personal life. It means great sacrifice.

But with one phone call from Jillaroos coach Brad Donald, everything she’s done to play the game this year became worthwhile.

The Penrith-born St George Illawarra star was originally omitted from Donald’s Jillaroos squad for the World Cup, but was next in line when Millie Boyle withdrew from the team to fulfil work commitments.

“I was at the Koori Knockout on Monday and that’s when the squad got announced. I saw I didn’t make the team. I was disappointed but I didn’t think I had too much of a good season,” Bent, 22, tells Code Sports.

She feels like being away from home and travelling a lot took a toll on her during the second NRLW season.

“I was disheartened but it is what it is,” she says.

“The next day, I was just laying in bed in the morning and Brad gave me a call. I’d been in the Jillaroos camps and programs, so I thought it was a courtesy call.

“But then he asked, ‘are you available to come to England’ and he said it so casually and I was stunned, nearly crying.

“He just said ‘are you keen to come, do you have a passport?’, and I said ‘yes yes yes, I’ll be there’.”

And with that, Bent is bound to debut for the Jillaroos in her first visit to Europe, and her first real venture overseas other than playing a game or two in New Zealand.

And even though she’s on the Gold Coast now in camp with the Jillaroos, it adds another long venture to her time away from her own bed in 2022.

Not that she’s complaining in the slightest. Bent is endlessly grateful. But in this slog of a rugby league season, for both the men and the women, this is the reality.

It shows how deeply NRLW players love their sport, how appreciative they are to have the opportunity to play it, and the level of respect they deserve for the choices they make. It may have been easier to play NRLW for a Queensland team, but Bent is loyal and she loves the Dragons. She made a decision for herself.

“Last year in February I moved to the Gold Coast. I haven’t been home. This year I’ve been home for like two and a half months max. It’s hard because it puts a strain on my relationship [with Gold Coast Titans star David Fifita],” she says.

“I’ve been in Sydney more than I’ve been home and it’s October.

“We had the Indigenous All Stars game, the first NRLW season, then I went back to Queensland and played for Wynnum for four games, then State of Origin, then the second NRLW season, then Koori Knockout and now World Cup.

“Obviously I’m so grateful for the opportunity but I just can’t wait to just relax for a little bit and see what next year holds.”

Another reality of being a semi-professional athlete is finding time to work. Living between two states has made it more difficult, and it’s another part of her life she will need to figure out in 2023 when she returns to the Gold Coast.

After she left high school, Bent started working with Link Up NSW, an Aboriginal corporation that assists people directly affected by past government policies, such as the Stolen Generation.

As well as rugby league, this is another passion for the proudly Indigenous woman.

“We have a criteria where I’ve got to prove Aboriginality and prove that the person was removed. It’s pretty much like a genealogist, I’ve got to do their family trees, go to State archives, we have a [memorandum of understanding] with births, deaths and marriages so we’ve got to build family trees and then apply to removal places, charities and stuff like that. I love it,” she says.

“I started as a case worker when I first came out of school, but because you’re on a journey with your clients and you take them back to home, back to country and reunite them with their sibling or whoever it is, because of footy I can’t travel as much.”

As a researcher, her role is a lot more flexible on a casual basis, with the ability to fit in around her hectic schedule.

She trawls records and ward files reading the most heartbreaking stories of people removed from their families, and the language can be quite confronting. She says before 1920 official records were not kept, so it can be hard to get information from charities and church organisations.

The role is emotionally taxing but also wildly fulfilling.

“I grew up knowing I was Aboriginal but I never had a deep knowledge about the Stolen Generation, in school I didn’t learn about it as much,” she says.

“It’s not only benefited my community and the Stolen Generation but it’s also helped strengthen me and my cultural identity as well.

“It can be very challenging at times because sometimes it’s not always the outcome that you’re hoping for, a lot of babies were a result of rape so the family doesn’t want to meet them, it can be very sad.

“We can have files there for 20 years and we don’t find their families sometimes, but when we do it’s just so pleasing to assist them and help them heal from what’s happened. I love it.”

She hopes to be able to work with Link Up again when she returns to play with the Dragons next year, in what will be a longer NRLW season with 10 teams, an increase on this year’s six.

Next year can wait though. For now, the Jillaroos are in a week-long camp on the Gold Coast and are set to fly to England – business class for the first time – on Sunday night.

They’ll play three pool games before the semi-finals, followed by the final at Old Trafford on November 20.

Getting into the squad on a second chance has given Bent a new lease on life to finish an exhausting year.

“You’re your own biggest critic, I just felt like my first season compared to my second season, I felt totally different,” she says.

“Being away from home is hard and then being in different places sometimes… it’s difficult. On the field I just didn’t feel as good as I did in the first season.

“For me [the World Cup is about] just enjoying the moment, I wasn’t going to be in it so it’s about appreciating it all. It’s not about proving a point but showing what I’ve got.”

So far it’s gone above and beyond her wildest expectations.

“The amount of things we get and how we’re treated, it’s amazing, it’s such a surprise. It’s more than what I expected, I’m so grateful.”