June 27, 2026 • 16 mins
Michaela Brake is set to make her grand return to the rugby field later this year, having re-signed with New Zealand Rugby through until 2027.
She's made history in the world of Kiwi Sevens - as a two-time Olympic gold medallist and the all-time leading try scorer in women’s international sevens history.
She's had to step off the field to look after her new baby, Harvey, and she's opened up about the new challenges that come with motherhood.
"I was always going to come back to high performance sport...there was no doubt that once I got home from the hospital that I was going to start getting my recovery on track."
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
She's quick, she's fiercely competitive and she knows how to
score a try. She's got a break on the slash,
expertly manipulated kid New Zealing.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Break puts the heamer down. There's Mikayla Break. She is
five stares Break London.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
There's the foot's work and that is felthy from Mikayla Break.
What a joy to watch. Mikayla Break is a legend
of KIWI seven's two time Olympic gold medalist and the
all time leading triscorer in women's international seven's history. But
Mikayla hasn't been on the footy field for a while.
She's become a mum to we Harvey. But the good
(00:56):
news is she's on the comeback, having re signed with
New Zealand Rugby through until twenty twenty seven. Mikayla Break
joins me now and it's all mums will know, especially
New Mum's Babystore appreciate mum sometimes spending time alone to
take a phone call, So I believe Baby Harvey is
joining us too. Mikayla and Harvey, Good morning.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Good morning, How are you very good?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Thank you, love you to have you both with us.
How old is Harvey now?
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Harvey's three months and he's officially rolling over by himself.
We didn't teach him that, he taught himself, so that's cool.
We're just you know, on our toes twenty four to
seven now, which is great.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
How has motherhood been for you so far?
Speaker 4 (01:39):
It's been a humbling challenge. We have had lots of
ups and downs mentally. But now that Harvey is getting
a week bit bigger and a week bit older, he's
obviously growing into a little bit of a personality and
he's smiling and giggling and obviously rolling over like I
(02:01):
said before, so he's giving us a week bit of
a challenge. But yeah, obviously loving the journey and loving
seeing him grow into his big blue eyes.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
And he's a very long boy. He's got his dad's height.
Lucky him.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I think if we were all a little bit more honest, Mikayla,
we would say the first three months were you know,
a huge challenge for all first time parents.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Oh yeah, definitely, Like there was probably a good solid
period where I definitely just wasn't enjoying it, you know,
when it comes to being pregnant for nine months and
then all of a sudden, here's your baby. You've got
to keep him alive, and it's just, yeah, I know,
it's just such a huge transition that you're not really
(02:46):
prepared for when you're a first time mum. So and
obviously you're feeding a baby that's not giving you much back,
But now that he's smiling heaps and killing and giggling,
it's definitely far more rewarding than it was a month ago.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Was that the first time you've sort of ever had
a bit of a hackut with your mental health was
sort of take you by surprise a little bit.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Oh yeah, massively.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
I've been quite fortunate in my sporting career where I've
just had the most incredible support around me. And that's
not to say that I haven't worked hard and I
haven't had my challenges, because I definitely had. But I'd
like I like to say that my mental health was
definitely well taken care of. But this time, after being
(03:33):
selfish for thirty years, I guess you could say, and
only needing to look after myself, it has been quite
a challenge having to change my whole lifestyle from being
a high performance athlete to being at home with a baby.
So yeah, it's been a massive shift that I probably
underestimated a little bit. But in saying that, massive support
(03:57):
around me. My mom is incredible, my husband's working really hard,
mother in law as well. I was here quite often,
so I've got loads of people around me that are
trying to make it that little bit easier for me.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
I wonder too, whether when you've been able to sort
of have a certain amount of control over your career,
you know, you know that if you put in the work,
you get the rewards. You've had so much success, something
new comes along, and when things don't kind of click immediately,
it can kind of play on your mind a little
bit that you're not doing a good job or you're
(04:28):
not succeeding at this.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Yeah, for sure, And obviously when you're an athlete, a
lot of people say that it's such a hard job,
but since becoming a mum, being an athlete it's one
of the easiest jobs in the world. You just worry
about yourself. You just make sure that you tune up
and you train hard, and you recover better, and you
eat well and sleep well, as soon as you add
a little human into the mix of it, you now
(04:53):
aren't the priority. And so everything revolves around Harvey, his health,
his behavior, his sleep. So it definitely challenge who challenges
you in a different way that I probably didn't expect.
And yeah, obviously being an athlete for such a long
(05:14):
time where you generally just have to think.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
About yourself it.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Yeah, it's just a massive one eighty and you're translating
just in this life in this chapter. But I hope
he gets to travel with me overseas soon and gets
to watch Mum represent the Black Friend sevens on the
World Series, because I think that will be a really
cool story to tell in the future when he's a
little bit older and well aware of what mum does.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Oh, look, he's got incredible stories to hear about from
Mum and dad and your mother. Of course, being a
former Black Fern, I at to be a little bit
worried about Paul Harvy, the expectation on him of having
two olympians' parents.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Yeah, he's already got massive expectations on himself.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
And like he's already been given a.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
Team New Zealand one from and he's already been given
a rowing enzed onesie as well. He's got a Black
Friend sevens onesie, so there's lots of expectations on him,
you know, I know, yeah, of being a successful athlete,
and I'm trying to remind myself, trying to tell myself
he will go towards what he loves and if it's
(06:26):
not sport, that's okay, but I will be steering him
towards the rugby field more than the lake.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
This is hilarious three months old. I love it. I
love the way you're talking yourself through this. I saw
some videos of you getting back into some very restrained
movement and training just after I think three days maybe
after giving birth. Was there always a plan in place
for you to get back into exercising?
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Oh yeah, definitely. Before I got pregnant, I was always
planning on coming back to the Black Friend sevens. But
obviously with me getting pregnant, it kind of just through
a spent in the works and the plan had to
change a little bit. So I was always going to
come back to high performance sport, and so I guess
(07:13):
like coming from a dairy farmer background as well, with
my parents being extremely active and me being extremely active,
my whole life. There was no doubt that once I
got home from the hospital that I was going to
start something to get my recovery on track. So yeah,
day three, I started doing some breathing exercises, some very
(07:33):
very light core exercises, just to kind of put everything
back together. As you know, the court splits in half,
so we got.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
To get that back together.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
But yes, definitely got some goals in place to get
back on the field hopefully by November this year, and
then fingers crossed being selected for the due By Cape
Town World Series tournaments there are in December this year.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
It's pretty exciting to see you re sign with the
Black Ferns. Is after the Paris Olympics, did you think
you were done with the sport or as you say,
did you was this always in the back of your mind.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
To be honest, if I had to think about you
know where I was at mentally after Paris. Yeah, there
was a stage where I thought I'd had enough. I
remember saying to my call after we received our gold
medal so after the ceremony that I didn't want to
do there ever again, and I was like, I'm finished,
I'm so tired. It was hard like mentally and emotionally,
(08:34):
Like physically, I felt fine, but it was a lot
of rugby in one year, and the amount of pressure
that I put on myself, that we put on our
team to be the best in the world is quite
hard to handle sometimes if you're not used to it.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
So I think.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
Mentally I was just ready for a break and really
just to calm down and sit at home and do
nothing for a while. But then I got back onto
the series after getting married, and I was like, oh, actually, and.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
I love this, this is fun.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
So yeah, I think I just needed a really good
break away from rugby, and then obviously just got excited
about getting married.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
That was really important to me.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Obviously, so a lot of things were happening in between
Paris and the next time that I was going to
be playing rugby, and I just needed to do me.
I just needed to have some Michayla time and do
things that I can't do during the season. And that
definitely just sparked the year did It sparked the excitement
for the game again, And then all of a sudden,
(09:34):
I thought, you know what, bugger, let's go back and
try again for the olumpacks.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
But let's do it as a mum this type.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Why not?
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I believe that the Black Ferns sort of the medical
team have given you a return to play program, Like
you've got really good support there, haven't you?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Oh? Massive? Yeah. And the cool thing about.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
I guess the evolution of women's sport right now is
that when your athletes for most sports that I can
think of, get pregnant, it's not just a matter of oh, bugger, okay,
we won't read sign you. It's about, okay, how do
we support you to get you back physically playing for
this team. And there's so many female rugby players right
(10:15):
now that have either done that or are pregnant for
the second time or first time who are planning to
come back to represent their country and rugby. So I
think it's amazing that we're now in a place where
we are supported the way that we are. And so
when I did tell my coach and agent that I
was pregnant, their mindset went straight to cool. Okay, let's
(10:37):
let you obviously enjoy being pregnant and get through this phase,
but let's also put a plan in place where we
know exactly what to do when you come back onto
the field, when you come back to training and let's
get it right. So yeah, messive support around me. I've
got such an awesome medical team who chicken with me
all the time and making sure that I'm doing everything
(10:57):
right and being patient with my body, but also doing
what I need to do mentally and emotionally to make
myself feel good during the day, because exercise makes me
feel really, really good. So yeah, massive support around me
to try and get me back in the black jersey.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Which is fantastic. And I watched the documentary No Tears
on the Field of which you participate on You and
your Mum, which is when I learned about your mum
who which I really loved, sort of going down that path.
But the one thing that you noticed in this film,
which was really a documentary about grassroots women's rugby, which
I highly recommend everyone should watch it. But you know,
(11:33):
even when they were looking at grassroots, they were, you know,
these clubs were talking about how do we support women
to be able to continue to play sport. And that's
even at that level, which is great to see, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Oh for sure, I think the beautiful thing about.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Being a woman and being a mum is that your
mindset changes when you've got yeah, okay, the responsibility of
a little women. And I think it's amazing how at
grassroots rugby, even like you're not getting hate to play there,
it's out of your own personal time to go and
play grassroots rugby. And it's no guarantee that you know,
(12:14):
the women's game is going to I guess you could
say shoot off the way that the men's game does.
But yet womens still commit to the Tuesday and Thursday
night's trainings, they commit to the Saturdays and try and
figure out how their kids are looked after. So yeah,
it is definitely a great representation of what it means
(12:35):
to play rugby, okay and the Naki, but also you know,
across the country. Yeah, And so hopefully it's a movie
that inspires well, first of all, hopefully it's a movie
that makes people awad of the things that we do
as rugby players, to.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Enjoy the sport that we do.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
But yeah, to obviously inspire some young girls to play
rugby as well, because it is an incredible career to
represent your country in sevens or fifteens. To be able
to do it as a mum for me is going
to be an exciting challenge, but yeah, ready for it.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
And Harvey has been so well behaved. I won't keep
you for much longer, but I'd love to talk to
you about your commentary work, because you've been doing a
bit of commentary work for Sky for suit Her, Rugby
ol Picky. Next up, you're part of the Sky's NRL
women's coverage for the Warriors game. Is commentary in the
media work something you really enjoy? Is this something that
you'd like to kind of have on, you know, to
(13:36):
do in the future.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
The first time I commentated was at the SEVENS Nationals,
I believe, and oh gosh, it would have been twenty nineteen,
and I loved it, like it was so much fun.
And obviously I was rusty ears. I think I would
have been twenty two. I've never done it before in
my life, so I just got chucked into the deep end.
And then I had my first expert commentating gig for
(14:03):
a Black Funds game in twenty twenty four. I think
it was so I literally skipped all the little steps
and went straight into commentating a.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Black Foods game with Racky.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
But I loved it, Like I am someone that enjoys adrenaline, pressure,
high expectations, and so when you commentate a live game,
there's obviously no redos or replays. What you say for
that game right there and then is forever on TV,
and you can't say, oh, what's actually let me do
(14:37):
that sentence again. So I enjoy putting myself in pressure
moments like that, and it's been you know, obviously, rugby's
in my blood and I always watch rugby, and so
obviously watching rugby and playing rugby for such a long time,
you kind of get your head wrapped around the lingo
and how commentators kind of slot themselves into her plays
(15:00):
and there, and so I loved listening to her commentators,
like Justin Marshall, even Liz Ouder when she's commentating. Obviously Rocky,
but she's just better, better than anyone to me, Recky
Swenew is just top of the game when it comes
to play by play commentating. So we'd love to do
it when I retire. And then yeah, in er ow,
(15:20):
I'm doing that obviously next weekend for Round one when
the Girls play the Bulldogs. I'm not commentating, I'm just
doing panel work. But yeah, obviously now that I've had
that experience in league and played four games pregnant for
the Warriors. I've got a better understanding of the game
and can talk about players and as individuals and as humans.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
So I'm excited for that challenge as well.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Because I've never obviously done Skysport work with the TERLW,
so excited to add that to my resume.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Mikayla, thank you so much for juggling Harvey and having
a chat with us as sorning and best of luck
with all the training. We can't wait to see you
on the field again soon.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
I can't wait to see me on the field too,
so whenever that may be, I'm really excited. Hello. No,
I'm very very grateful for everyone's support and appreciate everyone's
kind words.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
So yeah, let's get back on that field.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Love that attitude, Mikayla, and we wish you all the
very beast for that return. But if you can't wait
for her field comeback, as we mentioned, you can catch
Mikayla as part of the sky Sport NRLW commentary team
for the Warriors opening match next Sunday. Exciting Times.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin. Listen
live to news talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
She's quick, she's fiercely competitive and she knows how to
score a try. She's got a break on the slash,
expertly manipulated kid New Zealing.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Break puts the heamer down. There's Mikayla Break. She is
five stares Break London.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
There's the foot's work and that is felthy from Mikayla Break.
What a joy to watch. Mikayla Break is a legend
of KIWI seven's two time Olympic gold medalist and the
all time leading triscorer in women's international seven's history. But
Mikayla hasn't been on the footy field for a while.
She's become a mum to we Harvey. But the good
(00:56):
news is she's on the comeback, having re signed with
New Zealand Rugby through until twenty twenty seven. Mikayla Break
joins me now and it's all mums will know, especially
New Mum's Babystore appreciate mum sometimes spending time alone to
take a phone call, So I believe Baby Harvey is
joining us too. Mikayla and Harvey, Good morning.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Good morning, How are you very good?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Thank you, love you to have you both with us.
How old is Harvey now?
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Harvey's three months and he's officially rolling over by himself.
We didn't teach him that, he taught himself, so that's cool.
We're just you know, on our toes twenty four to
seven now, which is great.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
How has motherhood been for you so far?
Speaker 4 (01:39):
It's been a humbling challenge. We have had lots of
ups and downs mentally. But now that Harvey is getting
a week bit bigger and a week bit older, he's
obviously growing into a little bit of a personality and
he's smiling and giggling and obviously rolling over like I
(02:01):
said before, so he's giving us a week bit of
a challenge. But yeah, obviously loving the journey and loving
seeing him grow into his big blue eyes.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
And he's a very long boy. He's got his dad's height.
Lucky him.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I think if we were all a little bit more honest, Mikayla,
we would say the first three months were you know,
a huge challenge for all first time parents.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Oh yeah, definitely, Like there was probably a good solid
period where I definitely just wasn't enjoying it, you know,
when it comes to being pregnant for nine months and
then all of a sudden, here's your baby. You've got
to keep him alive, and it's just, yeah, I know,
it's just such a huge transition that you're not really
(02:46):
prepared for when you're a first time mum. So and
obviously you're feeding a baby that's not giving you much back,
But now that he's smiling heaps and killing and giggling,
it's definitely far more rewarding than it was a month ago.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Was that the first time you've sort of ever had
a bit of a hackut with your mental health was
sort of take you by surprise a little bit.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Oh yeah, massively.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
I've been quite fortunate in my sporting career where I've
just had the most incredible support around me. And that's
not to say that I haven't worked hard and I
haven't had my challenges, because I definitely had. But I'd
like I like to say that my mental health was
definitely well taken care of. But this time, after being
(03:33):
selfish for thirty years, I guess you could say, and
only needing to look after myself, it has been quite
a challenge having to change my whole lifestyle from being
a high performance athlete to being at home with a baby.
So yeah, it's been a massive shift that I probably
underestimated a little bit. But in saying that, massive support
(03:57):
around me. My mom is incredible, my husband's working really hard,
mother in law as well. I was here quite often,
so I've got loads of people around me that are
trying to make it that little bit easier for me.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
I wonder too, whether when you've been able to sort
of have a certain amount of control over your career,
you know, you know that if you put in the work,
you get the rewards. You've had so much success, something
new comes along, and when things don't kind of click immediately,
it can kind of play on your mind a little
bit that you're not doing a good job or you're
(04:28):
not succeeding at this.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Yeah, for sure, And obviously when you're an athlete, a
lot of people say that it's such a hard job,
but since becoming a mum, being an athlete it's one
of the easiest jobs in the world. You just worry
about yourself. You just make sure that you tune up
and you train hard, and you recover better, and you
eat well and sleep well, as soon as you add
a little human into the mix of it, you now
(04:53):
aren't the priority. And so everything revolves around Harvey, his health,
his behavior, his sleep. So it definitely challenge who challenges
you in a different way that I probably didn't expect.
And yeah, obviously being an athlete for such a long
(05:14):
time where you generally just have to think.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
About yourself it.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Yeah, it's just a massive one eighty and you're translating
just in this life in this chapter. But I hope
he gets to travel with me overseas soon and gets
to watch Mum represent the Black Friend sevens on the
World Series, because I think that will be a really
cool story to tell in the future when he's a
little bit older and well aware of what mum does.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Oh, look, he's got incredible stories to hear about from
Mum and dad and your mother. Of course, being a
former Black Fern, I at to be a little bit
worried about Paul Harvy, the expectation on him of having
two olympians' parents.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Yeah, he's already got massive expectations on himself.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
And like he's already been given a.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
Team New Zealand one from and he's already been given
a rowing enzed onesie as well. He's got a Black
Friend sevens onesie, so there's lots of expectations on him,
you know, I know, yeah, of being a successful athlete,
and I'm trying to remind myself, trying to tell myself
he will go towards what he loves and if it's
(06:26):
not sport, that's okay, but I will be steering him
towards the rugby field more than the lake.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
This is hilarious three months old. I love it. I
love the way you're talking yourself through this. I saw
some videos of you getting back into some very restrained
movement and training just after I think three days maybe
after giving birth. Was there always a plan in place
for you to get back into exercising?
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Oh yeah, definitely. Before I got pregnant, I was always
planning on coming back to the Black Friend sevens. But
obviously with me getting pregnant, it kind of just through
a spent in the works and the plan had to
change a little bit. So I was always going to
come back to high performance sport, and so I guess
(07:13):
like coming from a dairy farmer background as well, with
my parents being extremely active and me being extremely active,
my whole life. There was no doubt that once I
got home from the hospital that I was going to
start something to get my recovery on track. So yeah,
day three, I started doing some breathing exercises, some very
(07:33):
very light core exercises, just to kind of put everything
back together. As you know, the court splits in half,
so we got.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
To get that back together.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
But yes, definitely got some goals in place to get
back on the field hopefully by November this year, and
then fingers crossed being selected for the due By Cape
Town World Series tournaments there are in December this year.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
It's pretty exciting to see you re sign with the
Black Ferns. Is after the Paris Olympics, did you think
you were done with the sport or as you say,
did you was this always in the back of your mind.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
To be honest, if I had to think about you
know where I was at mentally after Paris. Yeah, there
was a stage where I thought I'd had enough. I
remember saying to my call after we received our gold
medal so after the ceremony that I didn't want to
do there ever again, and I was like, I'm finished,
I'm so tired. It was hard like mentally and emotionally,
(08:34):
Like physically, I felt fine, but it was a lot
of rugby in one year, and the amount of pressure
that I put on myself, that we put on our
team to be the best in the world is quite
hard to handle sometimes if you're not used to it.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
So I think.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
Mentally I was just ready for a break and really
just to calm down and sit at home and do
nothing for a while. But then I got back onto
the series after getting married, and I was like, oh, actually, and.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
I love this, this is fun.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
So yeah, I think I just needed a really good
break away from rugby, and then obviously just got excited
about getting married.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
That was really important to me.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Obviously, so a lot of things were happening in between
Paris and the next time that I was going to
be playing rugby, and I just needed to do me.
I just needed to have some Michayla time and do
things that I can't do during the season. And that
definitely just sparked the year did It sparked the excitement
for the game again, And then all of a sudden,
(09:34):
I thought, you know what, bugger, let's go back and
try again for the olumpacks.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
But let's do it as a mum this type.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Why not?
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I believe that the Black Ferns sort of the medical
team have given you a return to play program, Like
you've got really good support there, haven't you?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Oh? Massive? Yeah. And the cool thing about.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
I guess the evolution of women's sport right now is
that when your athletes for most sports that I can
think of, get pregnant, it's not just a matter of oh, bugger, okay,
we won't read sign you. It's about, okay, how do
we support you to get you back physically playing for
this team. And there's so many female rugby players right
(10:15):
now that have either done that or are pregnant for
the second time or first time who are planning to
come back to represent their country and rugby. So I
think it's amazing that we're now in a place where
we are supported the way that we are. And so
when I did tell my coach and agent that I
was pregnant, their mindset went straight to cool. Okay, let's
(10:37):
let you obviously enjoy being pregnant and get through this phase,
but let's also put a plan in place where we
know exactly what to do when you come back onto
the field, when you come back to training and let's
get it right. So yeah, messive support around me. I've
got such an awesome medical team who chicken with me
all the time and making sure that I'm doing everything
(10:57):
right and being patient with my body, but also doing
what I need to do mentally and emotionally to make
myself feel good during the day, because exercise makes me
feel really, really good. So yeah, massive support around me
to try and get me back in the black jersey.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Which is fantastic. And I watched the documentary No Tears
on the Field of which you participate on You and
your Mum, which is when I learned about your mum
who which I really loved, sort of going down that path.
But the one thing that you noticed in this film,
which was really a documentary about grassroots women's rugby, which
I highly recommend everyone should watch it. But you know,
(11:33):
even when they were looking at grassroots, they were, you know,
these clubs were talking about how do we support women
to be able to continue to play sport. And that's
even at that level, which is great to see, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Oh for sure, I think the beautiful thing about.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
Being a woman and being a mum is that your
mindset changes when you've got yeah, okay, the responsibility of
a little women. And I think it's amazing how at
grassroots rugby, even like you're not getting hate to play there,
it's out of your own personal time to go and
play grassroots rugby. And it's no guarantee that you know,
(12:14):
the women's game is going to I guess you could
say shoot off the way that the men's game does.
But yet womens still commit to the Tuesday and Thursday
night's trainings, they commit to the Saturdays and try and
figure out how their kids are looked after. So yeah,
it is definitely a great representation of what it means
(12:35):
to play rugby, okay and the Naki, but also you know,
across the country. Yeah, And so hopefully it's a movie
that inspires well, first of all, hopefully it's a movie
that makes people awad of the things that we do
as rugby players, to.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Enjoy the sport that we do.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
But yeah, to obviously inspire some young girls to play
rugby as well, because it is an incredible career to
represent your country in sevens or fifteens. To be able
to do it as a mum for me is going
to be an exciting challenge, but yeah, ready for it.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
And Harvey has been so well behaved. I won't keep
you for much longer, but I'd love to talk to
you about your commentary work, because you've been doing a
bit of commentary work for Sky for suit Her, Rugby
ol Picky. Next up, you're part of the Sky's NRL
women's coverage for the Warriors game. Is commentary in the
media work something you really enjoy? Is this something that
you'd like to kind of have on, you know, to
(13:36):
do in the future.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
The first time I commentated was at the SEVENS Nationals,
I believe, and oh gosh, it would have been twenty nineteen,
and I loved it, like it was so much fun.
And obviously I was rusty ears. I think I would
have been twenty two. I've never done it before in
my life, so I just got chucked into the deep end.
And then I had my first expert commentating gig for
(14:03):
a Black Funds game in twenty twenty four. I think
it was so I literally skipped all the little steps
and went straight into commentating a.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Black Foods game with Racky.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
But I loved it, Like I am someone that enjoys adrenaline, pressure,
high expectations, and so when you commentate a live game,
there's obviously no redos or replays. What you say for
that game right there and then is forever on TV,
and you can't say, oh, what's actually let me do
(14:37):
that sentence again. So I enjoy putting myself in pressure
moments like that, and it's been you know, obviously, rugby's
in my blood and I always watch rugby, and so
obviously watching rugby and playing rugby for such a long time,
you kind of get your head wrapped around the lingo
and how commentators kind of slot themselves into her plays
(15:00):
and there, and so I loved listening to her commentators,
like Justin Marshall, even Liz Ouder when she's commentating. Obviously Rocky,
but she's just better, better than anyone to me, Recky
Swenew is just top of the game when it comes
to play by play commentating. So we'd love to do
it when I retire. And then yeah, in er ow,
(15:20):
I'm doing that obviously next weekend for Round one when
the Girls play the Bulldogs. I'm not commentating, I'm just
doing panel work. But yeah, obviously now that I've had
that experience in league and played four games pregnant for
the Warriors. I've got a better understanding of the game
and can talk about players and as individuals and as humans.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
So I'm excited for that challenge as well.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Because I've never obviously done Skysport work with the TERLW,
so excited to add that to my resume.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Mikayla, thank you so much for juggling Harvey and having
a chat with us as sorning and best of luck
with all the training. We can't wait to see you
on the field again soon.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
I can't wait to see me on the field too,
so whenever that may be, I'm really excited. Hello. No,
I'm very very grateful for everyone's support and appreciate everyone's
kind words.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
So yeah, let's get back on that field.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Love that attitude, Mikayla, and we wish you all the
very beast for that return. But if you can't wait
for her field comeback, as we mentioned, you can catch
Mikayla as part of the sky Sport NRLW commentary team
for the Warriors opening match next Sunday. Exciting Times.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin. Listen
live to news talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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