The Orange Hawk had the honour of captaining the First Nations Gems during the recent rugby league tournament and although they didn't come away with the silverware, she said she received something much more valuable.

"I've got 30 new sisters that I never knew I had," she said of her Gems teammates.

Not only was Ford a part of the side which bagged victories over Victoria, the Australian Defence Force, and Northern Territory, she captain the outfit as well.

"Being captain was such an honour and privilege," she said.

"We had girls from all over Australia and in particular we had a couple of girls from the Torres Strait Islands, so to have girls from all over look up to you is a pretty special feeling.

"I created a special connection with everyone of my teammates, so this was more than just a football carnival for me. It's such a big privilege to have the girls look up to you and guide them through the week."

It was the second week of June when Ford and her teammates arrived at Casuarina to undergo two days of NRL fitness training. It was also there that they had their first and only training session before the tournament got underway.

"I thought we really progressed throughout the week," Ford said.

"Obviously we only had the one training session together prior to playing our first game against the Northern Territory, but I found that we started to gel a lot more as the games went on.

"We built our combinations off that and we got stronger as we progressed through the week."

That proved no more evident than when they turned a 6-4 defeat to Victoria on the first day of the competition, into a 12-0 win in what was essentially the play off for third place on the final day of action.

Ford also made special note of the staff - Jess Skinner (coach), Bec Young (assistant coach) was our and Dean Widders (manager) - for the part they played throughout the week.

"We had the best staff," she said.

"So to have them believe in me as a player and the energy I brought to the team was nice."

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